CHERRIES crashed to their heaviest league defeat for 13 months when they were comprehensively beaten by rampant Torquay United last night.

Sean O'Driscoll's side, looking to keep tabs on leaders Hartlepool, instead lost valuable ground after they were sunk by two goals in either half.

Martin Gritton and David Graham did the damage in the first half before Alex Russell and man of the match Graham put Cherries out of their misery after the break.

Wade Elliott and Brian Stock both dropped down to the substitutes bench as Garreth O'Connor and Liam Ridgewell were restored to the Cherries starting line-up.

Cherries, roared on by a sizeable contingent of travelling fans, almost drew first blood after just 32 seconds when Torquay's goalkeeper Kevin Dearden struck his clearance straight at defender Lee Canoville and when the ball fell to Danny Thomas, his speculative effort from around 40 yards flew wide.

The Gulls fans thought their side had taken the lead just seconds later when David Graham put the ball into the back of the net, but his effort was ruled out for offside.

Then, controversial referee Barry Knight, took centre stage when he held the game up for around four minutes due to the trivial matter of a corner flag falling over.

Knight called for a replacement flagstick and while the crowd were waiting, Cherries goalkeeper Neil Moss caused much hilarity when he ran over to the corner and promptly put the offending flagstick straight back into the ground.

But, not surprisingly, Knight was not satisfied, and the new flagstick eventually arrived on the scene and the game was allowed to continue.

Cherries were almost caught when Torquay mounted a breakaway after 13 minutes, but Moss got down well to save a shot from Graham and also grabbed the follow up header from Martin Gritton. Torquay were forced to make a substitution after just 22 minutes when Dearden, who had been struggling with a thigh injury, was replaced by Jamie Attwell.

And Attwell was quickly into action, sprinting off his line to clear a through ball from Carl Fletcher which James Hayter was looking to chase down.

Cherries were thankful to Moss for a good save after Karl Broadhurst had inadvertently headed a cross from Tony Bedeau towards the bottom corner.

The Cherries goalkeeper pulled off another stunning save in the 28th minute after Kevin Hill's cross had been met by Alex Russell, Moss diving full length to his right to clutch the ball at the base of his post.

But there was no reprieve for Cherries on the half hour when Torquay took the lead through Gritton, who tucked the ball past Moss after Marcus Browning had been robbed by Jason Fowler who slipped the ball into his team-mates path between the legs of Broadhurst.

Disaster struck for Cherries just three minutes later when Torquay extended their lead after Gritton broke from deep inside his own half, ran half the length of the pitch before squaring for Graham to drill the ball into an empty net.

Deep into first half stoppage time, a goalmouth scrambled ensued after Attwell had dropped a Garreth O'Connor free-kick. Players from both sides were involved in pushing and shoving before Ruben Hazell and Ridgewell were eventually cautioned by Knight.

Stock replaced Young at the half-time interval as Cherries tried to change their luck with a different formation. But despite the change, it was the Gulls who raced into a three goal lead just three minutes after the restart through Russell.

The former Rochdale midfielder netted from the edge of the box after the Cherries defence had got themselves in a terrible mess when Moss was closed down trying to clear a back pass from Broadhurst only for the ball to eventually find its way to Russell.

Graham headed narrowly wide after 54 minutes and the same player was denied a free-run on goal after Carl Fletcher had slipped on the halfway line before recovering to make a last ditch tackle.

Midway through the second half, Russell fired inches wide from a free-kick just outside the box.

Graham put the points well out of Cherries reach when he capped a superb individual display by bagging his second and Torquay's fourth in the 76th minute. The ex-Ran-gers man rounded Moss and side-footed home from close range after lat-ching onto Gritton's flick.

And seconds later it could have been five when Gritton went through on the left hand side but Moss did well to block his final shot.

Although Cherries created a few chances in the closing stages, sadly a large proportion of their supporters did not hang around to see the last few minutes, with many streaming out of the ground well before the final whistle.