Camborne 39pts St Ives 15pts

CAMBORNE ensured their place in the second round of the Worthington Bitter Cornwall Knockout Cup when they comfortably defeated a determined St Ives side at the Recreation Ground on Saturday.

This first round clash brought together two of the former giants of the competition who dominated the County Knockout Cup competition in the mid 1960's to the early 1990s, winning the cup, between them, on ten occasions from 24 final appearances.

Camborne, who ran in six tries were very worthy winners, but the "Blues" stayed the distance right up until the final quarter.

The fixture attracted a good-sized crowd and they were rewarded with an entertaining match.

A spirited St Ives side were particularly well served by backrower Neil Corin and former county player Billy Peters.

For "Town" flanker Wayne Bennetts and number 8 Martin Woolcock caught the eye, whilst centre Kevin Mankee stood out for the second time since Boxing Day, showing good form that has brought him 100 points for the season.

Some of the crowd were still arriving just after the early kick-off of 2 pm when Kevin Mankee gave the home side a first minute lead with a try which he also converted.

On eight minutes Billy Peters, with an angled penalty shot, reduced the arrears to 7-3.

Camborne stretched their lead at the end of the first quarter when slick handling involving flanker Sean Oates, Woolcock, and centre Paul Wheeler gave left wing James Dingle just enough room to squeeze over in the turnstile corner.

Attacking from deep, Camborne saw visiting scrum half Jon Trewhella intercept to run fully 60 metres to score a soft try to keep St Ives in the game, but Peters surprisingly missed the simple conversion.

On the half-time whistle Mankee put over a straightforward 20 metre penalty kick for an interval lead of 15-8.

Playing with the slope advantage in the second half, the "Cherry & Whites" went up a gear in a purple patch lasting the third quarter to add 19 points without reply.

Minutes after the restart Simon Moyle chipped the ball over the flat visiting defence for Dingle to run on to and touch down his second try.

In the 50th minute Mankee took a quick penalty and sent out a huge pass to his skipper Adrian Downing who sent in Wheeler for a try which Simon Moyle converted.

Andrew Smith replaced Chris Hewitt at hooker with Hewitt having done much good tidying up at the line outs.

Mankee darted over for his second try on the hour, with Moyle converting for a 34-8 scoreline.

Down, but not out, the spirited "Fishermen" continued to take the game to the heart of the "Town" defence in the final quarter.

Well organised phases of play brought a deserved try for skipper the ebullient Peters after a spell of sustained pressure. Peters also converted for a 34-15 score.

With time running out Camborne scored the try of the match. Attacking from deep in their own territory, wingman Dingle rounded off the move with a try to complete his hat trick of tries.

Scorers - Camborne - tries: J Dingle (3), K Mankee (2), P Wheeler; cons: Moyle (2) and Mankee; pen: Mankee. St Ives - tries: Trewhella, Peters; con: Peters; pen: Peters.

Camborne: A Downing (capt), J Dingle, P Wheeler, K Mankee, T Anthony, S Moyle, L Chapple (rep N Worden 74m), J Mitchell (rep N Endean 62m), C Hewitt (rep A Smith 55m), S MacDonald, J Jago, A Lancaster, S Oates, W Bennetts and M Woolcock.

Rep not used: D Pascoe.

Referee: A Reynolds (CRRS) .

* DOES Camborne Rugby Club have a couple of twins in its midst which it knows nothing about?

That might well be the case given the accredited tryscorers during a couple of recent games involving hooker Chris Hewitt and flanker Wayne Bennetts.

Poor old Chris was "done out'' of a try just a few matches ago when Wayne was noted as the tryscorer.

Not one to be too miffed by the mistaken identity, Chris took it on the chin, but last week he was mistaken for Wayne yet again playing for Camborne against Redruth on Boxing Day. However, whilst the fixture might not command the attention of years gone by, for any Camborne player to score a try against the arch enemy - Redruth - is still something to be celebrated.

Sadly for Chris the dreaded news was read out over the tannoy that Wayne Bennetts scored the try and that was the name supplied to all the newspapers before the error could be rectified.

Chris is hoping that the New Year will bring a change of luck and, perhaps, he says, he will now get credited with Wayne's tries.