Penryn
Penryn
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RUGBY FOOTBALL CLUB
enryn RFC is a club that plays a vital role in their community and has
plans in place to continue to grow their presence in the local area. Club
Representative Ben Gilby recently took the time to tell us more.
RC: How long have you been involved
and what first attracted you to the club?
BG: Around two years now.
Although always living “up-country”
in Surrey, I have Cornish ancestry
which I am fiercely proud of and found
myself spending more and more time in
Cornwall, around the Penryn area due to
my postgraduate studies.
Therefore, I wanted to get involved
with a proper Cornish rugby club, and
Penryn were the obvious choice. They
have always been at the heart of the little
town, the oldest club in Cornwall with a
glorious history - the only UK club side
to have played the British & Irish Lions
is just one of our claims to fame - and a
clear desire to aim for better days after a
couple of lean years, but in a sustainable
way.
RC: What are the most rewarding
aspects of your role?
BG: The most rewarding aspect is the
incredible growth in interest in the club
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over the past two years. When I took on
the Communications and Press Officer
role, the club’s website was ranked
around the 500 mark in Pitchero’s Rugby
Union website rankings for weekly
“hits” in the UK.
We are now consistently in the top
60, with people visiting the site from all
over the world which shows just what
potential Penryn RFC has. I’ve also
re-established social media feeds and
working with other committee members,
got a relationship going with the Penryn
campus of University of Exeter/
Falmouth University and are working
with them to establish a club YouTube
channel.
RC: How’s the general mood down at
the club at the moment?
BG: Incredibly positive and it will
remain so regardless of whether or not
we gain promotion at the end of this
season. A lot of changes have happened,
new committee, new coaching staff, new
players and new initiatives. Everyone
has brought into our aims, but we want
to do it in a sustainable manner. Slow and
steady wins the race. The foundations
are there with some building blocks in
place.
RC: How would you say 2017 has gone
for the club?
BG: Excellently, both on and off the
pitch. As above, a raft of changes took
place in the summer, but all of which are
built around the place the club has in the
community. People need to come in and
buy in to Penryn RFC being an integral
part of the small town of Penryn. We’ve
only lost one game all season, but it’s
going to be tough to gain promotion as
there are four teams going for two places.
RC: What are your plans for 2018?
BG: It is everything to us. We have nineteen teams at Penryn
RFC from the youngest U6s through to a joint Colts side with
Falmouth RFC. As well as this, we have three girls age group
teams with Cornwall’s most successful Ladies rugby team
too. The introduction of the Kernow Kestrels Touch Rugby
team at the club each week has also been hugely important in
increasing the number of people playing the game at Penryn
RFC.
MAKING SPACE MORE VALUABLE
Kernick Industrial Estate, 7 Jennings Road, Penryn, Cornwall, TR10 9LY
RC: Would you consider yours to be a community club?
BG: Yes, and over the coming years it will only get more
so. We have a new restaurant opened at the club beneath the
clubhouse which is open daily for people to come and use,
many local clubs hire our facilities during the week and we
have an exciting partnership with the twin university campus
up the road. Over the coming months, I want to begin making
links with some of the town’s primary schools.
RC: What do you believe could be some of the biggest
challenges the club may face in the coming years?
BG: With anything it will always come down to funding.
We know that we really need to be several years ahead off the
pitch in terms of planning than we are on the pitch and that is
something that is never easy.
The committee is young and passionate and we have some
excellent young players - keeping these players in a Penryn
shirt and ensuring that we can attract players, sponsors and
supporters in the years to come is vital, particularly in these
uncertain financial and political times!
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Penryn
RC: How important is youth rugby to the club?
RC: What are the clubs ambitions for the next five years?
BG: We need to be in a good, sustainable position off the
pitch to ensure we have any chance of getting promotion and
then staying in the leagues above on the pitch. We need to have
a strong number of young players from the Ages of 6-18 at both
boys and girls levels to ensure we can keep fielding a minimum
of two teams each week in men’s XV and so our Ladies team
remains the best in Cornwall.
BG: Continue the new initiatives that
the club are working on - increasing links
with the local community, getting our
club YouTube channel off the ground,
further developing links with the twin
universities on the campus up the road.
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