Formed a few years after local rivals Redruth in 1878, Camborne have had an impressive season, gaining promotion back to South West Division Two. The clubs colours are cherry and white hence the clubs nickname ‘The Cherries’. As with other Cornish teams including Redruth the team originally consisted of mostly local miners. The majority worked at the local Dolcoath mine which at the time was the deepest mine in Britain at 1006 metres. The club motto – “An Gwary Ha Tra Nathen” is Cornish for “The Game And Nothing Else”.
The first game was played in the late 1870’s against Penzance & Newlyn in front of some 600 spectators. During the early times, one of Camborne’s best years was in 1909 when they were the top Cornish club and the following year no other Cornish club managed to score a try against the club.
In the 1920’s the club was on a massive high, before and after the game the teams would get dressed in hotels in the town and walk to the game behind the towns band. This produced a brilliant atmosphere and in 1924 around 19,000 supporters watched the game between Cornwall and the touring New Zealand ‘All Blacks’ team. Local derbies and other important matches drew crowds in excess of 5,000 regularly.
In the following decades the club did not manage to be as successful. One of the team’s players John Collins was picked to play full back for England in 1952. It was not until the late 1970’s that the club managed to stage its revival. Camborne then managed to win the Cornish league and cup on numerous occasions during the 1970’s and 1980’s. One of the teams most well known players Andy Reed joined the club in 1987 and went on to play for Bath RFC, Scotland and even represented the British Lions.
When the National Leagues were formed in 1987, Camborne were placed by the RFU as the highest Cornish team in the then called National Division 4 South. This placed the team in the top 50 teams in the country and they managed to stay in the league until 1995/96. After this relegation the club rapidly descended through the leagues until they ended up in Western Counties West in 2002. They managed to gain promotion from the league this year and hopefully this will kick start their rise back into the higher divisions.