Penzance & Newlyn RFC

Cornish Pirates - Ground Share The Rec At Camborne

The Cornish Pirates and Camborne RFC are pleased to announce their agreement on a joint venture to ground share the Recreation Ground at Camborne for the next rugby season 2006 - 2007 and possibly the following season.

The joint venture will be for the mutual benefit of both the Cornish Pirates and Camborne.

Discussions have taken place between the two parties and Kerrier Council have been involved from the outset. Both parties are indebted to Kerrier and particularly the management for their wholehearted support in this venture, including the endorsement of the relevant Portfolio Holders councillorsMalcolm Moyle and Mike Clayton.

The Cornish Pirates will, as such, play all of their games at the Recreation Ground on Sundays next year and continue to use the home facilities at the Mennaye as the training base. This training option worked very well last season and was a major improvement on previous years.

Camborne will play all of their games on Saturdays as normal and the two entities will be responsible for their own organisation of match days.

Camborne Ground

The Pirates intend to make match days an "event" as they did last year at Kenwyn. The Recreation Ground accommodates over 9,000 people with a stand capacity of 780 so with this infrastructure in place the Pirates do not have the considerable cost of importing a tented village/grandstand as at Kenwyn. However, there will be considerable new hospitality areas at the ground for match days and ample parking at or near the ground.

1976 final of the Cornwall KO Cup at Camborne - Pirates 4 Redruth 3. L-R: Tim Penna, John White, Colin Dymond, Roger Pryor, Phil Westren, Mark Holland, Brian Michael, Terry Pryor, Phil Angove

At this juncture the management of the Cornish Pirates would like to express their appreciation for the support given by Karl Roberts and the Planning Department at Carrick Council in ensuring Kenwyn was installed in time and achieved its goals in terms of public SUPPORT for future rugby in Cornwall.

The joint venture ground share agreement will be confirmed for a second season (2007-2008) once the position becomes clearer on what will transpire between the Premier League Clubs and the RFU in the future, hopefully by the end of 2006.

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.

We all look forward to the support of the 34,000 spectators who supported the Pirates at Kenwyn this last season as well as the development of Camborne RFC facilities to the benefit of Camborne RFC on and off the field.

A Cornish Pirate spokesman said "In the circumstances, at this stage it is felt that Camborne is the right place for us to be as we wait to see how things develop."

Camborne 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".

Camborne ground location & pictures