Worse Problems

Penryn Athletic  3  Perranwell  0

Cornwall Combination League

The seemingly now annual trip to Cornwall for Easter was upon the Hatt’s, and in between family time, relaxation, food and drinkies, was the possibility of a wee bit of football.

You can certainly fill your boots in the West Country at Easter time, not only with plenty of games in the South West Peninsula League and the Cornwall Combination, but also with Cup Finals scheduled over the Bank Holiday period. I had to see just how much I could get away with!

A 5am start meant we were pulling up into a car park in Penzance just after 10am, it had been a fabulous run, and done without the need for a stop, I was happy with that, and set up very nicely we were for a fantastic experience of watching a play performed at the stunning Minack Theatre. If you haven’t been, and you are in the area, I would encourage it.

Once back in Falmouth and checked into the location of our Honeymoon last year, the Poltair, I produced my first swerve of the week when I dodged the unpacking and elected to take a short drive out of town to the neighbouring town of Penryn, for they had a 6.30pm kick off against neighbours Perranwell!

I’ve often gazed longingly at the floodlights that adorn Penryn’s Kenmire ground as we’ve driven out of Falmouth on the Helston road, wondering whether one day I would be able to see a game. I even called in to have a look at the ground last year when I had some time on my hands, and that only further whetted the appetite.

You see, outsiders always associate Falmouth football with just the one team, Falmouth Town, but to be fair, up until recently, Penryn Athletic, who play only two miles from Town, were not far behind their coat tails in terms of the local pecking order.

They joined the Cornwall Combination in 1977 and by the time they joined the South Western League in 2000, they’d won the championship a very impressive nine times, not forgetting the seven times finishing as runners up!

It wasn’t quite so easy in the higher division, indeed the South Western League, in which Falmouth Town competed, saw them finish nearer the bottom of the league than the top during their seven year spell, but, they were invited to become inaugural members of the newly formed South West Peninsula League.

They didn’t make the cut from the Premier Division (Falmouth did), so were placed in Division One West. In ten seasons they never finished lower than ninth and had two best finishes of third, albeit not enough to secure promotion. However, at the end of the 2016-17 season they opted to take the drop down a level and back into the Cornwall Combination where they remain.

This season, they sit top, and looking at the table, the title is Penryn’s for the taking. They won’t be re-joining the Peninsula League though, besides, that’s being restructured anyway, and I’m not strictly sure they would have been high enough up the pecking order to be accepted?

So, onto the ground. Located close to the Kernick Industrial Estate, it’s directly opposite Penryn Rugby Club, and next door to the Cricket Club. Sport is big in Penryn, and they like to stay close to each other!

A large car park leads to the clubhouse and dressing room building, which on a warm evening was doing a brisk trade. I parted with my £3 at the gate and surveyed the scene. It’s a very picturesque ground, with a small stand perched on the half way line, while some additional cover sits in front of the clubhouse in the form of a overhang.

Netting surrounds a large portion of the ground to prevent stray balls ending up in back gardens and such like, while the floodlights are proper pylons, as opposed to the more common poles. I like floodlights, as readers will know, proper pylons are fast becoming a dying breed!

Penryn are one of the better supported outfits in the league, and with a decent crowd in attendance, they turned in a polished performance to beat a mid-table Perranwell side.

The opening goal came courtesy of a stunning ‘Oggy’ (no pun intended bearing in mind it’s Cornwall!), when a defender managed to divert a cross into the top corner, while the second came courtesy of a strike from Ryan Reeve who found the net for the 39^th time this season.

The third and final goal came late in the game when a tantalising cross from the right was met by substitute Bradley Leivers, his header giving the visiting goalkeeper no chance at all.

A relatively comfortable night for Penryn, and the first game of the holiday in the bag. Turns out they were all in bed when I got back, and the beer I had bought and placed carefully in the fridge, was beautifully chilled, except, we’d forgotten to bring a bottle opener!

Apparently there are worse problems to have, I’m not so sure?