Cornish Pirates

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Cornish Pirates

Full name	Penzance and Newlyn Rugby Football Club
Emblem	Pirate
Colours	Black, red and white
Founded	1945
Sport	Rugby union
League	National Division One
Ground	Camborne Recreation Ground
Official website	www.cornish-pirates.com

The Cornish Pirates are a professional rugby union team who play in National Division One, and are the premier Cornish rugby club. Formerly known as "Penzance & Newlyn RFC", they moved from the Mennaye Field in Penzance to a new venue at Kenwyn near the capital of Cornwall, Truro in August 2005. However at the start of the 2006 season, owing to logistics and high costs, they moved to Camborne for their home games. The ground, which can hold 9,000, is nearer to their support power base in Penzance and Newlyn.

The move to Truro was at attempt to increase their fanbase in a more geographically central position within the county, with the ultimate aim of bringing Premiership rugby union to Cornwall. There has been recent talk of plans to build a permanent 15,000 seat stadium which will be fit to host Premiership rugby, but at present the club is considering its options as the minimum entry requirements to the Premiership are constantly changing. Should they win this year's National One and wish to move up to the Premiership, some fast negotiating with the RFU will be necessary.

At the end of the 2004/05 season the Pirates finished in 4th position in National Division 1 which at the time was their highest league position since owner Dicky Evans became President and just 3 places below Premiership rugby status. To fulfil the club's aspirations of gaining promotion into the Premiership it is necessary to fulfil a number of criteria including becoming a Limited Company and playing home matches in a 15,000 capacity stadium.

In examining the options it was viewed as imperative to increase the support base which led to perhaps the single most difficult decision for Dicky Evans and the supporters of the Pirates namely, should the team relocate to another site to play their home matches? The plethora of questions, concerns and sentiments arising from the proposals were debated in the clubhouse, in the street and through the media. However, on 27th May 2005 at an emergency meeting held in a packed St Johns Hall the innovative plans were passed. They included:

Relocating to a new temporary site at Kenwyn, Truro for the 2005/6 season.
Re-branding including changing the club's name to the Cornish Pirates.
Upgrading all the facilities at the Mennaye Field which will continue to act as the permanent training base for the Cornish Pirates.
The Mennaye to continue to act as the playing home for the Pirates mini and junior sections and Mounts Bay.

Following the vote Richard Evans told members: "ten years ago I asked you to support me in taking this club into the professional era. At that time there were those were totally against this move, there are people that are against this latest move. However, it is my belief that we must try this venture. Mr Evans went on to say "I'm absolutely chuffed to bits that the members of Penzance & Newlyn Rugby Club share the same vision as myself. As I have said many times before, Cornwall deserve a Premiership rugby club and it is our aim to bring that to them."

[edit] 2006/7 season

Following a highly successful 2005/6 season, (when crowds were increased and the Pirates finished 3rd in Division 1), it was decided to relocate again and over the next two seasons the Cornish Pirates will play their home rugby matches at Camborne RFC's recreation ground. Camborne's ground is seen as many to be the best rugby ground in Cornwall boasting a superb grandstand. It is yet another positive step to bring premiership rugby to Cornwall and will be a huge boost for the Camborne community. The joint venture is seen as of mutual benefit to both the Cornish Pirates and Camborne RFC and the Pirates will, as such, play all of their games at the Recreation Ground on Sundays and continue to use the home facilities at the Mennaye as the training base.

The Pirates say they intend to make match days an "event" as they did last year at Kenwyn and as the Camborne Recreation Ground accommodates over 9,000 people with a stand capacity of 780, the infrastructure is already in place and there is not the considerable cost of importing a tented village/grandstand and providing "park and ride" as at Kenwyn. There are plans for considerable new hospitality areas at the Camborne ground for match days and ample parking at or near the ground. Although, some were sad to see the name 'Penzance & Newlyn RFC' go.

At this stage a business decision by the Pirates to develop a stadium is totally unwise until the future of Premier rugby and the constraints associated with Premiership status become clear. Camborne RFC is a popular and historic Cornish rugby venue, having hosted many top class games over the years against teams including the "All Blacks" and the "Wallabies".

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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