Camborne 66pts

Tries: J Richards 2, M Rogers 2, D Mankee 2, M Woolcock 2, D Roberts, A Smith, R Ley, K Penrose

Conversions: D Mankee 2, N Curnow

Penryn 10pts

Tries: J Hocking, W Paine

Penryn: Justin Hocking Will Paine, Chris Mann, Peter Webster, Josh Chambers, Ian Morgan, Paul Bannister, Matt Tarby, Phillip Morton, Syd Savvas, Dan Laity, Gareth Wills, Chris Johnson, Ed Lawrence, Darryl Foster. Rep: Steve Uphill.

THE Borough took the short route to Camborne last Saturday, a return that was overdue because it has been some time since Penryn played in a league match at The Recreation Ground, unlike seasons in the past when the two clubs had regular annual fixtures, home and away, between two of Cornwall's oldest clubs.

Like The Borough Camborne are steeped in history and have been one of the premier clubs in the County, but each club is not finding it easy to find a level in this modern era.

Camborne played their first game against Penzance in front of some 600 spectators in November 1877. After World War 1 the teams changed in hotels in the town and marched to the ground behind the Town band. How different it was on Saturday with music that blared out in support of the early tries scored by the home team. Fortunately complaints from each club resulted in a toning down of the exultations and the music stopped.

Plucky Penryn began well but slipped 10 points behind in the opening 10 minutes with right wing James Richards going over for two unconverted tries.

First centre Rob Ley burst through the defence before releasing the flyer and soon after Richards collected his own chip ahead to complete his brace.

No 8 David Roberts was next to dive over in the 17th minute following a sweeping handling move and still inside the first quarter left wing Mark Rogers cut inside from the flank to touchdown for a 20-0 lead.

The visitors created a good try of their own to open their account with full back Justin Hocking taking an inside pass after centre Chris Mann had made inroads to cross wide out.

Before the break scrum half David Mankee swapped passes with Roberts from a quickly tapped penalty and scampered over to add the conversion for a 27-5 scoreline.

Mankee then poached a pushover try from under the feet of Roberts to increase "Town's" lead before another delightful bout of handling brought a second corner try for speedster Rogers.

On the half time whistle another home attack resulted in blindside Martin Woolcock being driven over from close range with Mankee adding the extras for 44-5 at the interval.

Early in the second half the home forwards launched an unstoppable drive ending with hooker Andrew Smith claiming the touchdown.

Again the young Penryn side showed their spirit hitting back in the 54th minute with Mann involved and left wing Will Paine scoring in the clubhouse corner.

From the restart flanker Woolcock caught the kick off and surged through the visiting defence for a fine solo try to make it 54-10.

On the hour the impressive Ley carved an opening to touch down a deserved try which young lock Nathan Curnow converted.

In a scrappy final quarter the visitors continued to defend tenaciously and restricted the "Cherry and Whites" to just one further try credited to flanker Kevin Penrose emerging from the heap of bodies after another impressive forward surge to the line.

So where did it all go wrong? Penryn started well, but in the end Camborne cruised to victory, running in eight first half tries. Fortunately Camborne's kickers seemed to be off form and only two tries were converted.

Justin Hocking, returning from injury, played out of position at full back because The Borough were so depleted. Chris Mann, who had an outstanding game at centre, set up the try.

The Borough played with spirit throughout the game, particularly in the second half. But this was not the Borough's day. They were beaten in the scrums, with several takes against the head, but mention must be made of Matt Tarby, also playing out of position at loosehead prop, toiled manfully. As is so often the case the Borough were denied possession and when they did get it their scrum was often going backwards, it was not clean and easy to handle.

Penryn are now definitely destined for Western Counties West next season, but there are still one or two games in which the club can salvage some pride.

There is next Saturday's match against Taunton who have not visited the Memorial Ground for several seasons. Taunton and Hornets are the two teams currently battling it out to stay in South West II West, so next week they will be keen to repeat their victory over Penryn early in the season. After the Spartans game on March 3 there are three further matches, Newton Abbot (H), Exmouth (A) and Cheltenham North (H).

Final selection for the match against Taunton will take place after training on Thursday, when physio Nicole Ross has had time to assess and correct some of the numerous injuries.

Squad versus Taunton: Alan Richards, Chris Mann, Kiniviliame Naivalulevu, Peter Webster, Josh Chambers, Justin Hocking, Ian Morgan, Paul Bannister, Richard Burns, Matt Tarby, Syd Savvas, Gareth Wills, Steve Uphill, Jof Hardy, Adam Giles, Chris Johnson, Ed Lawrence, Steve Bucknall.