V Tree
A large V shaped pine tree on the Antony estate near Torpoint...
Seaton Beach
Located at the bottom of the Seaton River valley this sand and shingle beach is popular with families. At low tide it joins up with Downderry around the headland...
Seaton River
The Seaton River as it flows out of the valley and through the village of the same name...
Portwrinkle
Looking down over the one time fishing village of Portwrinkle. In the background is the start of Whitsand Bay as it stretches 4 miles down the Rame Peninsula...
I was at the Cup game today (v Wharfedale) and I feel that the final score was in no way a reflection on the game....on that showing, Quins won't be having many sleepless nights!
I agree Stonefly. What I would call a 'lacklustre' performance. But after watching their previous games this does not reflect this team's usual flair and pace. This side is capable of greater things, and will need to be to challenge Quins, but part from the Exeter game, Quins haven't exactly set the league alight.
Pirates rock the boat
One man’s dream of establishing a Cornish team in the Premiership is causing unease among diehards in the Duchy
The Cornish like to boast that no other county loves the game as they do. After all, who can match the 40,000 fans who trekked up to London as Trelawney’s Army did for the 1991 County Championship final victory, with orders that the last man out of the Duchy turn the lights off. That black and gold throng, complete with giant pasties, drums, kilts, pipe bands and rattlebags, lit up Twickenham, electrifying an otherwise moribund competition.
Now, in year 10 of the professional era, the Cornish boast is being put to the test as never before. The crux of the matter is that Cornwall has one of the 16 best sides in England, the newly christened Cornish Pirates, but remains unsure whether to embrace or cold-shoulder them. The Pirates may be second only to Harlequins in National One, and they may be the brainchild of a Cornish millionaire, Dicky Evans, but they are also an offspring of local club rivalries of blood-feud intensity.
In May, Evans decided to uproot his beloved Penzance & Newlyn rugby club from its Mennaye Field home, rebrand them and relocate them 30 miles east in the county capital, Truro, home to the Cornwall Academy. The Pirates now play at a purpose-built temporary stadium on top of a windswept hill at Kenwyn, on the outskirts of Truro, which holds 6,000 and was once a school playing field.
Evans got backing for his new move after a highly charged meeting of Penzance & Newlyn members, but a significant minority refused to travel to Truro to support the recast side. There has also been reticence on the part of Cornwall’s other three big clubs, Redruth, Camborne and Launceston, to throw themselves behind a Penzance side that has taken up residence in the centre of the Duchy, and especially one that has co-opted “Cornish� into its title. The upshot is that the Pirates have averaged 2,600 at Kenwyn this season, and while that is respectable, it is not only small beer by Premiership standards but also 1,000 less than their Devon rivals, Plymouth Albion, who they meet on Boxing Day.
With a full house of 6,000 packing Plymouth’s Brickfields stadium, Evans expects his side to deliver. Given that he has pumped an estimated £6.5m into the club since 1995, helping them to win seven promotions in 10 years, you can hardly blame him.
Evans made his fortune in Kenya through his horticultural business, Flamingo Holdings. He played at centre for Penzance & Newlyn in the 1960s, and among his most treasured memories is scoring two tries in a 16-6 win over a Redruth side containing England’s fly-half, Richard Sharp. However, as he told me last week on a fleeting visit to Europe, that is window-dressing, and the real substance is the way his clubmates rallied round when he and his family hit hard times.
“I came from Newlyn, the working-class half of the club, with a hard core of fishermen, quarrymen and farmers. But I went to Penzance Grammar School, whereas most of my mates at the club went to the secondary mod. My dad was a teacher, and when he died things were tough for my family, and those secondary mod mates at Penzance & Newlyn, like John Gendall and Stuart Michell, basically bankrolled me from when I was 17 to 20, helping me to do a civil engineering degree in London. They looked after me, and my rugby experience at Penzance & Newlyn made my career. I’m just repaying my debts.�
Ebullient as the 60-year-old Evans is, his is no open chequebook, and he needs others to buy into his dream of establishing a Premiership club in Cornwall if the last hurdle of winning promotion and staying there is to be realised. He says the three components that must be met are a permanent new ground, £2m in backing from Cornish-based sponsors, and a winning side built on Cornish values of loyalty and commitment. “What would be great is if the county council said, ‘We’ll look after the ground, and you give us a Premiership team’. I can do that if I get two major sponsors to commit £1m each, because, if I match that, we have the £3m war chest needed to get us there.�
The thorniest issue is that only eight of the 34-man Pirates squad are Cornish and local critics believe that is not enough to get the Duchy behind the team. Evans has tried to strengthen the Pirates’ bond with Cornwall through a contractual clause that makes all his players available for the County Championship. But he argues that people cannot afford to be too precious about where the players come from. “I would love to bring Cornish-born England internationals like Phil Vickery and Tom Voyce back to Cornwall, but I won’t pay £200,000 salaries — it would send the wrong message to our players and supporters. I want to build a side that has come up together, rather than importing a whole team. But it has to be a good blend to get the job done.�
Plymouth coach Graham Dawe, the former England hooker who played for Cornwall in their 1991 triumph, says that Evans’s Cornish gamble is in the balance. “It’s a big move, and people don’t move that quickly in Cornwall. There’s a Cornwall county side, and I wouldn’t have gone the Cornwall route by trying to hijack it, because they had a good brand in the Pirates. But you have to admire Dicky Evans, and the amount of money he’ s put in.�
He outlines what is at stake for both clubs tomorrow week. “It’s massive. When we lost to Penzance in a cup game two seasons ago, you’d think that half Plymouth had died.� Dawe says that the rivalry has also been fuelled by Cornish nationalism. “It’s the Saxons versus the Celts, isn’t it? A minority of Cornishmen keep banging this drum about independence.�
Cornish nationalism is not on Evans’s agenda. “I’m not into independence, and I’m not a nationalist. For a county that loves rugby as much as Cornwall does, it deserves to have a team in the top division, and that’s what I want us to achieve. If we get into the Premiership we’ll get 10,000 people there.�
All Evans needs to realise the dream is for his fellow Cornishmen to cry, “Ke Yn Rag!� (Go for it!), and back their boast.
It's sad that Dicky doesn't feel passionate about Kernow in the way us nationalists do, perhaps he has the wrong idea of Cornish nationalism like most people do, i don't know. If the Cornish Pirates are to succeed, they need the whole backing of Kernow, but knowing how proud us Cornish are of our local teams and how deep rivalries run, it's going to be tough as we have seen so far. Saying that though, a great deal of support is going on for the Cornish Pirates and they've been getting good home and away gates, but more support is needed. I was one of the doubters and against it to start off with but slowly i came around to supporting them, even though i haven't been to a home or away match yet. I still support Penzance & Newlyn obviously, and they are the 2nd XV who are starting up and have played a few friendly games.
The fact that the Cornish are dubious about supporting the Cornish Pirates because the lack of Cornish players is a false one. When Pz & N were rising up through the leagues, they had quite a few non Cornish and non British players playing, did that stop the support of the team, no. It's the move, the rebranding that if anything is the problem. Die hards like our very own Stonefly, who has supported Pz & N since time began are not happy and feel it's a betrayal to Penzance, which i can fully understand. The trouble with the whole affair is, what happens if a millionaire decides to back and pump money into Lanson or 'druth and they move on up to where the Cornish Pirates are?
At the end of the day, Dicky is trying to bring Premiership rugger to Kernow with a team that the whole of Kernow can get behind, but surely he could have done it with leaving the club as Pz & N. I do not accept the fact that if Pz & N got into the Premiership that the gates would not swell, of course they would. Anyway, what is done is done and we can all debate until the cows come home then go out again and back home once more, but the Cornish Pirates do need our Cornish support no matter where you come from in Kernow. If the Ospreys can get a damn good gate at home and away games and they're the amalgimation of Neath and Swansea who are bitter rivals, and still play as themselves in the Welsh Premiership, then i'm sure Pz& N, Mounts Bay, Redruth, Camborne, Lanson, Penryn and the rest of the club supporters in Kernow can get behind a Cornish Pirates team fighting for the Premership. BUT and a big one to, what happens as i've said before if a millionaire backs another Cornish club and they get to the same stage as the Cornish Pirates?....
One thing's for sure, Dicky won't get the tremendous support and atmosphere of the 91-92 finals if he keeps calling Kernow a "county" !!! No one in Kernow is asking for independence but they are asking for devolution and to be recognised in their own right. He's done a fantastic job getting the Pirates up the leagues but has now decided to go "the Cornwall route" and needs to get the branding right for full Cornish support. Either the team play in gold and black with the Falmouth Marine Band at home games and St Piran flags plastered all around the ground to create the right atmosphere, or he may as well have kept the Penzance and Newlyn name and continued playing at the Mennaye or in the Penzance area. At the moment it's a compromise - people are not quite sure who or why they are supporting - is it The Cornish Pirates representing The Duchy or with recent comments... The English "County" Pirates ?
Since time began? I wasn't even a glint in my old man's eye when Dickie last pulled on a Pirates' shirt, you cheeky bugger Andy. :x
On a more serious note, I'm happy enough with the name Mount's Bay (don't want to be too parochial, do I?), and while I may miss watching rugby of the high standard that the National League games provided, there's the passion and excitement of playing (and beating!) clubs like St Ives, Camborne & Truro once again on the plus side. For the sake of pedantry (what, me?) I must point out that Bay aren't actually unbeaten; Coney Hill apparently refused to read the script...and as for a Cornishman saying "rugger" - hang your head in shame, Mr Q!
Bleddy hell, i'm in trouble here! Sorry about the whole "since time began " Stonefly, and again sorry about the rugger thing, i have been away in England a lot and being in the forces and all , you know .....
Police name death crash cyclist
Police in Cornwall name a cyclist who died after being badly injured in a collision on Sunday.
Training to distribute aid boxes
Cornish-based charity Shelterbox trains Burmese workers to distribute its boxes of aid for cyclone victims.
Pony pair graze conservation area
Two Exmoor ponies are installed at a Cornish conservation area to help manage the site by grazing.
Gyrocopter pilot had heart attack
A gyrocopter pilot whose machine crashed on the way to Bodmin Airfield died from natural causes.
Sanctuary man jailed over abuse
The former owner of a donkey sanctuary is jailed for five years for sexually abusing young girls.
Lorry stuck between buildings
A wrong turn ends in embarrassment for a lorry driver as his vehicle gets stuck in a Cornish village.
Police save harbour jump suspect
A man attempting to run from police is rescued by them after jumping into a harbour in Cornwall.
Chapel to host animal blessing service
An animal blessing service is to be held at Tredarvo chapel on Sunday at 3pm, conducted by reverend William Ireland. Anybody is welcome to attend the hour-long service with their pets, and this will be followed by refreshments. Mr Ireland said: "I ...
