Pictured are the under 11′s receiving their new match shirts.The shirts were sponsored by Kernou Residential Home at Porthtowan, (pictured are Liz and Graham from the Kernou (L) by Nigel Eathorne). Their sponsorship is greatly appreciated and we hope they enjoyed the match.

Redruth got back on track on Sunday with two comfortable wins against a committed Camborne side. In the first game Redruth dominated in the scrum and lineout, soon pressuring the Camborne line from a scrum 10m out, Dirk Moodie burst through to open the scoring after a well rehearsed back move, Steve Trenwoweth converted. Connor Parrott bulldozed his way over for the second try converted by Ollie Bryant. Ryan Thomas finished off a good back move for the third try with Steve once again converting, with the Reds pack dominant Kieran Trewin broke off a rolling maul to score his debut try for the Reds with Ollie converting.

In the second game the Reds changed their whole back line around with new boys Liam Andrew and Josh Harvey playing on the wings, both boys gave a good account of themselves. The pack were totally dominant but Camborne kept their heads up, made some good breaks and only some good tackling stopped them from getting on the scoreboard. Kieran Young recovered from his earlier injury,showed his strength to burst through and open the scoring, he then repeated the move from a tap penalty and Steve converted. He then got his hat trick after good work by the home pack,Daniel Eathorne converted. Dirk then got his second try with a trademark mazy run, Ryan Thomas converted to complete an excellent all round team performance, which proved contrary to what their coaches sometimes think, the squad do take notice at training.

Match scores on the day. First Game Redruth 28 – Camborne 0

Match Two Redruth 26 – Camborne 0

Oh dear me…what did I do!!!!!!! Lets talk about the game first and it
was yet another home win for us albeit a bit of a dogged affair. I thought
we played reasonably well but didn’t really get out of 2nd gear. Henley
have provided quite a write up on the game on their website so I am not
going to bother to go into it in any greater depth other than to say that
I didn’t quite see it as they have written it!

It was good to see some of
our injured players returning especially Dan Goodwin who has been out for
some 4 months.

Now, my article last week created quite a stir on different
websites. Whilst I appreciate everyone has their own views on my comments
I do try to be honest and fair when I write my article…in this instance
I felt I was being honest, it was the way I saw and heard it and therefore
that is why I wrote it!…however what I didn’t realise was the actual
effect it would have on match day!…yes the atmosphere was electric and
passion was overflowing to say the least, but there were some unsavoury
incidents that did occur. I believe visiting teams now expect the
intimidation during the game, after all its part and parcel of the game
here, but I was very concerned at what happened after the final whistle.
It was unnecessary and I hope it does not happen again. I did and still do
offer my apologies for the outburst from one or two of our supporters but
I feel their motives may have been spurred on by the reluctance of the
Henley team to enter the playing arena from the tunnel..however the game
is now gone and I wish to draw a line under the whole situation. It is
likely that our two clubs will meet again next season and I sincerely hope
that it will be under different circumstances. Lets all move on and enjoy
the remainder of our respective seasons. I wish Henley all the
best……..

On Sunday morning our players who were involved in 1st XV games this last
month went swimming!!!!…not in a nice heated pool but in the sea at
Gwithian Towans! This was the result of an agreement made between the
players and Management…the agreement being that if we were to win all 4
games in January then Management would be getting their toes wet, if that
wasn’t the case then the players would take the plunge. This they did,
kitted out in Speedo’s and not a lot else on show!!!….I had 4 layers of
clothing on and was still freezing ….they did it with grace and not too
many swear words!!….I wonder what challenge we will have for
February……

The Colts National Cup game against Brixham has now been finalised for the
12th February…hopefully a big crowd will turn out to support future 1st
XV players in their quest to get to the last 8 of the
competition…admission on the gate is

This Sunday saw a visit from local rivals Camborne. The weather was ideal for tag rugby – and for our squad photocall – see the West Briton this Thursday.

As usual the under 7′s were first to take to the field and it seems that our extra training on Friday evening paid dividends. Our players defended well and always kept Camborne on the back foot. Kieran and William were stunning in defense as the rest of the team slowly took Camborne apart. Connor, Henry, Kensa, Kieran and William all appeared on the score sheet, leaving Redruth victorious by 10 tries (at least!) to Cambornes 6.

Club rivalries seem to be embedded into players from an early age these days and this was borne out in the under 8′s fixture. The commitment and passion in the players from both sides was probably the most intense this season (so far!).

Redruth were a bit slow out of the blocks to start with and struggled to handle Camborne’s strategey of attacking route one – an ‘interesting’ concept for tag rugby. Despite falling a couple of tries behind at the start Redruth rallied round, and with some outstanding runs, especially from Harry, Jake and Sam they slowly regained control. Things ‘boiled over’ a little towards the end with the referee intervening to calm it down – so next years under 9′s match should be interesting.

It was only in the last gasp that Sam Carroll piled over to make the final score Redruth 9 tries to Camborne’s 8.

Thanks to Camborne for two good fixtures and for being sporting in defeat. Well done Redruth and we’ll see you all at training on Friday night at the recreation ground starting at 6pm.

Next Sunday: Training

Redruth overcame Henley on a day more suited to penguins than Hawks…the only thing missing was an iceberg, though the ball itself was as difficult to hold it might as well as been one.

So fair play to players and spectators alike, a crowd of about 700 enduring a dour first half but enjoying, as is often the way, a more entertaining and lively second period.

Sad to report that Henley chose not to run out from the main tunnel under the stand before each half, instead coming out the back door and walking on from pitch-side. As one well-known local wag put it, ” Henley Hawks ? More like Henley Chickens…”

Nevertheless, the Club does not and will not condone excessive verbal abuse by any supporter directed at the opposition’s players or officials, or referee or touch judge. Good hearted banter during the game is one thing, a volley of foul-mouthed tirades post match is something completely different.

Henley started down the slope with the strong cold wind behind them. The first half was very even with both sides having scoring chances. Although using the wind well Henley were unable to put much pressure on the Redruth line. The Reds used strong driving play by the forwards to get them out of trouble. Near the end of the half Gavin Donald put Redruth in the lead with a well-struck penalty this was short-lived as Rory Teague replied with a penalty for Henley. Half-time score Redruth 3 Henley 3.

Early in the second half Henley

On the 26th February, Redruth Under 7′s and Under 8′s will be playing at London Wasps in their mini rugby competition.

We leave redruth on the 25th and travel up with a hotel overnight – due to an early start on the Sunday. On the 26th we play a ’round-robin’ qualifier at Wasps training ground where we hope that some of Wasps stars will be on hand.

After we have qualified – fingers crossed – the finals will be played on the main Wasps pitch as a curtain raiser for their fixture with Sale Sharks. We also hope that our youngsters will be meeting both Sale and Wasps players before the game.

As an end to the day we get to see the big match before heading home to Redruth – hopefully victorious.

Now the crunch. As usual these things cost a lot of money. The coach alone is costing

I suppose I can sum my feelings up by saying that I was disappointed with
the outcome of our game on Saturday at Barking. It was talked up as being
Barking’s biggest and most important league game of the season. For once it
was a real nice day and the pitch was good. There was a reasonable crowd,
vocal as usual, and a pretty good game of rugby played by both sides. We had
a great start and were 10 points to the good after about 15 minutes. We did
concede a try about 12 minutes before half time and then our injury jinx
struck again. There was a ruck in midfield on the half way line and Ben
Priddey emerged from it in a lot of pain with a bad ankle injury. Play was
suspended for about 10 minutes or so while they brought the ambulance onto
the field to get him to hospital. The outcome of this is that Ben has
damaged ankle ligaments.

From the restart Barking scored and were then 12-10
ahead. The 2nd half was frustrating to say the least. We put on a lot of
pressure but just could not get the score. We took some wrong decisions at
crucial times and we were not as composed as we should have been. Barking’s
defence was excellent and on their few forages into our half came away with
another try to seal the victory.

They had some very strong runners in their
cosmopolitan team…some dozen “overseas players” in their line up! However
our guys commitment was first class and they never took a backward step in
the game. An interesting point with our team…our average age of our
forward pack on Saturday was just 22!….and once again we had 8 former Reds
Colts in the line up and 8 guys who played Colts rugby for other Cornish
clubs…

Adam Nicholls also picked up a sternum injury and was replaced by
club skipper John Navin for the last 10 minutes or so. I’ve been looking at
our injury situation this season and, including Saturday, we have now
sustained injuries to 16 of our frontline players…this meaning that in 15
league games and 3 cup games 16 players have been unavailable for selection.
To have the luxury of selecting from a full squad is still some distance
away as both Ben and Adam will sidelined for a few weeks.

In my notes last week I mentioned about the Barking game at Redruth earlier
in the season, and Barking having to drop to our level etc etc….this did
cause a bit of a stir and caused Eddie Jones to say that he had been
misquoted….well, on hindsight, I did misquote him and I apologise for that
BUT all is fair in love and war and it made for a bit of interesting banter
in the lead up to the game. We have respect for Barking and as Eddie quoted
in his notes, games between our 2 clubs are full of passion and attract good
crowds and normally produce some very good rugby, …hopefully this will
continue for years to come and I wish Barking all the best for the remainder
of the season….and will see you next year….and please turn the heating
down in the changing rooms next time!!!

Paul Thirlby, who has been such a valuable player to us over the past 3 or 4
seasons is off to the Southern Hemisphere shortly. I would like to wish Paul
and Helen all the very best and look forward to welcoming them back to
Redruth next season. Paul will be playing rugby in New Zealand for Te Puke
Sports, Dan and PJ’s club…..

As we now know, the Colts, following their great win at London Irish, have
drawn Brixham at home in the next round of the National Colts Cup. This game
is likely to be played either on Saturday 11th February or Sunday 12th
February..this will be confirmed in due course….

Now then, next week we entertain “Enley Awks”. I think its fair to say that
our visits there in October were full of incident and full of pretty dour
comments…some comments that came from the crowd did not compliment us
individually, as a team or as Cornishmen. I believe they think we still run
around in horse and carts and are still waiting for electricity…well there
will be plenty of electricity about on Saturday at the Rec….The banter was
unsavoury and in some respects insulting so I am sure everyone will be up
for giving our visitors a typical “Reds” welcome! …. What really bugged us
was being asked to warm up on a field the other side of the road, only to go
there and, after 5 minutes or so, find 2 teams coming there to
play!….either bad planning or deliberately disruptive…..if you want to
see Henley’s warm up on Saturday they will be at East End playing field!….

Congratulations to Harrogate who won their first game of the season last
week, ironically at Henley! Both Nigel and I were delighted for Harrogate
especially the coaching team and players. As I said last week, they are a
good side and great people. They were very hospitable to us and looked after
us well…..good luck for the rest of the season guys!

Also Richard Carroll’s citing hearing has been adjourned for another 3
months. PJ Gidlow’s hearing is in February where he has to answer two
allegations of striking in the match against Stourbridge…two allegations
which we will defend…

On Sunday our 2nd/Development XV played Westcountry Warriors and what a
great game of rugby it was in near perfect conditions. The warriors won
28-27 but our boys made them fight all the way. This is the sort of rugby
our guys need and gave some of our previously injured players some valuable
game time. John Navin, Dan Goodwin and James Mann all featured in the 2nd
half and came through ok…..should make for an interesting selection
meeting this week! Hopefully we will be having more fixtures like this and I
think the crowd that turned up thoroughly enjoyed the rugby.

I hope you turn out in numbers at the weekend and really make yourselves
heard..like normal!…

Back next week

David Penberthy

Rugby Manager

A SELECTION OF PHOTOS FROM SATURDAY’S GAME CAN BE VIEWED NOW ON THE GALLERY 2005-06 SECTION.

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Barking 17 Redruth 10

By Martin Dutt ( Barking President….thanks Martin )

BARKING made it four wins in a row with this 17-10 victory over Redruth, but they were made to work hard for their win.

This is the ninth season in a row that these two sides have met and the results usually go with the home team, Redruth having won in Cornwall back in September.

Barking had an early chance to take the lead, but Kit Branch put his first minute penalty wide from 35 yards and it was the visitors who drew first blood five minutes later when Mark Scrivener slotted over a kick from 25 yards.

There was more disaster for Barking after ten minutes when a high kick was fumbled and Redruth wing Lewis Vinnicombe was on hand to kick the ball on and win the chase for the touchdown, Scrivener adding the conversion from the touchline to give the Reds a 10-0 lead before they had even broken sweat.

Further problems came for Barking when both David Gilmore and Anthony Skurr departed with injuries, Branch moving to outside half with Ben Montgomery coming on at full back and Macer Twydell joining the pack with Adrian Blundell moving into the back row and Guillaume Schueller moving out to the centre.

Branch was short with a 40 yard penalty as Barking began to come into the game and they finally got onto the scoreboard on the half hour when a series of rucks in the Redruth 22 saw the ball eventually popped up to Branch, who ghosted over under the posts, adding the conversion himself.

Five minutes later the game came to a halt following a serious injury to Redruth hooker Ben Priddey, who was taken off to hospital with a suspected broken ankle.

Fortunately for him this didn’t prove to be the case and he hobbled back into the clubhouse in time to join the rest of his team on the long journey home.

The restart came with a Redruth throw in their own 22, taken by Barking who, with Schueller directing matters, drove the ten metres to the visitors line for a try by skipper Leonard Liebenberg to give Barking a 12-10 lead at the break.

Redruth opened the second half with a 40 yard penalty miss from Scrivener after three minutes, but Barking stretched their lead ten minutes later with an almost carbon copy of their second try, winning a line-out in the Redruth 22 and driving the maul the necessary ten yards for Guillaume Schueller to claim his first try for Barking with the assistance of Sevaiana Rokobaro.

That was to be almost the last time in the game that Barking were in Redruth territory as they spent the rest of the game defending heroically to keep a rampant Redruth side out.

On 20 minutes Redruth scrum half Mark Richards broke round the blind side to send an inside pass to set up what Redruth thought was a try, only to be brought back to the point where Barking’s Andy Eaton had tackled his opposite number into touch.

Barking were being penalised almost off the park and Redruth were happily kicking to touch and attempting to play Barking at their own catch and drive game.

But despite repeated attempts and some narrow squeaks they could get no change out of a resolute East Enders defence.

It was not until injury time that Barking finally broke out of their own half again and at least they finished the game in Redruth territory.

However, the game can best be summed up in the words of injured full back Corrado Pilat a spectator at the game, when he said, “We were a big team out there today.”

It had been a performance to be proud of and it opens up an eight point gap between fourth-placed Barking and their Cornish rivals in seventh place.

Redruth still await their first win at Goresbrook, going down by 17-10 and three tries to one. On a mild Jauary day, the Reds held the upper hand for most of the second half, but could not add to the ten points they caused in the first fifteen minutes through a well-taken Lewis Vinnicombe try, converted by Mark Scrivener who also opened the scoring with a penalty.

The turning point was arguably an injury to hooker Ben Priddey on the half-hour, with play being held up for over 10 mins as he was taken to hospital as a precaution. Barking scored a try from the re-start, which put them ahead 12-10 at the break, and when Barking added a third try early in the second-half, things began to look ominous.

However, it was backs to the wall for Barking for almost the entire rest of the half, conceding a number of penalties which the Reds chose to kick and drive. It was not to be, and in an almost uncharacteristically well-tempered and even encounter, the day in East London saw Redruth lose for the first time in 2006. However, the bonus point gained means that we have taken 5 points from Barking this season to their four, and we look forward to re-newing rivalries next season. The Reds showed only one change from the Harrogate trip, with Scott Hobson replacing the unfortunate Richard Carroll.

The Reds Development went down to the narrowest of defeats on Sunday at home to Plymouth Albion Seconds, or Westcountry Warriors as they are known, by 27 points to 28. A good sized crowd saw James Mann, John Navin and Dan Goodwin all make their reappearances after injury, albeit John did come on for the last 20 minutes at Barking.

The Colts defeated Bodmin 58-0 on Saturday.

The sparklingly refurbished Clubhouse is available for bookings throughout 2006 for any and all types of function. Please call the club on 01209 215520 where we shall be only too pleased to help.

The pictures below are the first images taken of the new Clubhouse. A No Smoking policy is being trialled, with immediate effect, new bar only, the Pool room and Top Bar remain smoking areas.