Sports that put Newlyn in the Limelight: Open Day 12th October 2019

65 people attended the Open Day at the Centre in Newlyn. The promise of poor weather didn’t help attendance and there was some competition from the Lifeboat station who were holding their official opening. Despite that some people came to both the Lifeboat Station and the Open Day; we were given a programme of the Lifeboat event for the archive.

As it is the 100th anniversary of the Penlee Bowling Club this year, we highlighted Bowling and were delighted that the Bowling Club lent us some of their very fine framed photos of special events and famous members. One member of the club presented the archive with the booklet ‘Penlee Bowling Club 1919-2000, a millennium souvenir history’, apparently the only extant copy.
Rugby was also highlighted with a history of the Newlyn Rugby Football Club. The boards featured photos and information about the teams that played from 1897 through to 1939. There were some familiar Newlyn family names in the teams – Jelbert, Kneebone, Nicholls, Peake and many others.
The film show celebrated some of the sporting activities in and around Newlyn, including Gig boat racing, the Newlyn to Penzance swim, and the Newlyn Raft Race. The Raft race film included footage of a Bowls match at the Bowling Club and Model Yachting on the boating pool. The Rugby films showed in particular Newlyn’s very own Jack Nowells and there was footage of Helen Glover with the parade through Newlyn after her triumph at the Olympics. Other sports included Cornish Wrestling, Tug of War, Cricket, Lamorna Birch fishing and the now defunct Brixham Trawler Race.
What a wonderful team we have at the Archive to put this together and to provide such a friendly and informed welcome on the day.