Page 22 - Ashton & Backwell FC v Mousehole 130822

Today’s Visitors

Founded in September 1922 at a meeting in the Ship Inn, the club adopted a green kit
based on the local Keigwin family coat of arms. Green is still the colour today.
With no suitable flat ground available in the steep-sided harbour village, matches were
played half a mile away at the top of Raginnis Hill. According to one match report, this
venue was “…..wild and wayward, a veritable ‘hell fire corner,’ with a blustery bully of a
wind blowing up from Land’s End…..”.
Mousehole AFC were first nicknamed The Fishermen – changing in the 1950s to The
Seagulls, as now. The sea, visible from all the places they have called home, has played
a prominent role in its history.
In the mid-1920s, local fishermen out in their boats would be alerted of the team’s result
via a flag mast from a house named White Hall. For an important League Cup tie in
1953, Leslie Torrie, arriving back after days at sea on the Lyonesse, was whisked away
in a car driven by goalkeeper Owen Ladner, up to Raginnis where he then scored the
winning goal against Helston. The team also featured Leslie’s brother Basil, described
as “filling up the middle of the field like a row of houses”.
The post-war years were an exciting time for the club. Mousehole Carnival, the
resurrection of Tom Bowcock’s Eve, and a thriving HQ near the harbour in Duck Street
– formerly used for curing and exporting pilchards - kept them on a healthy financial
footing with spirits high. The team of the 1950s, “….slippery as eels, tough as congers,
tenacious as lampreys…..” even entered the prestigious FA Amateur Cup on six
occasions.
For two seasons Mousehole played at Barwinney Park, behind the King’s Arms Pub in
Paul, but, unable to secure it as a permanent venue, they moved back to Raginnis. In
the early 1950s, a plan to reclaim marshland at Trungle Moor on the edge of the village
of Paul was first discussed by the local Council, but the club did not move there until
1960……and it remains their home to this day.
Mousehole were continuous members of the Cornwall Combination League from 1960
until 2007. They had some good seasons, with several top-three League finishes and
three League Cup runners-up spots. The 1975/76 season saw a ‘double silverware’
haul: a League Cup final triumph against Illogan, followed by winning the Eveley Cup,
contested between the winners of the ‘Combo’ and ECL Cups (Foxhole) – after which
Manager Jimmy Richards was seen driving round Penzance holding the Cup aloft out of
the car window for all to see.
In August 1987 a doubly significant event took place: a friendly match against Alex
Ferguson’s Manchester United, arranged to celebrate the club’s purchase of the freehold
of the six-acre site. This was the successful outcome of a persistent campaign (since
1971!) by John Payne, aka “Billy Boot”.
In 2007, Mousehole’s First team finished high enough to qualify for the newly-formed
South West Peninsula League. As members of Step 7 Division One West, they were
record-breaking champions in 2015/16, as well as Cornwall Charity cup
winners. They repeated that Cup win two seasons later.
Energised by this taste of success, the club launched a new strategy in 2017 to
progress in an ambitious, financially sound and sustainable way. The plans
included major development of the ground, support for the First team to climb
up the League ladder, and the creation of a Youth section. To kick-start this
bold approach, Trungle Parc hosted a talented Leeds United Xl, followed later by a
weekend tournament involving the youth teams of Bolton Wanderers, Huddersfield
Town and Newcastle United.
With the FA’s recent re-structuring of Steps 4 to 6 of the National League System,
Mousehole’s First team has been promoted twice in three years - on both occasions as
a result of playing record and ground facilities.