Colin Rathbone has written about Torquay Gulls for the Torquay Herald for very nearly forty years, through promotions, relegations, and long stretches of mid-table nothing, mostly for an audience that could comfortably fit in one stand of an Elite Division ground.
He estimates he's covered well over a thousand matches, driven the away-day routes himself for most of them, and turned down two offers over the decades to cover bigger clubs closer to home.
“Someone has to actually watch this level and write it down properly,” he says, “or in twenty years nobody will believe half of it happened.”
A national outlet reprinted, with full credit, his recent coverage of Torquay's current run — a small moment, but the first time that's happened to Colin's work in several years, and one he says he'll take.