This Saturday (May 21, 2015), Penzance and Camborne Cricket Clubs celebrate 100 years of playing unbroken cricket within the Cornwall Cricket League structure.  These are the first two clubs in the county to achieve this milestone and, co-incidentally, they meet this Saturday in the first round of the Premier League matches at St Clare, with the match starting at 1:00pm.  For those eagle eyed thinking this event should have been held 10 years ago, the discrepancy is due to the cessation of league cricket over the two World War years.

Marking the moment, and celebrating the 100 years of cricket the club are launching a crowdfunding campaign to reach out to the community to help fundraise for a new electronic scoreboard. 

The existing scoreboard was opened in April 1977, but many of the numbers are either broken or cracked, and the old mechanical housing units for the numbers have rusted out over time.  The cost to replace these units have made this prohibitive, and the Club have taken the decision to upgrade the scoreboard to an electronic system and bring the facility into the 21st century.

Brian Richards from the Penzance Cricket Club said: “We are extremely proud, and excited, to mark this incredible moment in our history with an exciting game and the launch of our Crowdfunder campaign. We are looking to not only gain support from our local community, but also to engage and connect further to ensure that cricket in Cornwall stays high on the agenda for the next 100 years!”

Graeme Roy, Head of Marketing at Crowdfunder, added: “It’s awesome to see the Penzance Cricket Club project go live with Crowdfunder (as part of our campaign Cornwall Cricket campaign) and we are looking forward to seeing the Penzance (local and sporting) community support them with their new Score Board. This is one of the first Cornwall Cricket crowdfunder campaigns that we are supporting and we wish the club the very best for their fundraising project.”

Although Penzance Cricket Club was formed in 1829, the only games played were either local friendly matches or representative matches.  However, in 1905, it was agreed to provide a more formalised and structured game in the county, by setting up the Cornwall Cricket League.  This comprised the east and west sections, and both Penzance and Camborne Cricket Clubs were founder members of the western section league.  

Both clubs have been prominent in the league since it's inception, being the dominant forces in Cornish cricket in the 1960's and 1970's.  

To acknowledge this landmark, former players from both clubs are invited to the game to meet up and reminisce on past fortunes.  Dignitaries from the Cornwall Cricket League, Penzance Town Council and Camborne Cricket Club have been invited to celebrate the occasion by taking tea with Penzance Cricket Club officials.