THE FACE of football in Tavistock has stepped down after a lifetime dedicated to football and sport.

Eric Pinch is well known not only by sight for having occupied senior roles in Tavistock AFC over the years, but also his voice is familiar to fans through his match commentary, while his 28-year legacy lives on in match reports in the Tavistock Times.

Eric says declining mobility has forced his retirement, including as former club chairman, secretary and starting off as programme and fixtures editor. His latest role as commentator was marked by a retiring present of a gold-coloured microphone from the club. But he will remain as an honoured spectator.

His previous career gave him an unlikely rehearsal for commentating when he was a prison officer at Dartmoor Prison in Princetown and booked staff social club karaoke: ‘I wasn’t lacking in confidence and happy being involved in the social club. I really enjoyed the camaraderie and the teamwork. But the HMP Dartmoor changed its re-categorisation. There was a riot of prisoners when they wrecked one of the wings. I wasn’t involved, but I had to escort the inmates to another prison. In my later years I was off with a leg injury and then off with a finger injury just bvefore leaving the prison service.’

Eric also enjoyed life in the Royal Navy as an engineer based in Devonport with the famous HMS Ark Royal as one of his ships. He travelled round the world with the Navy and left only because he was missing family life with his wife Gill. The couple had two children, Neil and Nadine.

He started his amateur footballing career in Cornwall with Queens Rangers, his local team in Indian Queens, and was also in his school squad, having proved his keeness by cycling to fixtures. Then he turned to refereeing in Cornwall junior league.

Before he joined the Navy Eric was a shop assistant in Columb Major having also worked in a highly physical job in the St Austell clay pits. Eric a keen cyclist and local national cycle network ranger, has since cycled from John O’Groats to Land’s End. He also coached in the throwing sports for Tavistock Athletic Club. After leaving the Navy, Eric, with toddler Neil and baby Nadine on the way, was jobless and homeless after leaving Navy housing. After a social club job, he joined the Prison Service.

He joined the ‘Lambs’ as a volunteer in 1995 after former chairman Robin Fenner asked him: ‘I couldn’t believe the state of the clubhouse with a hole in the roof and a mess everywhere. But the results on the pitch and two promotions have been amazing. Tavistock should be proud. When I was chairman from 97 to 98 it was the worst year of my life. We were an average South West League Club, but the hard core of players and the curent manager have worked wonders.’