Chronicles of the Berkshire Pig: St Ives Gold

St Ives Town v Porthleven Reserves, Cornwall Combination.

Original plan that was to head down to the South West on the Friday for an evening game. This was changed as my dad was joining me, so it was the 0711 off Swindon heading via the ex-Berkshire downs to Reading.

After meeting with my dad, we were back on the 0759 to Penzance, which was delayed due to the cryptic reason of ‘departing from Paddington 14 minutes late’. This service goes via Bristol so 80 minutes after leaving Swindon, I was back through it, then across the spire ridden rooftops through Bath.

The forecast for the South East didn’t look great, but we were blessed with the sun as we headed along the sailing boats in the Exe estuary.

On through the seafront at Dawlish.

My dad doesn’t think the sea is interesting, so will only look out at water if there is something to see on the other side, so started taking an interest when we headed inland along the Teign estuary.

Onwards across Dartmoor and through Plymouth, we crossed an up HST at Bodmin. When Brunel built the Great Western he was obsessed with speed above everything. This means the main lines often went no where near the places they were meant to serve. This led to a proliferation of either branch lines to the places, or stations purporting to serve the said place but actually miles away. Bodmin is a good example, being four miles from the town in the Glynn valley. The GWR gave an indication of stations remoteness by adding the suffix ‘road’, in modern day parlance, this is ‘parkway’.

Cornwall is still hanging on to its old fashioned semaphore signals, this fine example being at Par, the junction for the Newquay branch.

After five and a half hours, we arrived into the far west at Hayle, and Copperhouse Creek. In the 1700s onwards, this was an important centre for Cornish industry as it was where the smelters were located for the copper and tin that was mined locally. It served as the major export port for the West of Britain and also Ireland. It also served as a transhipment point for Irish traders heading for France, who avoided the treacherous seas around Lands Ends, by shipping goods to Hayle, then overland to Charlestown and St Austell, and then back by sea to France.

Across the Hayle estuary to Lelant, which was the eventual destination for today's football.

We alighted at St Erth, the junction for the St Ives branch.

Our train departed for the last five miles of its 325 mile journey.

We headed over to the branch platform with our unit dutifully arriving amidst the semaphores.

Something for the cheeky fucker who PM’d me asking if I could include maps on my reports.

A quick turn round seemingly swept up anyone over the age of 60 in West cornwall.

We set off down the branch, first of all passing the St Ives ground with a few players having a token effort at a warm up.

The branch line is one of the most scenic there is. First off it trails the high end of the Hayle estuary, which is now protected wetlands for wild fowl. I once had to log that a train was being delayed due to the police taking statements from the crew and passengers as they had witnessed illegal water skiing.

Further along, and by now the main estuary at Copperhouse Pool.

On the opposite bank are Hayle wharves. This had heavy industry and its own branch line down from Hayle, but shut in the 1980s.

The line then rounds the estuary mouth into St Ives Bay itself.

The railway separates the beach from the adjacent golf links. To quote the one from the Sopranos who looks like Zlatan – ‘Stupid Fucking Game’ .

Carrying on to the small halt above Carbis Bay.

Finally around the cliff tops with St Ives around from Porthminster beach.

The station is now just a single platform high above the town.

We had an hour to kill so we headed to the transport interchange – Cornish style.

We opted for a Cornish pastry, enjoyed in the gardens overlooking the town.

A token piece of artwork from famous local sculpture Barbara Hepworth.

We headed back to the station and the arriving unit was being photted by a contrasting duo of spotters.

We headed back onto the unit.

Approaching Lelant and the players looked to be a bit more involved in the warm up.

We alighted at Lelant Saltings station. This opened in the 1970s as a park and ride station for St Ives and is still busy performing this function. The name comes from the area previously being the location of the fish cellars and salt houses for curing the pilchards. The location being chosen because the fish could be landed at the wharf, and the salt marshes gave ample preservatives.

St Ives Town actually play at Lelant, five miles out of the town, the Saltings ground is located immediately adjacent to the station.

The ground is accessed through a field behind the garden shed ticket office.

Although it seemed a very healthy crowd, the cars were actually in the over flow car park for the park and ride. This also used to be the location for Merlin's Magic Land, a strange theme park that shut a few years ago. It used to be promoted by having an old bloke dresses as Merlin waving on the platform or on the main road. Except he never carried any signs so it just looked like a local nutter.

The ground has recently had a lot of work undertaken. Unfortunately it seems these iconic gates have been replaced by a much less characterful offering. Photo courtesy of Nomad as I can’t find my pictures of them.

St Ives Town 7 v Porthleven Reserves 1, LWC Drinks Cornwall Combination.

I was at University at Plymouth in the mid-90s. I cleared the South Western League within a couple of months of being there, and had made inroads into the Duchy/Trelawny/East Cornwall/Combination teams, but had never seen St Ives play, only visiting the ground.

St Ives Town, not to be confused with the imposters near Cambridge, joined non-league in the early nineties with a move up to the Cornwall Combination. They had previously played in the Cornwall Mining League (last sponsored by One and All Sports), which has since merged with the Falmouth and Helston league to become the Trelawney League. The Cornwall Combination is the feeder league for the South West Peninsula for the west half of Cornwall. St Ives have never finished above fourth, but are currently top.

Porthleven is on the south coast of the county and is most well known for getting washed away every few years. The first team have swapped between the Combination and the South West League, though their current membership extends to 1990. The reserves in turn, have swapped between the Combination and the Falmouth & Helston League.

The ground itself is absolutely idyllic, situated adjacent to the railway and the estuary, and shaded by trees.

The restricted layout means the pitchside railings are tight to the touchlines, so have to be of flexible drain pipe rather than solid rails.

A walk round the pitch was akin to a wander around National Trust gardens. First of all the greenery around the dugouts.

Then the topiary crafted around the perimeter fence.

This did encroach on throw ins.

Behind the far goal was a lovely orchard.

The pitch was the most undulating playing surface imaginable. This line is straight, it is the pitch that dips.

This was most prevalent in the furthest corner…

….but extended across most of the pitch.

Prior to the game, St Ives had their annual team photo. I though it a bit odd at the time that one of the linesman joined them.

Eventually we were ready to start.

Almost immediately, St Ives took the lead with a creaming shot from midfield.

Then a forward lashed in a through ball from the edge of the box.

There was then a comedy moment when Porthleven broke away, the forward rounded the keeper and side footed the ball towards the empty goal. A defender was running back and should have got to the ball easily, but the dips shown before meant he fell over as he got near it. The ball then appeared to creep over the goal line before the defender got back up and cleared it. However, remember the linesman in the St Ives photo, well he was resolutely talking to the St Ives bench on the halfway line when all this happened, so was no-where near to the goal line to give the goal, so nothing was given.

St Ives then went up the other end and scored again.

By now the sun was absolutely beating down.

St Ives added another.

Porthleven did eventually get one back.

The St Ives keeper helpfully had a @keepers_towel on display.

The location of the ground next to the railway meant there was @nonleague_train both on the branch…..

….and also across the estuary with an HST on the main line heading for Penzance.

Interestingly, signage was written in human excrement.

With the sun starting to drop, we made our way to the exit.

This is the new changing room complex. Note the person on the left hand side with their arms crossed….

….who was actually the member of rail staff from the ticket office in the station, who had decided the football was more interesting than selling tickets.