Impetus are hugely excited to announce an official partnership between ourselves and Penryn Athletic Ladies FC, who play in the seventh tier Earthbound Electric Cornwall Women’s Football League. The partnership involves regular features with key members of the squad and officials about how the club and players are progressing. Impetus founder Ben Gilby launched the partnership by having a chat with club player-manager Yaina Andrew.
Yaina and I started our conversation by discussing the history of women’s football in the historic town of Penryn, situated less than three miles from Falmouth.
“I set up the women’s team between five and six years ago now,” reveals Yaina. “I used to play for Mullion but it was quite a lot of travelling from Penryn each week. Me and my friend Bethany Hibbs who also lived in Penryn thought we should set up a team for the Penryn and Falmouth community. We had a look around for coaches and managers and started at Mabe, two miles outside of Penryn. We trained six months before the season had started just in case we couldn’t raise a side.”
“For the first four months of training we only had between two and five ladies attending each week, at this point it was not looking good! I didn’t want to give up on the idea and felt like we had to carry on training regardless of numbers (which would show commitment and how serious we were to start this team). Two months before the season was about to commence, we then started to receive a ton of interest from the local community and Falmouth University Students. We had a great first season at Mabe with between ten to thirteen ladies. As a team we wanted to progress so we moved the whole team together to Penryn AFC where David Baker (Bates) could provide a lot more for us, such as sponsorship, free facilities, a clubhouse, food and drink after the game, ground maintenance and help with league and cup funding. Since being at Penryn, we have been able to attract more players because of the great facilities and pitch there, we have grown so much from when we first started. Obviously we have had our ups and downs as most teams do but we always manage to pull through the other side both better and stronger. We now have a strong and striving team of between sixteen and twenty-six brilliant ladies and an ever growing community of support!”
Like pretty much every women’s club, Penryn Athletic Ladies have had to cope with hugely uncertain times since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. However, Yaina reveals how the club kept the team links strong during the most difficult periods: “When the first lockdown was announced, we were absolutely gutted because we couldn’t finish off our season however we didn’t lose team spirit. Initially each week, which eventually turned into every night, the girls would go online and we would play quizzes and games against each other. After lockdown we were quick to go back to training, starting off pre-season strongly with full commitment. This showed in the friendly matches and the league matches as both fitness levels and morale were high. Unfortunately, the second lockdown came mid-season and therefore means we have no training time to catch up on any fitness and ball control lost before returning to matches. However, myself and the coach have been sending skills and fitness drills out for the ladies to achieve each week.”
Women’s football in Cornwall has some added extra hurdles to clear that may not necessarily be there in other parts of the UK – the geographic location meaning that it takes over an hour and a half just to get out of Cornwall should the club ever go higher in the league system – and the fact that the Duchy, and Penryn in particular is a Rugby Union stronghold. Yaina highlights some of the issues she had at the start of her own career: “Even though women’s football in Cornwall may have not been as popular than in other places up-country, we did still have the option to play and compete in youth matches. I just don’t think there was the support, funding and facilities in place for ladies teams like there is today. When I first started playing ladies football at the age of 14, there were only around five teams in the league and only one division. Now we have around sixteen teams in the Cornwall Women’s Football League which is split into two divisions with the option to go up to the South-West Women’s League as well. Rugby is and always has been a popular sport especially in Penryn, I myself know this coming from a family of rugby men. Due to the rich history of rugby in Penryn (the town’s rugby club regularly went toe to toe with some of the sport’s biggest clubs over the years – including a game against the British & Irish Lions), it would be impossible for football to compete with so many successful international rugby players. Despite this, the two sports see no challenges from each other and the community is harmonious in its support for both.”
Yaina highlighted earlier just how important the link up was with Penryn AFC men’s side, so I asked her further about the relationship between the men’s and women’s teams: “The relationship between the teams is constantly building, we have a few supporters each week from the men’s side which is starting to grow. We also like to watch the men play as well, which gives us an insight of how they manage and run their teams. We share our equipment and facilities and they also offer assistance with training. All teams get on really well and we are happy to be a part of Penryn Athletic FC.”
With league football about to recommence after the second lockdown, it felt like the perfect time to discuss the club’s season to date in the Cornwall Women’s Football League: “We have started off the season brilliantly, we have won three and lost three games. However, we are determined to improve before the second half of the campaign comes around. We’re very committed this season more than any other season due to a large number of ladies training and playing each week. We are definitely looking to finish the season in the top half, as long as the commitment levels stay high and the ladies have maintained their fitness through this second lockdown.”
With the club well established in Tier Seven, we were keen to know more about the Cornwall Women’s Football League (CWFL): “We love being in the CWFL, we love representing our County and the league has always been ran excellently with some brilliant representatives,” Yaina says.
“Of course we would love to move up to the South-West League and the more teams that actually move up the better, the quality of football is getting better, we have lost two players to Plymouth Argyle’s 1st team and one player to America. The more teams that excel will hopefully help with funding down here, enabling more youth teams for girls which will feed into the ladies. Each season we vote for what we want the season to look like. This season the vote was for a South and West league rather than a divisional split by ability. Last season we had such a low that we wanted to have a divisional split where we could regroup and build our confidence back up, however that was not the case. We actually got put into the South split and against some very good teams, luckily in pre-season we had a new manager, more players and a fresh start and we’re now proud of ourselves and how far we’ve come.”
We had talked about coronavirus, geography and competing with Rugby Union as all hurdles to overcome for Penryn Athletic, but there are a couple of other challenges that Yaina highlighted: “The biggest challenges in sport altogether is lack of participation. Penryn Athletic men used to have four teams and now they only have two teams, the same for Rugby and Cricket in the town. Today children and young adults would rather play online on Xbox and PlayStation than go outside. This could become a really big problem for clubs because they would have to shut down if no money from the bar etc is coming in.”
Another issue is one which all grassroots clubs can identify with – but particularly in Cornwall: “Income is another really big one! Petrol, subs, training facilities and referee fees are all funded from each individual player however this could become unaffordable if we moved to the South-West Women’s League due to our location. It takes us eighty plus miles to get out of Cornwall as well as travelling time therefore this can put off some players. Our club is kind enough to pay for our league,county fees and insurance but the club itself, as many are these days, is struggling due to the lack of funding, volunteers and income.”
At the present time, Penryn Athletic do not have a girls team, although it is not for want of trying: “We have tried to start up a Penryn Girls Youth team however it was unsuccessful, this was due to the girls from Penryn College being involved in so many sports with the school that the days kept clashing, Yaina explained.
“We do have the support and equipment in place and this is something we are still looking at doing for next season. This would really benefit us if we put this in place and help keep Penryn Ladies running in the future.”
Penryn Athletic Ladies rely on a small but exceptionally loyal band of volunteers keeping the show on the road. “It’s really just myself, Bethany Hibbs and Hannah Batt that have kept the team going for so many years. We were the first to arrive and I can’t imagine any of us leaving now until we retire (which will be never!). Without them I couldn’t have done this and we always knew if no one else came to training, there would at least be us three musketeers!”
More widely in the club, within the Penryn Athletic Men’s teams, there are so many that help behind the scenes, the treasurer, the chairman, the club president, the secretary and the vice chairman. All of which have done an amazing job of keeping the club running and giving up their own time to do so as well as supporting the ladies when needed. However, there has to be a special mention to David Baker (Bates) and Tom Blewett for always being there from the beginning, offering support, guidance and knowledge. Bates has helped us train, watches our matches, offered us work and included us in as much as he can. He is excellent at what he does and we couldn’t have done it without him! Tom Blewett is also a massive support for the ladies team, he started off helping us train and running our line, now he manages alongside Will on match days. He has always been our number one fan and would do anything to help us out.”
“I would also want to say a massive thank you to our team Penryn Ladies for always being loyal, committed and just a great team to play with and to anyone that has sponsored us, helped us and supported us. It is always massively appreciated.”
The conversation concluded by looking at where Penryn Athletic Ladies would ideally like to be in five years. “We would love to win the CWFL, have two successful teams and a youth team, said Yaina. We would also love to build our fan base and see more supporters in the stands on Sundays. We would love to play in the South-West League and have our own mini bus to minimise travel costs for the ladies. As long as the team has the same commitment and happiness as it has now, then anything else would be a bonus.”
Impetus will be checking in on the fortunes of Penryn Athletic Ladies every month when we will meet different players and characters from the club, find out about their progress on the pitch, what goes on off the pitch and just what it’s like to play tier seven women’s football.
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