PENZANCE — It is half-time at Cornish Pirates’ Mennaye Field ground in Penzance, way out in the south-west of England, and Nick Knowles is throwing mini rugby balls into the crowd.
Wearing a bright-red Pirates fleece, Knowles twinkles in the floodlights – comfortable in making a case to a potentially sceptical public.
This pre-season friendly at home to Saracens feels like an evening-long pitch, as Knowles lays out why a TV presenter has become a co-owner of this club in Cornwall, and the exciting future he envisages for a huge county who have never had a team in the Premiership.
“I’ve spent my life telling stories, and not made-up stories,” Knowles says, as we break off from the second half to chat in a hospitality marquee.
“Twenty-six years on ‘DIY SOS’, telling stories of human fortitude and generosity and community. And here is a community that have kept this rugby club alive, because rugby is as much part of being Cornish as pasties and tin mines.”
