🟢 Mousehole AFC’s crowd funder is just part of their vision for the future
Plus, we hear from St Dominick chief Simon Riddle amid the east Cornwall side's perfect start to the St Piran League Premier East campaign, and we round up the Cornwall Senior Cup second round action.
⬇️ In today’s newsletter ⬇️
⚽ Midweek round-up
🟡 Cornwall Senior Cup second round
🟢 Mousehole AFC’s crowd funder is just part of their vision for the future
🟡 St Dominick enjoy stellar start to season in bid to shrug off St Piran League heartache
Enjoy. 〓〓
🟡 Cornwall Senior Cup second round
⚽ Bodmin Town 4-3 Bude Town
Bodmin Town fought back from three goals down to defeat South West Peninsula League Premier West rivals Bude Town by the odd goal in seven and clinch their place in the last eight.
Billy Hopcroft scored a hat-trick as the Seasiders cruised into a three-goal lead at Priory Park and seemingly had one foot in the quarter-final draw.
But the north Cornwall side knew that a three-goal lead is not always enough, having come from four goals down to draw at Wendron in ther previous game, and so it proved as Noah Crump (2), William Elliott and Joe Munday secured a remarkable victory for Bodmin.
⚽ Camelford 0-4 St Blazey
St Blazey struck three times in the final 15 minutes as the Green and Blacks eventually overcame SWPL outfit Camelford at their Trefrew Park home.
Ryan Downing put Andrew Moon and Brad Richardson’s side in front midway through the first half, but the Western League outfit had to wait until the 76th minute to double their advantage through skipper Luke Cloke.
That appeared to break the Camels’ resolve with Aaron Dilley soon adding a third before substitute Sam Clifton got in on the act in the dying embers in north Cornwall.
⚽ Dobwalls 1-6 Helston Athletic
Sam Carter scored a hat-trick as Helston Athletic continued the defence of their Senior Cup crown with a resounding six-goal victory at SWPL outfit Dobwalls.
A brace from Carter and Kai Cornish’s strike within a ten-minute spell midway through the half put the Blues in complete control at the interval at Lantoom Park.
The Reds pulled one back through Cam Patterson early in the second half, but Dave Barker’s brace and Carter’s third of the night saw Matt Cusack’s side coast to victory.
⚽ Falmouth Town 2-0 Torpoint Athletic
Falmouth Town prevailed in the only all-Western League tie of the round as Andrew Westgarth’s side saw off Torpoint Athletic at Bickland Park.
Goals from Luke Barner and Alex Wharton were enough to send the 2022 winners into the last eight.
⚽ Liskeard Athletic 6-3 Launceston
SWPL Premier West leaders Liskeard Athletic eventually overcame a stubborn Launceston side after prevailing in a nine-goal thriller at Lux Park.
An entertaining first half saw Liskeard go into the break with a 3-2 lead, courtesy of Dan Jennings’ brace and Max Gilbert’s free-kick.
Launceston levelled early in the second half but an own goal and Mike Smith’s brace saw Darren Gilbert and Lee Mann’s side comfortably through in the end.
⚽ Penzance 5-1 Mullion
Penzance cruised into the quarter-finals for the second year running following a five-goal thrashing of ten-man Mullion at Penlee Park.
Jack Noy gave Rob Carey’s side an early lead in west Cornwall but it was all downhill from there for the visitors as Charlie Willis and Rolandos Sumnauskas turned the tie on its head by the break.
Liam Andrew nodded in a third before Seagulls forward Harry Roberts was shown a straight red, with Silas Sullivan and Dylan Walter rounding off the scoring.
⚽ St Austell 1-0 Saltash United
SWPL high-flyers St Austell were the only side to defeat higher-division opposition as Chris Knight’s team edged past Saltash United by a single goal at Poltair Park.
With neither side able to make the breakthrough after 88 minutes in mid-Cornwall, Matt Searle’s free-kick two minutes from time was enough to send the Lillywhites into the quarter-finals.
⚽ Truro City reserves 1-5 Newquay
Louis Price plundered a four-timer as Newquay swatted aside SWPL colleagues Truro City reserves at Mount Wise.
Price scored either side of Harrie Tilston’s effort to give the Peppermints a three-goal cushion after little more than half an hour.
City soon pulled one back through Fin Harrison, but Price found the net twice more after the turnaround to seal an emphatic win.
🟢 Mousehole AFC’s crowd funder is just part of their vision for the future
By Colin Bradbury
Mousehole AFC have just launched an ambitious bid to raise £100,000 via a crowd funding campaign for a new access road to divert match day traffic away from the village of Paul. But that’s just the start of the club’s vision for the future.
Mousehole’s west Cornwall setting is one of the club’s defining features. The downside, as anybody who has visited Trungle Parc will know, is that the current access is via the narrow roads of Paul village. The lane down to the club itself is bumpy and full of potholes. Adding to the problems is that this is also the access point for the adjacent campsite, which is owned by the football club and is a vital source of income.
The club have already secured planning permission for the new access road that will connect the B3315 near Sheffield directly to the football ground and the campsite. The road will also enable the enlargement of the club’s car park, with capacity for another 40 cars and for three coach spaces.
Mousehole AFC chairman Deryk Heywood believes that the new road will both benefit the village of Paul and be a crucial catalyst for the football club’s long-term ambitions.
Removing matchday and campsite traffic from the main road through the village is obviously a major benefit. Beyond that, the car park will be open seven days a week, making it available for use during local events — at the pub and the church, for example. Improved access will also allow the clubhouse to be opened on more than just matchdays, providing both a source of income for the club and a facility that can be used by local residents.
“It’s for the whole community,” says Heywood. “At the moment, the clubhouse is only used one day a week, plus whenever the ladies are playing on a Sunday. Once we have access into the club from the main road we can open our facilities seven days a week and that will generate income.”
But as well as solving a problem by re-routing traffic, the chairman also sees the road as part of Mousehole’s vision as a football club.
After securing promotion from the Western League last season, Mousehole have made a strong start to the campaign in the Southern League Division One South — step four of the non-league pyramid. Lying in fifth place in the table, Mousehole have games in hand over all but one of the four teams above them. The club is clearly eyeing promotion to step three, the Southern League Premier South, and Heywood says: “Don’t be surprised if we get in the playoffs this year.”
His, and the club’s, ambitions stretch even further than that though, which would take Mousehole down a path trodden by only one other team in Cornish football history, Truro City: “We definitely have a vision for step two football. I think we can play National League South football at Mousehole. Whether we can go any higher than that, I don’t know.”
As well as ability on the pitch, competing in the upper echelons of non-league football requires facilities that meet stringent ground-grading requirements. Heywood is confident that Trungle Parc is capable of accommodating the required upgrades for National League football: “The club sits on more than seven acres of land which we own. Lots of clubs play on nice grounds but they don’t own them, they’re tenants. We own the land the football club is on, which is a really nice position to be in.”
There is scope on three sides of the pitch to build the stands, toilets and other facilities that would be needed. Heywood says: “We have space behind the clubhouse — it’s about 35 meters from the clubhouse to the boundary to the west — and there is also a 20-metre strip behind the goal at the south end where you could get a stand with up to 500 people. We would also encroach a bit onto the campsite side with a stand and toilet block.”
The chairman is very much aware of the value of Mousehole’s status as the farthest west team in the country above step six: “The ‘Way Out West’ brand is huge. Fans coming here enjoy the football at Trungle Parc because it’s such a unique venue with views of the whole of Mounts Bay. Away fans come and make a weekend of it…so the preferred solution in terms of moving up the leagues is to develop the facilities at Paul.”
On the pitch, the aim is to build success on local players. Heywood says: “Giving Cornish boys the opportunity to play step four football for a Cornish club is fantastic. No other club in Cornwall can offer that. I look at the team and see that every player but one at Mousehole lives in Cornwall, a lot of them at this end, west of Falmouth.
“The Southern League side is a fantastic opportunity for boys in this county to not have to go to Tiverton or Plymouth or Taunton to play at that level. They can play at Mousehole in west Cornwall.”
“We’re Mousehole, but now we talk about ‘Cornwall’ more and more rather than just Mousehole. We’re flying the flag for Cornish football.”
Looking to the future, the structure is in place to ensure continued opportunities for local talent to thrive. Heywood says: “We have created a clear pathway from our under-16s to under-18s to the development side to the first team. So any local kid can see the path to the first team because it’s integrated into one.”
Heywood is also convinced that the calibre of training and development on offer at Mousehole is comparable to teams further up the pyramid: “We had someone on trial who’d played 70 games at step three, and he couldn’t believe the sharpness of our players. [Manager] Jake Ash and [assistant managers] Adam Fletcher and Andy Graham have got them so highly tuned that they’re on another level in training. The trialist reckoned Mousehole’s training was as good as a National League South team and he’s not the first one to say that.”
Returning to the crowd funding campaign, Heywood says that the road project is already under way: “The landowner gifted us the land. We’ve spent probably £28,000 already on getting planning permission and on topographical, heritage, tree and other surveys and we’re now at the stage where we need a civil engineer to plan the road. The planning permission runs until November 2024, so we’ve got to get moving.”
The fund-raising exercise is necessary because, as Heywood puts it, “There’s no sugar-daddy at Mousehole — everyone pitches in.” The current crowd funder is in the form of donations, with a range of rewards on offer for those pledging support, including naming rights for the stands and the road. However, he does not rule out offering shares in the club at some point for those seeking an ownership stake in the club. As he says: “When you grow you have to keep changing the model. We want to keep regenerating. Sometimes things have to change to make a club successful.”
It's clear then that while Mousehole AFC remain true to their west Cornwall roots, there is a vision for Cornish football as a whole. Heywood sums it up neatly: “We’re Mousehole, but now we talk about ‘Cornwall’ more and more rather than just Mousehole. We’re flying the flag for Cornish football.”
🟡 St Dominick enjoy stellar start to season in bid to shrug off St Piran League heartache
By Tom Howe
A hair’s breadth is all that has separated St Dominick from back-to-back St Piran League titles — and the village club are damned if it is to happen to them for a third time.
Saints have started the season in electrifying form, winning all 12 of their Premier Division (East) fixtures, helping themselves to 51 goals in the process and conceding just eight.
Their imperious form translates to cup competition too, with theirs being the scalp desired by all comers in both the Cornwall Intermediate and Tracy Banfield knockouts.
At the helm is Simon Riddle who, aged just 33, is one of Cornwall’s younger managers but one who has led a parish of just over 800 inhabitants to unheralded sporting heights.
“It’s going pretty well so far this year,” surmised Riddle, in discussion with Cornwall Sports Media. “We have managed to keep a core group of players which has been quite good, really. Several of them had offers [to move elsewhere] but, when you have a successful group, you have got to try and push that as much as you can. When you enjoy playing together and get the best out of each other, you have just got to keep that going for as long as you can.
“It will come to an end at some point. Some of them will go on to play [at a higher level] and they deserve to. It is just about making the most of the good times while we’ve got them. I genuinely think that if you can build a good team spirit, a team that likes playing with each other and that do things together off the pitch, you can get success from that.
“Obviously you have got to have a bit of ability but having that togetherness is huge.”
“Hopefully we do things right off the pitch as well. We have got a decent committee and the pitch is good. I have been here for five years and that consistency helps. We have finished the last two seasons second [to Saltash Borough] but hopefully this year we can go one better. Saltash have built something similar to us and if you get it to click like that, no matter what level you are playing at, that is a massive thing.
“Obviously you have got to have a bit of ability but having that togetherness is huge. I wouldn’t say that we have done anything differently this year. Maybe it is a slight shift of personnel in certain positions that is making a difference? Maybe it is a confidence thing? I can’t really give you a definitive answer why, really.”
Riddle initially joined the club to ‘lend a hand’ in the days of the Duchy League, before taking over the managerial reins upon promotion to East Cornwall in 2019-20.
Two abandoned seasons followed due to the worldwide outbreak of covid-19, with a subsequent restructure moving St Dominick into the St Piran League.
Despite losing just five league games across two seasons, Saints ultimately came up just short in their pursuit of glory, with Saltash Borough edging them by an aggregate of six points.
The rivals occupy the top two places in the division once again this term, albeit swapped around, with Dominick 13 points clear having played two more games.
The pair may have reached their respective ceilings however, with Riddle echoing the thoughts of Borough boss Kevin McCann, who told CSM in March that promotion isn’t an option due to South West Peninsula ground restrictions.
“Local football is all about volunteers chipping in and we are lucky, as a small village, that we have got that.”
It is a similar story for Saints, with Riddle explaining: “We applied last year but it was a bit on a whim because of the whole restructure that was going to happen. That went down the pan and our ground wasn’t up to it basically. Where we are, we are going to struggle to get anything like floodlights. Location wise, St Piran Premier is going to be as high as we can go unless the criteria changes.
“Hopefully I have got a good few years to give to football. I have really enjoyed the last few years. As you can see from our record, we have all enjoyed it. This year we want to try and get rid of that second place curse. Winning the league is our aim and we will see what happens after that but I am not making any long term plans. Things change quickly and you never really know what is around the corner.
“It is a bit of a shame for us that the Senior Cup is gone too because, if you had a decent run early on, it gave you the chance to go and play a team that was doing well in the league above. It is almost like your FA Cup of local football. On the flipside, having the Intermediate Cup gives you another opportunity to win some silverware. It gives you more longevity in terms of fixtures but you do miss out on that big tie.
“Our pitch is great though. We hardly ever have a game off. The people that work on the pitch do a brilliant job. With the weather now, you wouldn’t hesitate to think [a game] might be off on a Saturday if we are at home, unless we get a really bad spell. I think we might have had just one game off last season and none the year before.”
Regardless of their obvious restrictions, Saints are determined to make this another season to remember with their band of mainly local players and committed volunteers buried in between the relative football powerhouse towns of Callington and Saltash.
“Massive credit to those who spend all the hours up at the ground and on matchdays,” Riddle added, before concluding: “Local football is all about volunteers chipping in and we are lucky, as a small village, that we have got that.”
Come the end of the season, they may have got that elusive St Piran Premier Division title too.
⚽️ EFL Championship: Saturday, 3pm: Leeds United v Plymouth Argyle.
⚽️ National League South: Saturday, 3pm: Truro City v Dartford.
⚽️ Southern League Division One South: Saturday, 3pm: Wimborne Town v Mousehole.
🏆 FA Vase second round proper: Saturday, 3pm: Buckland Athletic v St Austell; Falmouth Town v Moneyfields; Highworth Town v Newquay; Saltash United v Downton.
⚽️ Western League Premier Division: Saturday, 3pm: Helston Athletic v Street; Oldland Abbotonians v Torpoint Athletic; St Blazey v Wellington.
⚽️ South West Peninsula League Premier West: Friday, 7.30pm: Sticker v Callington Town. Saturday, 3pm (unless stated): Bodmin Town v Launceston; Camelford v St Dennis; Dobwalls v Wendron United; Liskeard Athletic v Truro City reserves (2.15pm); Mullion v Holsworthy; Wadebridge Town v Penzance (2.15pm).
🏆 Women’s FA Cup first round proper: Sunday, 2pm: Helston Athletic v Exeter City; Sticker v AFC Stoneham.
We’re back with our weekend round-up on Sunday. See you then!
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