Launceston RC

The month of April 40 years ago has gone down in the annals of LRFC as the watershed moment with the Club being noticed as a force to be reckoned with in the county. This was the springboard for future successes. In that month the Club won the Cornwall Merit Table and the Cornwall Cup for the first time in their history. The evening win at Polson against Penryn by 31 points to nil secured the Merit Table for the 1982/83 season and with it wild celebrations in the clubhouse ensued late into the evening. This was the first time in six seasons that a team other than Camborne had secured the title. For those who were not around in the amateur era Cornwall RFU were allowed by the RFU in the 1976/77 season to run a league which was more than a merit table. Results were still based on a percentage win, but in the county of Cornwall all eleven senior clubs had to play each other home and away in the season which made the final result of the table all the more meaningful.

The achievement was all the more surprising to those in the county because the highest position the club had previously reached was a lower mid-table and only a few years before had been bottom.

On 26 April 1983 the team travelled to the Recreation Ground at Redruth to take on Camborne for the Cornwall Challenge Cup. A large crowd of Launceston supporters greeted the team when they arrived. The ground was packed with a large contingent of voracious and noisy Launceston supporters for the eagerly awaited match between the two top sides in the Merit Table of that season. As expected it was a close encounter with Launceston holding our by 9 points to 7 points and with it the double of Merit Table and Challenge Cup emulating Camborne in the 1977/78 season. It might seem hard for people to grasp nowadays but the magnitude of the success achieved by Launceston in that season was such that it was the very first time a club located further up the county than Redruth had won either the newish Merit Table but more importantly the long established Challenge Cup.

This is what was written at the time in the local press of the game.

NEXT - Keep an eye out for "The Transformation of a team from losers to winners!"