Penzance RFC formed in 1876, was a rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 club based in Penzance

Penzance

Penzance is a town, civil parish, and port in Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is approximately 75 miles west of Plymouth and 300 miles west-southwest of London...

, Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

, UK.

1870-1914

The first recorded rugby match in Penzance

Penzance

Penzance is a town, civil parish, and port in Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is approximately 75 miles west of Plymouth and 300 miles west-southwest of London...

 is from 1870, played in the grounds of Poltair House, Heamoor and organised by W Borlase of Marlborough School

Marlborough College

Marlborough College is a British co-educational independent school for day and boarding pupils, located in Marlborough, Wiltshire.Founded in 1843 for the education of the sons of Church of England clergy, the school now accepts both boys and girls of all beliefs. Currently there are just over 800...

. The Penzance team was mostly public schoolboys, home on holiday, and the opponents the Eastern Telegraph Company based in Porthcurno

Porthcurno

Porthcurno is a small village in the parish of St. Levan located in a valley on the south coast of the county of Cornwall, England in the United Kingdom. It is approximately to the west of the market town of Penzance and about from Land's End, the most westerly point of the English mainland...

.
The club, formed in 1876, did not flourish and was restarted in 1883, by J B Cornish who acted as Secretary, Treasurer and Captain. The club initially played in Claret and Blue but soon changed to black and white in varying styles. Fixtures in their first season included Redruth (possibly the first opponents), Hayle and Lelant. Arthur Trounson (full back) was the first player to win a Cornwall cap when picked to play in the first (recorded) match against Devon, at Plymouth on 12 January 1894 which was lost by two goals and three tries. Club captain Cornish was to win the first of his six caps, a year later, in 1885 and captained Cornwall on two occasions in 1886-87 and 1889-90.
Success finally came to the club, fourteen years after they were founded, when the Cornwall Rugby Cup was won in two consecutive seasons (1896–97 and 1897–98); the second one unbeaten against Cornish clubs. By now the Cornwall selectors were increasingly picking players for Cornwall; on one occasion five players playing in the same match. By the Great War, 38 different Penzance RFC players had represented Cornwall winning over 200 caps between them.

1920-1945

Fixtures between Penzance and Newlyn were hotly contested and sometimes suspended. Between 1929 and 1932 matches between the clubs were cancelled, a big loss of income to both clubs and one they could not afford. In 1930 the club had a deficit of £58 for the season, in 1933 a balance of 1/3d and by 1936 there was a vote on whether Penzance RFC should continue. The club did continue and so did the poor finances and at the 1939 AGM the club had only 17 shillings. Suggestions of an amalgamation with Newlyn were considered premature by that club and the start of the Second World War put an end to club rugby for a few years. In November 1944, after a public meeting, Newlyn RFC

Newlyn RFC

Newlyn RFC was a rugby football club based in Newlyn, Cornwall, UK.The club was formed in 1894 by a young curate of St Peter’s Church, the Rev. Fred Peel Yates. Before the founding of the club it was said that the young men of the village played a form of rugby on St Goulders Common and on moonlit...

 agreed to hold talks with Penzance RFC with a view to amalgamation. A subsequent Penzance RFU committee meeting on 21 November agreed to wind up the rugby club; and at a public meeting at the Guildhall on 12 December 1944 it was agreed to start a new club. Penzance-Nelwyn RFC was born.

Playing record

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style="width:20pt;"|> style="width:20pt;"| W style="width:20pt;"| D style="width:20pt;"| L style="width:20pt;"|F style="width:20pt;"| A style="width:100pt;"|Notes
1892-93	17	10	1	6	105	53
1893-94	16	9	2	5	121	60
1906–07	18	2	2	14			|

Grounds

A number of playing fields were used around Penzance including the Alexandra Grounds, Coombe Lane, Heamoor, St Clare, St Just Road (Alverton),
and finally in January 1934 a sub-committee was formed to negotiate with the Borough Council the use of the Mennaye Field

Mennaye Field

Mennaye Field is a sports stadium located in Penzance, Cornwall. The ground was provided by the Borough of Penzance for the Penzance and Newlyn RFC formed on Tuesday, 12th December, 1944 with the amalgamation of Penzance RFC and Newlyn RFC. The current tennants are the Cornish Pirates rugby union...

s as a rugby ground.

Barrie Bennetts

It is considered a great honour to be invited to play for the Barbarians

Barbarian F.C.

The Barbarian Football Club, usually referred to as the Barbarians and nicknamed the "Baa-Baas", is an invitational rugby union team based in Britain...

 and in 1908 Barrie Bennetts was invited to join the annual tour to South Wales playing against Penarth

Penarth RFC

Penarth Rugby Football Club is a Welsh rugby union club based since 1924 at The Athletic Field, Lavernock Road, in Penarth, in the Vale of Glamorgan in Wales.-Origins and early history:...

 and Cardiff

Cardiff RFC

Cardiff Rugby Football Club is a rugby union football club based in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. The club was founded in 1876 and played their first few matches at Sophia Gardens, but soon relocated to Cardiff Arms Park where they have been based ever since...

.
A year later he was capped twice by England

England national rugby union team

The England national rugby union team represents England in rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, and Wales. They have won this championship on 26 occasions, 12 times winning the Grand Slam, making them the most successful team in...

 and in 1909 selected to join John Raphael's

John Raphael (sportsman)

John Edward Raphael was a Belgian born English sportsman who was capped nine times for England at rugby union and played first-class cricket with Surrey.-Biography:...

, 1910 Combined British

1910 British Lions tour to Argentina

The 1910 British Lions tour to Argentina is a retrospective term applied to the tour of Argentina made by a side made up of 16 English players and 3 Scots. The organisers of the tour named the team the "English Rugby Union team", but the host country advertised the touring team as the Combined...

 team's tour of Argentina, playing in Argentina's first international test. An injury robbed him of the chance to play in the 1908 Olympics

Rugby union at the 1908 Summer Olympics

Rugby union at the 1908 Summer Olympics. The event was summarised under the "Football" heading along with association football. The host Great Britain was represented by Cornwall, the 1908 county champion...

 when Cornwall, as County Champions

County Championship (rugby union)

The County Championship is an annual rugby union competition in England between teams representing English counties. After restructuring in 2007 the top tier of the Championship has been known as the Bill Beaumont Cup, after the trophy awarded to the competition winners was named in honour of Bill...

, represented Great Britain in the games.

Combined British Team to Argentina

• Barrie B Bennetts

  Date	Opponents	Venue	Result	Score	Notes
  1	1910 June 12	Argentina Argentina national rugby union team The Argentina national rugby team, nicknamed Los Pumas, represents Argentina in international rugby union matches. The team, which plays in sky blue and white jerseys, is organised by the Argentine Rugby Union .Argentina played its first international rugby match in 1910 against a touring British...	Flores Flores Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, an island arc with an estimated area of 14,300 km² extending east from the Java island of Indonesia. The population was 1.831.000 in the 2010 census and the largest town is Maumere. Flores is Portuguese for "flowers".Flores is located east of Sumbawa...	W	28 - 3	Argentina's first International match

England

• Barrie B Bennetts

  	Date	Opponents	Venue	Result	Score	Notes
  1	1909 Jan 9	Australia Australia national rugby union team The Australian national rugby union team is the representative side of Australia in rugby union. The national team is nicknamed the Wallabies and competes annually with New Zealand and South Africa in the Tri-Nations Series, in which they also contest the Bledisloe Cup with New Zealand and the...	Rectory Field Rectory Field Rectory Field is a playing field in Blackheath, London. It was developed in the 1880s by Blackheath Cricket, Football and Lawn Tennis Company and became the home of Kent County Cricket Club and rugby union team Blackheath F.C.... , Blackheath	L	3 – 9	First England v Australia International
  2	1909 Jan 16	Wales History of rugby union matches between England and Wales England and Wales have played each other at rugby union since 1881. A total of 122 matches have been played, with England having won 56 times, Wales having won 54 times and twelve matches having been drawn.-Overall summary:- Results :-Breakdown:...	Cardiff Arms Park Cardiff Arms Park Cardiff Arms Park , also known as The Arms Park, is primarily known as a rugby union stadium, but it also has a bowling green, and is situated in the centre of Cardiff, Wales. The Arms Park was host to the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1958, and hosted four games in the 1991 Rugby World...	L	0 – 8	Home International Championship Six Nations Championship The Six Nations Championship is an annual international rugby union competition involving six European sides: England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales.... , with four Cornish players in the England team

Cornwall

Fifty two players from Penzance RFC were picked to represent Cornwall with six of them going on to be Captain.

First Year	Last Year	Name	Caps	Notes
1	1883	1884	Arthur H Trounson	2	Fullback
2	1885	1889	J B Cornish	6
3	1885	1893	George Kistler	15	known as “The Giant”
4	1885	1893	Tom J Peake	10	one of three brothers to play for Cornwall
5	1888	-	K Stewart	1
6	1888	1895	A H Thorne	11
7	1888
H Trenerry	1
8	1889	1890	Rose	2
9	1889	1897	W Dennis Lawry	9	brother of R C Lawry
10	1889	-	A Robinson	1
11	1890	-	Craze	1
12	1891
Saunders	1
13	1891	-	Yates	1
14	1891	1895	H Olivey	4
15	1892	1893	G Stephens	3
16	1892
F Peak	2	one of three brothers to play for Cornwall
17	1893	1895	W G Peak	4	one of three brothers to play for Cornwall
18	1893	-	Down	2
19	1894	1900	Oliver Triggs	19
20	1894	-	J W Nunn	1
21	1894
H Lovell	2
22	1895	1897	E Jasper	8
23	1895	1897	B Beckerleg	2
24	1895
J Sampson	1
25	1895	-	J H Gartell	2
26	1896	1902	Dr R C Lawry	19	brother of W D Lawry
27	1896	-	J T Triggs	1
28	1896	-	W R Trembath	3
29	1896	-	B Collings	2
30	1897	1903	T Martin	12
31	1897	-	C Graves	2
32	1897	1898	G E Gallaher	4
33	1902	1912	Barrie B Bennetts	42	Also represented Cornwall at cricket, golf and hockey
34	1902	-	T King	3
35	1902	1907	D Brown	12
36	1903	1907	F Carter	8
37	1909	1919	T Floyd	2
38	1909	1910	W J Vicary	4
39	1922	1923	H Beckerleg	3	Three-quarters
40	1924	1928	H E F Maddrell	9	Forward
41	1927	1932	W ‘Bill’ Rowe	13
42	1929	1932	C H G Penny	9	Forward
43	1931	-	Roger Simpson	1
44	1932	1933	Ronnie W Sturgess	3
45	1932	1933	I Uren	8
46	1932	1936	H E Thomas	8
47	1932	1935	R Matthews	9
48	1935	-	B Edmonds	1
49	1935	1936	J S Griffiths	4
50	1936	-	B Moffitt	2
51	1937	-	F Blewett	1
52	1938	1945	P C Gartrell	3

Key: Name in gold indicates the player captained Cornwall on at least one occasion