CHERRY & WHITES ADD THE CREAM WITH MILK CUP WIN

Camborne regained the Rodda’s Milk Cup with a hard fought win 35-26 over Redruth at the Recreation Ground in front of a sizeable Boxing Day crowd.
The win was a great fillip to the Cherry and Whites as they look to build their promotion challenge for the New Year, whilst for the Reds yet another frustrating defeat this season away from home.

Camborne’s skipper Steve Kenward was delighted with his side’s performance. He said. “We’ve felt that the gap between the two sides has been drawing closer, Redruth have got a good group of players with great talent, but we wanted to go out today and build on our result against Bridgwater and set ourselves up for the trip to Bideford in January. I think we achieved that today.

“We worked hard playing up the slope first half against the wind and turned around 14 all. Second half we upped the tempo to nudge ahead, Dave Mankee was in great form today his goal kicking was a key factor. You need a little bit of luck and we got that with Ducker’s interception try when we were under the cosh in our own twenty-two and that put us more than two scores ahead. Credit where it’s due we deserved today’s win and we will enjoy it tonight.”

For Redruth, head coach Ashley Morcom was left feeling very frustrated with some of the decisions that the Reds felt didn’t go their way. He said. “I feel there was a degree of inconsistency with some of the decisions in certain aspects of the game, especially in the rucks and mauls. Having said that we conceded thirty-five points which we need to address but with players playing out of position and a few key players away it was always going to be a difficult task against a useful Camborne side. Our back chat to the ref was disappointing and we were marched back six or seven times and then had two players sin-binned near the end. At any level this is not acceptable”

“There are some positives from today, we had Matt Bolwell from the Cornish Pirates with us and also some of the colts stepped up. Martin Strick has come back to help us in the front row and did a good job, focus now is on the trip to Southend.”

Visitors Redruth got off to the best possible start with an opening try scored by scrum-half Ashley Hosking with less than sixty seconds on the clock.

The scrum-half intercepted the ball as Camborne looked to play the ball out of their twenty-two. He then added the conversion to his own score.
Camborne’s reply was not long in coming after winger Rob Floyd was brought down short a touchline break by full back Joe Parma saw flanker Cameron Bone take the scoring pass.

Camborne scrum-half Dave Mankee, Camborne’s man-of-the-match, kicked his first conversion in a personal points haul of twelve points from the boot.
Dave Roberts once again was having a big game in the Camborne pack, whilst for Redruth flanker Ben Priddey constantly caught the eye.
Centre James Briant was felled short of the Redruth line as Camborne kept the pressure up.

Mankee was involved again on the half-hour mark in the build up to Bone’s and Camborne’s second try, the scrum-half’s conversion putting the Cherry and Whites 14-7 up.

Redruth came back with fly-half Murray Westren kicking a penalty to the West Bank corner. Luke Collins soared to claim the lineout ball. The Redruth pack rumbled towards the Camborne line, with Priddey breaking to feed fellow back rower Richard Brown who crossed in the corner. Hosking’s conversion tying the scores and that’s how it remained up to half-time.

It was Camborne’s turn to start a half well. With less than two minutes played full back Joe Parma took the scoring pass from Floyd to skittle in to the scoreboard corner. On this occasion Mankee couldn’t add the extras.

However, he was bang on target with two crucial penalty attempts to stretch the Cherry and White’s lead to 25-14 going into the final quarter.
Redruth were chasing the game being more than two scores adrift. As the Reds pressurized the Camborne line as pass from Hosking was snaffled by Camborne’s flyer Alex Ducker near his own line. Ducker lit the after burners to run in the pivotal score. Mankee’s conversion putting Camborne 32-14 up and the Camborne crowd in dreamland.

Redruth weren’t going to let the Cup slip away without a fight. Back they came with a third try scored by Priddey from a catch-and-drive with Hosking kicking the conversion.

Priddey looked to have got over again shortly after but was deemed to have been held up by referee Williams.

From the scrum Redruth moved the ball wide with replacement back Craig “Eggy” Williams scoring out wide for an unconverted try.
The Camborne faithful held their breath at 32-26, could Redruth stage a remarkable comeback?

No, would be the answer. With the clock ticking away, Redruth’s festering frustrations with some of the officiating finally erupted as both Rhodri McAtee and Hosking were dispatched to the sin-bin in quick succession for dissent. Reduced to thirteen men Redruth could only watch as young Joel Matavesi, on as a replacement for Parma, stepped up to nail the final nail into Redruth’s coffin with a penalty that put his side more than a score ahead.

The final whistle brought a huge cheer from the Camborne crowd with skipper Steve Kenward stepping up to reclaim the Rodda’s Milk Cup.

Camborne 35 pts
Tries – Bone (2), Parma, Ducker, Conversions – Mankee (3), Penalties – Mankee (2), Matavesi

Redruth 26 pts
Tries – Hosking, Brown, Priddey, Williams, Conversions- Hosking (3)
Yellow Cards – McAtee (79), Hosking (80)

Camborne: J Parma, R Floyd, J Briant, S Kenward (Capt), A Ducker, G Thirlby, D Mankee; N Endean, S Bartle, W Webster, J Griffiths, B Kemp, G Hall, C Bone, D Roberts.
Replacements (all used): R Kevern, L Manna, L Hocking, J Jackson, J Moore, O Reynolds, M Goldsworthy, J Matavesi

Redruth: B Rule, T Notman, B Drew, S Parsons, D Bonds, M Westren, A Hosking; D Jacques, N Turner, A Strick, D Cook (Capt), L Collins, R Brown, B Priddey, M O’Leary.
Replacements (all used): M Bowden, M Bolwell, R McAtee, L Vinnicombe, C Williams, R Kessell, D Rutter, J Simmons, W Whitworth

Referee: Kevin Williams (Cornwall RRS)

Crowd 1.050

Camborne-man-of-the-match & Trelawny’s Army Supporters Club Tony Pill Memorial Cup – Dave Mankee (Camborne)