'THE Greens are going down' may be the lament of Plymouth Argyle football supporters at the moment after the club's relegation to the bottom tier of the Football League, but their West Devon fans may be cheered by reading about some nostalgic mementoes dating back to the 1950s.

Provided by historians Hilary and Mike Wreford, of the Okehampton and district History Society, they found among their archive collection a 'Grand Dance' ticket for the Plymouth Argyle Supporters Club organised by the Okehampton area at the Drill Hall (now the Conservative Club) on Easter Monday, April 27, 1953.

Mike said: 'The financial problems at Argyle are well documented at the moment, but in those days there was considerable support for Plymouth Argyle locally with the late Freddie Barnicoat organising a coach to Home Park every Saturday for many years.

'The dance was well supported by some of the senior Argyle players and I wonder if modern professional footballers would attend in such numbers a function of this type — although the present crop of Argyle players have shown remarkable team spirit in difficult circumstances!

'The ticket is autographed by seven players, and includes some of the most famous who have performed for the club.

'The front bears the signature of Maurice Tadman, a prolific old fashioned centre forward who scored 108 goals in 246 appearances for the club.

'On the reverse, there is Bill Shortt the Welsh international who made 342 appearances for Argyle before retiring and becoming the landlord of the Duke of York public house Tavistock, and later at the Golden Hind, Plymouth.

'Other signatories include Sam Mcrory the Irish international, Pat Jones the local boy with 425 appearances and who made a fullback position his own for some 12 years; Alex Govan who left Argyle to join Birmingham City, and who played in a FA Cup final with other ex-Argyle players Len Boyd and Gordon Astall and was unlucky not to get a Scottish Cap, before returning to Argyle for a second spell; Harold Dobbie was perhaps the least well known as in six years with Plymouth he only made 30 appearances before joining Torquay United.

'However, Argyle's bearded captain Jack 'Jumbo' Chisholm, despite not winning international honours was perhaps the best known, an inspirational and fearless leader and a great character on and off the field with — his pirate like appearance, he led Argyle to promotion in 1952.

'He was also a good cricketer playing one game for Middlesex. Perhaps his downfall was that he did not deny that he liked a couple of pints before a home game!'