Local fisherman Nicholas Tregurtha was a St Ives and Cornwall county player who wasn’t high on skill, but had plenty of strength, was a good tackler and would always keep playing until the final whistle. He played for Cornwall, and made his début alongside St Ives team-mates John Trevaskis and Chicky Wedge in 1904. Tregurtha and Wedge were members of the Cornwall team who beat Durham 17-3 to win the 1908 County Championship, in which Tregurtha scored one of the winning team’s tries. He then played for Cornwall against the Australian tourists at Camborne just three weeks before the London Olympics. The following year, Tregurtha played for Cornwall against Durham in the County Championship final at West Hartlepool, but was this time was on the losing side. In 1912 he played for his county against the touring South Africans at Redruth, but suffered a bad injury. Having played 52 consecutive games for Cornwall, Tregurtha went to live and work in Canada in 1913, but returned just over a year later, and then continued playing rugby beyond his 40th birthday. He became president of the St Ives Old Boys RFC.
Great Britain