TORQUAY Athletic embark on Operation Rubber Ball — their bid to bounce straight back into South West One — with a visit from Burnham tomorrow.

The Tics find themselves down in the Western Counties again, having been relegated from South West One at the end of last season.

It's a tough division to get out of — as Torquay know from previous experience. They were down for three seasons the last time they passed this way, before winning promotion as champions in 2007.

Four seasons on Torquay are back where they started, although with a relatively clean sheet of paper.

Only skipper Jon Arnold, flanker Jon Oliver and prop Russ Morris in tomorrow's starting XV remain of the last promotion-winning team.

Since then the Tics have seen players come and go. Tomorrow's team is one of the youngest overall to have ever represented the club at 1st XV level.

There are relatively new faces from within the club — Harry Knapman on the wing and Tom Whitford in the second row — and a batch of Brixhamites who have switched allegiances.

The Brown brothers, scrum-half Jonny and centre Alex, have come over along with wing Matt Duddleston in search of 1st XV rugby.

Brown's arrival at scrum-half is well timed for the Tics as it has been a problem position over the past few seasons.

Matt Barlow (now Kingsbridge), Dan Taylor, Ed Cribb and the venerable Scott Rylance all wore the nine shirt last season.

If Brown can strike up a decent working relationship with the players either side of him at the scrum, Arnold at the base and distributor James Wood at stand-off, Torquay could develop a platform to get their backline going.

Ultimately, the Tics have the pounds and ounces up front to dominate forward exchanges, but need some rapier thrusts to compliment the bludgeon if they are going to open up defences this season.

As they have discovered in recent seasons, size isn't everything.

KINGSBRIDGE travel to Tavistock tomorrow with realistic aspirations for the season ahead.

Having topped the table from September to mid-January, it all started to go wrong after a defeat at Camborne and Kings ended up a distant third.

For a side who only just staved off relegation the season before, it was a big improvement, which was achieved despite losing coach Chris Massey during the campaign.

Massey hasn't been permanently replaced yet, although there are loud whispers a new man is poised to take over.

No name has been released, but the rumour is the person targeted played at National League level and has since coached in South West One at a couple of clubs.

"Nothing is agreed yet and until it is all we are saying is we hope to have a new coach in place soon," said caretaker coach Rob Masters.

The reason Kingsbridge faded last season was due to the limitations of having a relatively small squad.

Masters said it was probably a blessing in disguise that Camborne and Wadebridge went up as the summer months have not been kind to Kingsbridge.

"Looking at what we have at the start of the season, it would have been a struggle in the next division up," said Masters.

"We haven't exactly lost many players — Jake Chapman has gone to London and Ted Lee is away at college — but we do have quite a number who will miss the start of the season.

"Matt Hamilton and Tristan Couch have knee injuries, and they are our eight and nine, which is the spine of the side.

"Jason Putt and Dan Burner have both said they won't be around until October, so we will go a month without two experienced men in the front row.

"When you have a small squad you have to go with what you have got.

"At full strength we are capable of finishing around mid-table in this division and that is what we are aiming for."