CORNWALL reached a county final at Twickenham for the first time in nine years by demolishing Eastern Counties at Camborne on Saturday, writes Nigel Walrond. A devastating first-half display had victory in the bag by the interval, and with Hertfordshire only beating Oxfordshire 42-3, the Duchy clinched the group by virtue of a far superior points difference. Cornwall ran in six tries, with Cornish All Blacks and former Liskeard-Looe No.8 Sam Hocking among those claiming touchdowns. It earns them a place in the County Shield final at Twickenham on Sunday, June 1, when they will face northern group section winners Northumberland with a 10.00am kick-off. It win also sees Cornwall return to the top flight of county rugby after a two-year absence, and next year they can look forward to what will effectively be the restoration of the old South West group, with Devon, Cornwall, Gloucestershire and Somerset all doing battle – a tremendous prospect for all those people who love county rugby. It should be a great day out at Twickenham, with the Shield game followed by the Bill Beaumont Cup final between Devon and Yorkshire, and then comes the England- Barbarians clash. Cornwall coaching co-ordinator Dave 'Benji' Thomas will be going back to Twickenham for a fourth time, and will be aiming to repeat his famous Twickenham success of 1991, 'I am very lucky to have been to Twickenham three times, unfortunately losing twice and winning once, but we are in a professional era, and I have had to re-learn after coming back in to try and set things up this year,' explained a delighted Thomas. 'What is better than getting back into Division One of county rugby, where we rightfully belong, and I bet there are people at Twickenham rubbing their hands, thinking "Cornwall are back!" 'But it is a different set-up to the amateur set-up when I went before. We now have players who are professional players in their own right, and it is a different ball game altogether to deal with those, as opposed to the players I had many years ago. 'It is a learning process for me, as much as for many of them, but the players are really up for it, and what a young squad we have got!' On last Saturday's victory, Thomas said:'The boys played fantastically well in the first half. It was textbook stuff really and you couldn't have asked for any more. 'They were really fired up for it. They were disappointed after the previous week's defeat and disappointed for all the supporters who went up to Hertfordshire to support them, and they were determined to put things right.'