Well Christmas has gone again and the New Year is about to descend upon us once more … there have been a lot of ups and downs and changes over the past 12 months, on the rugby front that is, and I wonder what 2012 will have in store? Some of what has happened has been good and others … well lets just say “it has been sent to try”!!!! I sincerely hope for a quieter and more settled 2012 but, unfortunately, I am not in control of that so lets see what happens!

The Christmas period has been pretty good for us, Christmas Eve lunchtime was a very good one with a big turn out, probably the best for a number of years. Lots of people came and went throughout the day and I left about 9ish I think and things were then beginning to quiet down. Boxing Day was good on the field with all 3 teams winning. I watched most of the game in the morning between the clubs Development Team and Camborne 2nds. It was great to see Tom Glover back in a red shirt and a lot of praise should go to Chris Pooley who stood in admirably at prop. The Colts won at Camborne convincingly and then a very good crowd saw a typical local derby in the afternoon. It was great to see a bumper crowd once more at this annual Boxing Day clash with both clubs represented strongly in the playing line up.

On the game front I was pleased with the result and I thought Camborne certainly upped their game. Their backrow of Sam Matavesi, Dave Roberts and Ben Priddey were outstanding and I thought Dave Roberts was the best player on the field. Don’t get me wrong there were some very good performances on both sides BUT Robbo was above that! I was pleased with the performances of our youngsters, Luke Johnson and Eggy Williams in the starting line up and also Shaun Buzza, Mikey Allen, Dean Bonds and Jack Churcher who all came on in the second half. There were a total of 15 ex Colts on the field, for Redruth that is, during the match and it was something that I really wanted to do. This fixture means a huge amount to those who have come through the ranks at Redruth and to play in this fixture still ranks amongst the top games, Redruth and Camborne players alike, want to play in. Hopefully both clubs will continue in this manner over the coming seasons and we can resurrect the traditions that exist between the 2 clubs.

A word of praise also for the referee, Ryan Cook. It was always going to be a difficult game to referee and Ryan is only 23. What I liked most about Ryan was his willingness to discuss things and to admit where he got decisions wrong. Too often referee’s distance themselves but Ryan’s attitude was spot on and like all players who make mistakes you can learn from them. It is very easy for everyone to criticise and during the heat of the battle frustrations do boil over, but once you have had time to think about it you realise we are all human and we all have things to learn. Remember without referees we have no game …

So, we now start to build for the last 13 league games of the season. This starts with a home game against Dings Crusaders on January 7th. Dings are always tough opposition and I have no reason to think that it will be any different on the 7th … hopefully we will have a full squad to pick from and that we can get 2012 underway in good fashion.

Nathan Pedley is now spending his last few days in Cornwall prior to emigrating to Australia next Tuesday. I will be taking Peds and his family to Heathrow to catch their flight and it will be quite an emotional journey ….I am so pleased Peds last game was one he will remember for all sorts of reasons and the evening party for him was just superb … we will certainly miss him around the club but I am sure you will all join with me in wishing him all the very best “down under” …

Heard from Nick Simmons and he seems to be doing very well in Melbourne. He was due to meet up with James Lancaster in the last couple of days so am looking forward to hearing how that all went ….

Onto something completely different …. some of you will remember Camborne scrum half Robert Mankee .. a great player and a key member of the Camborne team back in the late 70′s early 80′s. I have known “Mank” for a number of years and he was also a superb gymnast. So onto the story … in a county game between Cornwall and Gloucestershire some time ago Mank made a break in front of the main stand, the Gloucestershire wing prepared himself to tackle and Mank did a perfect somersault over him landing on his feet and carrying on playing! The move was captured on camera and I think it appeared in an edition of the Packet just after. If there were judges there it would have attracted the perfect “6″ ….. anyway my reason for brining this up is that Aaron showed me a clip on You Tube of a guy, Jerome Simpson of the Cincinatti Bengals, somersaulting a guy to achieve a miraculous touchdown … take a look on “Jerome Simpson Front Flip Touchdown” … 5.9 I think!! …. Manks was better!!!!!!!!!

I understand there is nothing on at the club New Years Eve this year which is the first time for a number of years.

It just leaves me to wish you you a Happy New Year and I sincerely wish you all the best in 2012 ….

David Penberthy
Director of Rugby

Well what a day Saturday turned out to be! It couldn’t have turned out better in all ways, Peds last game, a great win, a very successful Auction on behalf of the Players Fund and a great leaving do for Peds and Jo.

The Heineken Cup is well underway and the usuals are up there again … Munster, Toulouse, Leinster and the Scottish sides are fairing reasonably well at the moment as well  .. The English sides are struggling a little with last years finalists Northampton already eliminated. Saracens had a good win against the Ospreys on Saturday and Harlequins didn’t overcome the mighty challenge of Toulouse at the Stoop, Cardiff Blues are doing well but I think I must stick my neck out and say that this years winners will be Toulouse. They just have too much fire power I think but you can never rule out the Irish …. but I am not sure which one to pick there … probably Leinster, who were very good against Bath at the weekend. In the Amlin Cup, Exeter are doing ok and head their group with Perpignan in 2nd place. That should be a good game when the 2 meet at Sandy Park in January I think.

Lots going on at the club over the Christmas period as well …. Christmas Eve is always a good shout and things get underway at 11:30am. The Rodda’s Cup game against Camborne on Boxing Day is at Camborne this year but the Development side will play at home on Boxing Day morning. Team selection is always very much on peoples agenda at this time of year and I am undecided at this moment how we play this one. The players are coming off 17 weeks consecutive rugby and some need to rest to help knocks heal but most are keen to play so we will se what we have and take it from there.

No real need to tell you where we are this weekend, and this is the first time we have been to Launceston, in quite a while, just before the Christmas break. Both teams have enjoyed some good form of late but as I have said many times, form goes out the window in these games. The two clubs have forged good links over a number of years and whilst the games are ferociously competitive there is respect on both sides. With the weather as it is at present the “going” is going to be pretty wet to say the least!

Finally the one and only Jonny Wilkinson has hung up his international boots! All I can say is that he will be greatly missed to the international game. The man made goal kicking an art and how many people have followed his incredible example is uncountable. He has never let himself down nor his team no matter who he has played for. He is a shining example for any budding rugby player to follow … I sincerely hope he finds a position in the game in the future …..

That is is for this week … hope to see you at the weekend

David Penberthy

Director of Rugby

Saturday’s game with Worthing was Nathan Pedley’s last appearance at the Recreation ground, Nathan explained his future plans “I’m leaving Cornwall on 3^rd January and moving to Perth, Western Australia where I have got a sister, brother in law and three nieces. I have got a job waiting for me so I am hoping to make a decent living if it all works out as planned.

Asked about his memories with Redruth, Nathan added

“All the memories, everything about being involved with Redruth Rugby Club, it has been brilliant.

I first played for the club in the minis aged six when my father, Alan, took me down to the club.

I did play football and follow in my fathers footsteps, I went to Jersey with South west schools but Rugby was my calling.

I really enjoyed colts Rugby, it was absolutely amazing , I always say colts rugby is the best rugby you will enjoy. Obviously first team rugby is the pinnacle of your career but it all stems from colts rugby.

One favourite try I remember scoring is from colts rugby was against Camborne in the Cornwall cup down at Hayle under floodlights from behind the goaline, Martin Strick passed me the ball from a scrum, I was going to kick it and it bounced on the floor, I picked it up, put in a couple of sidesteps and went the length of the pitch.

Nigel Hambly? you either love him or hate him, I love him I think he did wonders for the club, it was a shame when he left, he did amazing things. He took me through three years in the colts and the year I left he took over the first team. He is a great coach, honest, always honest whether it was what you wanted to hear or not.

I remember my first team debut, I almost scored a hatrick and had man of the match against Old Colfeians, I was scared in a way but once the game got under way people took me under their wing and looked after me. My second game was Pirates away and I think my third was Launceston away, when both of those clubs were really flying.

Breaking the try scoring record in 2004/5 promotion season was a proud moment but Brighty (Mark Bright) smashed the record two seasons later.

It has been brilliant, I have played with some amazing players, big names in rugby and I have loved being part of this team for 20 years and I will miss everyone so much.”

I first saw Nathan Pedley playing for the under 12’s one Easter against Bedford at the old Strawberry Lane Playing fields. Redruth were hammered but I remember saying to Jim Trinder there is a future first team player.

Since then I have seen Nathan enjoy tremendous success in a red shirt as a player as well as appearing for Cornwall under 21’s at Twickenham in a final against Hampshire in 2002 where he played alongside fellow reds Marek Churcher, Sam Harrison, Luke Collins, Guy Botterill, Martin Strick, Nathan Pascoe, Damien Cook as well as players like Ian Hambly, Marc Sweeney and David Roberts who also wore the red shirt at some time in their careers.

After starting his career at full back Nathan made the number eleven shirt his own when Nigel Hambly and David Penberthy took charge of first team rugby in June 2002. With his step and acceleration and fearless tackling Nathan was soon a favourite with the fans.

It was thrilling to see a young team grow and develop, there were some tough days late in 2002 but the team survived and started to flourish winning the Cornwall cup in a thrilling final against Launceston at Camborne.

There were setbacks like a broken ankle in the opening minutes of a game against Esher just before Christmas in 2008, an injury that would have broken many players.

One memory that will live long is from the closing stages of a game at Stourbridge late in 2009, under black skies, Redruth were beaten with just a few minutes to play. Stourbridge were looking to rub it in with a series of five meter scrums in the left hand corner.

Every time they came down the narrow channel to Nathan’s wing and every time the little fellow with the enormous heart put in fearless tackles on giant forwards and drove them back.

Appropriately David Penberthy will be at Heathrow to see Nathan off on January 3^rd.

Farewell Nathan, very best wishes for the future, you will be missed by all, players, committee, supporters involved with Redruth Rugby.

Report by Ed Bawden

Redruth showed good character and composure to overcome disruptions and come away from South London with a bonus point win although the margin of victory was slightly flattering against the league‘s bottom side.

The day started badly for the reds with a car taking skipper Craig Bonds, Luke Collins and Sam Parsons to the game breaking down on the M4. The players eventually arrived just before kick off.

As a consequence Redruth started with Owen Hambly alongside Tom Cooper in the centre and two Hayle men Danny Clackworthy and Damien Cook in the second row. Darren Jacques leading the side out.

The reds had the advantage of a cold wind at their backs but started slowly with Luke Giles hitting an upright with a penalty attempt after 3 minutes for Park.

A penalty from Aaron Penberthy opened the reds account after 11 minutes following an offside offence. The reds teenage fly half added a second penalty 8 minutes later.

At this stage Collins replaced Clackworthy but the giant reds lock was taken out from the kick off with Park’s Ryan Fuller sent to the sin bin as a result.

The class of Cooper on loan from the Cornish Pirates was clear as he brushed off a tackle and ran in the reds first try from 40 meters after 29 minutes. Penberthy converting.

Referee Richard Phillips warned Redruth for giving away too many penalties as a team and a couple of minutes later Jacques went off his feet at a ruck and was shown a yellow card.

Park had a strong set of forwards and opted for a scrum rather than take a penalty in front of the posts but a determined reds defence kept them out in a vital play.

In first half stoppage time Penberthy put over his third penalty to see the reds into the interval with a 16 point lead.

Park came out strongly after the break and driving play in the forwards led to an unconverted try for Fuller.

Redruth hit back immediately with Cooper creating a try in corner for Tom Notman with a sublime slip pass.

Redruth had to defend for a long period against a spirited Park team, Royal Marine Ben Fox was having a superb game in the back row while Brett Rule and Nathan Pedley made important stops to keep the reds line intact.

Redruth suffered more disruption when Rule went off with a blood injury as Park’s Chris O’Neil who moved to scrum half breaking following a scrum on his own 22 and running 75 meters unopposed for an unconverted try after 68 minutes.

A few minutes later Redruth wrapped the game up when following a turnover Greg Goodfellow broke on the half way line and outpaced the defence to dive over under the bar for Penberthy to convert.

Cooper limped off with some cramp but the reds pressed for the bonus point and in the final play of the game deep into stoppage time Goodfellow mesmerised the defence for Craig Bonds to dive over for a try the Referee awarded after consulting with one of his assistants.

Westcombe Park
Tries: Fuller, O’Neill
Yellow Card: Fuller
C O’Neil; B Keyton, B Hough, N Davies, R Fuller; L Giles (Rep J Simpson 46 Min), J Stevenson (Rp D Toms 26-30, 32); B McKinnell, H Fry, J Mitchell, D Bellinger, T Clarke (Rep M Deville 73 Min), H Barton (Capt), G Blomfield, J West
Reps not used
N Coles, G Marshall

REDRUTH
Tries: Cooper, Notman, Goodfellow, Bonds
Con: Penberthy 2
Pen: Penberthy 3
Yellow Card: Jacques
B Rule (S Parsons 60-68 Min); T Notman, O Hambly, T Cooper (Rep S Parsons 70 Min), N Pedley; A Penberthy, G Goodfellow; D Jacques (Capt), D Semmens (Rep D Clackworthy 63 Min), C Williams (Rep P Joyve 52 Min), D Cook (Rep J Morgan 75 Min), D Clack worthy (Rep L Collins 20 Min), B Fox (Rep P Joyce 35-43 Min), C Fuca, T Duncan (rep C Bonds 52 Min)

Ref Richard Phillips (RFU)

Well what a dilemma I had to deal with on Saturday!!!!! Woke up at a decent time and looked at my phone hoping there were no messages saying that the car organised for 4 players, Craig Bonds, Sam Parsons, Luke Collins and Josh Morgan and coach Ashley Morcom had been delayed for any reason! No messages so I thought it was safe to ring, rang Craig Bonds and they were making decent progress. Got ready and went for breakfast and just as I was about to eat my scrambled eggs my phone rang and that is when the nightmare began!! The car had broken down, there seemed little chance of it getting fixed and 4 players were marooned on the A30 at Whiddon Down. Thankfully Josh Morgan had his AA Card and organised the AA to come to the scene. I rang Enterprise to see if I could sort a hire car etc and with the Penzance branch’s help we managed to sort a car in Exeter. Immediately the AA man arrived he took Ash Morcom to collect the car and after an hour and half delay the boys were on the road. They made very good time (if you see what I mean!!!!!) and they hit the M25 with an ETA at Westcombe Park of 1:20pm.

In the morning we had decided that there would be a 1:30pm deadline on our starting line up and that would involve Danny Clackworthy starting in the 2nd Row and Owen Hambly moving to 13 to take the places of Luke Collins and Craig Bonds respectively. So all looked good and we thought that all the panic had been sorted BUT there was the M25. To be honest both Tony Cook and myself were still sceptical about their arrival and at 1:10pm I received another call to say they were caught up in an accident and ETA had changed to 1:45pm. So we reverted to our contingency and took the field.

The boys arrived at 1:45pm and the rest is history … thankfully 5 points, great team effort and a decent trip home! I have to say that boys were brilliant and the guys who played out of position did so without a moments hesitation PLUS we had the added incentive of doing our utmost to win for Nathan Pedley who was playing, what is likely to be, his last away game. Hopefully we don’t get this sort of situation again as it does nothing for me at all!!!!!!!!

More developments at the RFU and there are all sorts of thoughts going around about who is going to step into the hot seat. To me it now looks pretty certain that Nick Mallet is the front runner. Whatever happens it seems Rob Andrew has survived the cull for now.

A few changes locally over the past few weeks with Graham Dawe leaving Plymouth and former Exeter boss Pete Drewett taking over. Drewett moved quickly to appoint former Lomdon Welsh boss Phil Greening as his coaching adviser. Whilst it will take time for the new management team to settle Plymouth have some tough fixtures ahead of them withy a tasty derby against The Cornish Pirates on Christmas Eve!

News on the injury front at Redruth, Matt Bowden has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a hernia. The hernia was found during an MRI Scan on his troublesome groin. Jamie Semmens, who was injured in the pre match warm up before the game against Southend is hoping to start light training agan this week but we will have to wait and see how that goes. Sam Parsons has returned from his trip to Australia and we hope that Paul Thirlby’s work commitments will ease as we move towards the Christmas break.

Lewis Vinnicombe has joined Camborne and I wish him the very best in his new venture. Many have said we could not afford to lose him and it is unfortunate when any player leaves but we all have to be happy with what is going on and that wasnt quite the case in this instance. Lewis is a very talented rugby player and has played at a very good level as we all know, he will be a massive asset for Camborne in their quest to hit the National Leagues.

On Saturday evening we will be holding an auction in aid of the Players Fund and I do have a large amount of kit that I will be auctioning off. There are also a lot of other things including a signed Bath rugby shirt, signed Bath ball, Owen Hambly’s Pirates 7′s rugby shirt that was worn when they won the Henley 7′s, Darren Jacques Cornwall shirt that he wore at Twickenham, rounds of golf, fresh game and fish and many more items …. we want to raise a lot of money on the evening so please help us ….

Also for the Players’ Fund this Saturday members and guests who are normally entitled to free admission are invited to make a voluntary contribution equal to the normal admission charge. As a small thank you to those who choose to give they will receive a drinks voucher which they can exchange in the bar from 5.00 p.m. onwards. If everyone supports this initiative it will give the fund a real boost so please do your best to donate. The players deserve it!

Well what a send off Shane Williams had on Saturday and what a player he was! He was simply outstanding and deserved all the accolades and praise that were heaped on him ….

We have our own farewells to give this week so please do not forget it is Nathan Pedley’s last home game on Saturday, he deserves a rousing send off and its only you that can ensure that ….. please be there!

That is it for this week … see you at the weekend

Cheers

Dave

David Penberthy
Director of Rugby

This weekend we travel to Westcombe Park and this will be a tough game for us. Our form on the road has not been great but we must take confidence from our 2 performances from home. Saturday also marks the half way point of the season and I am pretty pleased with where we are. It’s been easy to adapt but I think we all now recognise what a good standard this league is. It was a tough baptism for many but the realism soon set in that all sides want to put one over on the boys who have dropped down. The second half of the season starts with the visit of current league leaders Worthing. We lost there, back in September, by 2 points so we are keen to put that right plus the game marks Nathan Pedley’s last home game (providing he is selected of course!!!!!) prior to him emigrating to Australia. It will be an emotionally charged day alright and Peds is going to be missed. I will be writing a bigger piece about Nathan in the coming weeks ……

So as Christmas approaches please keep your eye on the club’s notice board for events

That is it for this week..

Cheers

David Penberthy
Director of Rugby