Pirates V Cardiff - One To Stir The Memories

So the pre-season fixtures are going to include not only the mighty Quins but Cardiff as well.

OK we know that Cardiff RFC are not now the Blues of Martin Williams and Tom Shanklin - but it is still a fixture steeped in history for anyone who has followed the Pirates over the years.

I noticed in the paper a week or so ago the death of Haydn Tanner at the ripe old age of 92. Even I cannot remember him actually playing but, by all accounts, he was the greatest scrum-half ever to play for Wales - at least until a certain Gareth Edwards came along.

Tanner led Cardiff against the Pirates a couple of times just after the war with a star-studded team around him which included such giants of the time as Bleddyn Williams, Dr. Jack Matthews, Les Williams (who later played for Cornwall), Bill Tamplin and Frank Trott. Nearly 10,000 people crammed into the Mennaye to greet them though God only knows how much of the play they can actually have seen. Every April they came back - usually taking in a match against St.Ives, Redruth or Camborne as well - and for years it was the highlight of the season.

Throughout the 1950's and early 1960's great Welsh players of the day continued to come to Penzance like Cliff Morgan, Rex Willis and Sid Judd but, in both 1950 and 1960, the Pirates actually managed to beat them. The latter match I remember very well with Alvin Williams and Tony Byrne having a rare old dust up with the entire Cardiff front row.

There was again a big crowd and we all went completely wild when that great Pirate - Ray Burroughs - crashed over in what is now known as the scoreboard corner to win the match. We were all dancing on the pitch and doing handstands at the end.

Speaking of Ray there is an old tale about him which I hope he will not mind me repeating. He has always been a truly lovely man who later became a superb team secretary but when he played - boy he could tackle like a mantrap!

Away from rugby he was an undertaker and I often imagined him mentally sizing up opposing fly-halves for a nice little pine box with brass handles. For a few months poor Ray suffered a serious loss of hearing but played on gamely through this despite being fairly oblivious to certain basic things like referee's whistles and lineout calls.

The story goes that in a match at Camborne School of Mines poor old Ray received a nasty stray boot in a particularly tender place and collapsed groaning onto the turf. The game stopped immediately and everyone crowded around him looking suitably concerned.

The man with the magic sponge - the irrepressible 'Bosun' James - raced out onto the field, cast a glance at his stricken flanker and said dismissively "Don't worry about him ref he can't feel pain - he's deaf". Happily Ray's hearing and his 'crown jewels' both recovered well.

I had the honour - and the dubious pleasure - of playing against Cardiff on the Mennaye on just one occasion.

The man propping against me was eventually capped for Wales and his name was Mike Knill. He was scrupulously fair but has to be quite the strongest human being I have ever met and I can still hear my spine cracking like a string of dried walnuts in every scrum.

I somehow finished the game in one piece but later that evening went for a Chinese meal with my wife at the old Hong Kong in the Greenmarket. When I tried to get up to visit the loo I couldn't even move off the chair - and our next match was only going to be Gloucester!

A couple of famous ex-Cardiff players spent time with the Pirates in the not inconsiderable shapes of British Lion prop John O'Shea and backrower Roger Lane who both made a huge impression at the time. O'Shea was actually elected Club Captain but then immediately got posted with his job out to Australia. Even the aforementioned Dr.Jack Matthews and Bill Tamplin guested for the Pirates in the early days as did a huge twenty stone lock called Mel Collins whose wife I believe came from Long Rock.

In recent years there have been quite a number of moves between the two clubs. Rocky Newton tried his luck there after being the nation's leading try scorer one season although he did not stay for long.

Our first professional player/coach Mark Ring was an ex-Cardiff and Wales star and he brought the ex-Rugby League and former Cardiff winger Gerald Cordle to the Mennaye to join him. Fly half Lee Jarvis returned to Cardiff after his spell in Cornwall with both the Pirates and Mounts Bay and of course Heino Senekal also came to us from there as well.

Hopefully we will see a good competitive match this August with the opportunity to watch all the new signings showing their paces for the first time.

We can also see how Chris Stirling and the rest of the coaching staff have worked on the eighteen or so players remaining from last season and how they have responded.

Nobody can predict what a pre-season match may throw up but unlike Almaviva Capitolina last season - this one has got plenty of 'previous'. I'm looking forward to already!

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