Year in Review: Highlights from west Cornwall sport in 2018

Let’s begin our trip down memory lane at Bickland Park where Falmouth Town have enjoyed a superb 12 months.

Andrew Westgarth’s men continued their fine early season form to finish third in the South West Peninsula League Premier for the first time in six years, with their 84 points their best in the league’s 11-year history.

The icing on the cake was a wonderful Walter C Parson League Cup victory in May, where Town came from behind to defeat Tavistock 4-2 after extra-time, exacting the sweetest of revenge on the side that thrashed the club 7-0 on the opening day of the season.

The Ambers picked up where they left off when they returned in the summer, as they beat Truro City and Plymouth Parkway to win the Aubrey Wilkes Trophy and SWPL Charity Bowl respectively, with their Dave Gardner Memorial Trophy success completing a hat-trick of pre-season titles.

The club are again competing at the top end of the league this season, currently sitting in fifth, and enjoyed a moderately successful return to the FA Vase, beating higher division opposition in Clevedon Town and Bridport before losing to Hamworthy United, also from a higher league, in extra-time.

Town have also made it through to the latter stages of both the League Cup and the Cornwall Senior Cup, so don’t rule out another cup triumph for Westy’s boys in 2019.

Life is also looking good down the road at Kellaway Park, with Helston Athletic recovering from an indifferent start to the current season by winning four of their last six matches as the club continues towards their 2020 vision of being title contenders by said year.

The club’s commitment to developing their ever-increasing youth system resulted in the club debuting in the FA Youth Cup, winning 5-2 at Weston-super-Mare – who are ranked four divisions higher than the Blues – in September before bowing out with a 2-1 defeat at Odd Down in the next round.

The team are also sitting nicely at the top of the Kernow Youth League with six wins from six games this season. I’m sure there is plenty more to come from their talented youth system in 2019.

Things are also looking rosy for Porthleven, who, despite seeing a title challenge fade away at the end of last season, sit at the top of the pile in SWPL Division 1 West this time around at the halfway point of the season.

The league table will please club secretary – and Mr Porthleven – Vidal James, who celebrated 65 years of service to the club this year, a phenomenal achievement.

Wendron United complete a quite content quartet of SWPL clubs, with the club recovering from a terrible end to last year, in which they lost the majority of their league games in the second half of last season, to winning 11 and drawing two of their last 15 games in all competitions at the time of writing.

Dron also hosted the ever-popular Sharon Wood youth tournament in July, which this year broke the £50,000 total of money raised for Cancer Research since the first edition in 2000.

Moving away from Wendron and down the A3083 and we find Lizard Argyle, who celebrated promotion to the Combination League for the first time in the club's history in May.

Argyle finished third in the Trelawny League Premier but gained one of the two promotion spots after title-winners Mawnan refused promotion.

The team made their Cornwall Senior Cup debut as a result - going down 2-0 at home to Wendron - and are currently 15th in their new division.

There also appears to be better times ahead for Penryn Athletic, who are also enjoying a return to form as the year comes to a close.

Former Carharrack boss Harry Pope became the club’s new boss in the summer and he has transformed the side from mid-table also-rans to promotion challengers, and it will be exciting to see what the team can do next year.

Speaking of Penryn, former Penryn College pupil Cody Cooke became the latest Cornishman to enter the professional football world this year when he was snapped up by Scottish Premiership club St Mirren in July.

He was spotted by the club after a trial at Leicester City and England striker Jamie Vardy’s V9 Academy, and has gone on to make a total of seven appearances so far this season. Best of luck to Cody for the future as he continues to do Cornwall proud.

Staying with Penryn as we move to rugby and the Borough are ending the year in promotion contention once again as they look to get out of the Tribute Cornwall/Devon league.

Penryn began the year with a strong promotion challenge but were undone by a crucial defeat to Saltash, who eventually claimed the second promotion shot at their expense.

But the Borough regrouped over the summer and will go into 2019 in one of the coveted top two spots in the division after winning 11 and drawing one of their 14 games so far this season.

Penryn will hope to join Falmouth in Tribute Western Counties West next year, after their neighbours avoided relegation into the Borough’s league by the skin of their teeth last season, with result elsewhere securing safety for the Eagles on the final day.

But Falmouth have also come back stronger this term and sit nicely in eighth spot after a solid start to the 2018/19 season, which has seen them win six and draw one of their 14 games.

Let’s trade out our oval ball for a small cork and leather one as Helston’s cricketers celebrated a huge turnaround of fortunes by winning the County One division this summer.

A difficult start to the year for the club was compounded by an announcement that they would be seeking voluntary demotion from the ECB Cornwall Premier League due to lack of players.

But the club refused to remain in the doldrums, embracing life in County One instead as they lost just two of their 22 games on their way to the title.

Falmouth had another steady season in the Premier League as they recorded a seventh place finish for the second year in a row, although they did add 43 to their points total this time around.

It was good news for Mullion, Wendron, Constantine, Perranarworthal seconds and Falmouth thirds, who all earned promotion from their respective divisions.

Helston’s Mining League team made it a double success for the club. They won the West Section of the initial round-robin stage before going on to beat St Gluvias in the semi-finals and Seaview Old Boys in the final.

The local sporting success in 2018 continues into hockey, and more specifically Falmouth hockey club’s triumphant first team, who won the South Division – the fifth tier of women’s hockey – in April.

The team had a superb season in 2017/18, losing just once as they won the title and secured promotion to Premier 2B, and reached the County Cup final.

The team currently sit fifth in their new division after nine games this season.

Falmouth Docks Table Tennis Club was celebrating again following the success of its Junior players at the Cornwall County Closed Junior Championships.

Most of the various junior events were won by Docks players, with Dan Phillips, Sonny Griffiths, Erin Bryant, Joe Crouse and Leo Haughton all enjoying success.

Young Jarvis Lee is setting the West Cornwall league alight, with the 14-year-old having won 22 of his 24 singles matches in the Premier this season.

There was also success on a national level for Docks player Dylan Tynan, who won the under-18 singles title at the British Para Table Tennis Championships in April.

Moving onto the water and rowers from Greenbank Rowing Club became the first crew from Cornwall since 1977 to take part in the prestigious Henley Royal Regatta. The men’s coxed four of Tim Wilkinson, Lex Kerr, James Kerr and Matthew Pullen with Cox Sarah Lewis entered the Britannia Challenge Cup and reached the quarter-finals before bowing out.

There also was success for gig rowers, gymnasts, golfers, boxers and much, much more throughout 2018.

Let’s hope for more of the same in 2019.