A LOAD OF OLD NONSENSE

It’s not often I get angry, but today when I heard a couple of callers on the BBC Radio Cornwall lunchtime program moaning about Pirates’ skipper Gavin Cattle carrying the Olympic Flame on the Cornish leg of the flame’s procession through the British Isles, then I saw RED BIG TIME!!!

I doubt very much if these moaners have ever had the pleasure of meeting and chatting  to Gavin, if they did they would soon realise how foolish they look.

You couldn’t ask to meet a nicer bloke. OK so he’s a Welshman, but he’s made a big contribution to sport in Cornwall and as skipper of Cornwall’s premier sports club deserves the honour. I for one give him my full backing (for what’s it’s worth!).

This petty small mindedness sadly makes all sensible Cornish people feel rather embarrased.

I haven’t seen the full list of people who will carry the torch in Cornwall, I am sure that there will be people who I feel who should have had the honour not among them, but there we are if they wern’t nominated too bad!

For one I would have liked to see the Champion Cornish Wrestler carry the torch, Cornish Wrestling probably the most ancient of all sports in the British Isles and so much part of our heritage. But as I said if they wern’t nominated it won’t happen!!

At last on Monday afternoon the Cornish Pirates managed to play their thrice postponed match at Rotherham and got a good win in Yorkshire 19-15. Dave Ward and Cornish scrum-half Tom Kessell got the tries with Ceiron Thomas bagging over three penalties.

Saturday saw me at the Rec for Redruth’s match against National League 2 South pacesetters Richmond.

Having lost 66-7 up at the Athletic Ground in October, Redruth wanted to go some way to putting the record straight. Well despite losing 36-23 they gave the Londoners a right old game. It was a performance that came at a cost with new injuries to Owen Hambly, Tom Duncan, Chris Bailey and Chris Instance. The latter suffered a dislocated shoulder and will be out for sometime. You can read my match report from the Western Morning News in the link. 

The Cornish All Blacks had a good win at Polson over Ding’s Crusaders 18-0. Read Dick Benson-Gyles report from the Western Morning News in the link. 

Congratulations to St. Austell RFC on reaching their first Tribute Cornwall Cup Final in 34 years following their 25-5 win at Bude on Saturday. Their last final was against Camborne in 1978 when they lost 7-6 in somewhat controversial circumstances. I quote from Tom Salmon’s book “The First Hundred Years” – At half-time St. Austell led by two penalty goals to nil; Camborne fought back with a try (then worth 4 points), then Bill Reeve, the St. Austell outside-half followed up his own kick, and touched down. Or rather he thought he did – and so did every St. Austell supporter. The referee, however, didn’t; Camborne went on to kick a penalty and they had won. But when Camborne captain Chris Durrant, accepted the cup, he turned and handed it symbolically to the St. Austell skipper, Simon Woolnough.

In the final St. Austell will play the winners of the second semi-final between Wadebridge Camels and …Camborne!

Last weekend Cornwall U.20’s got their campaign off with a gutsy performance against county champions Gloucestershire at Camborne. The Cornish youngsters gave a great performance despite going down 37-22. Fly-half Kyle Moyle gave a great display with a personal haul of thirteen points. Other scores came from Aron Stuminski and skipper Malcolm Hearn. The match report is available in the link.

Next Sunday the U.20 continue their campaign with a match against Somerset at Wellington RFC kick-off 2-30 pm.

Finally today well done to Tom Parker, the former Truro, Cornish All Black and Harlequin who now plays his club rugby in the Spanish Basque region for Ordizia, played for Spain on Saturday in their 25-18 win over Georgia in Madrid. Some great photos in the link thanks to Photo Scrum.com

Posted in Bill's Blog

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