SUPER SUNDAY RAISES OVER £13000 FOR HEART SCREENING!

Cumbrian players to benefit enormously from outpouring of support!

Sunday 25th June 2023 will go down as one of the most memorable and important days in the history of community support that Workington Town RLFC has ever been involved in!

In partnership and support of the Logan and Gary's Lions Heart fund an emotional day was capped by a superb performance on the field being matched by a superb outpouring of community spirit that resulted in over £13000 being raised to support heart screening for amateur players in Cumbria and in an outstanding gesture the committee chose to donate a significant amount back to the clubs charitable arm - The Workington Town Community Trust - 'Make a difference' so that we can continue to contribute locally in the community to enhance peoples life's.

The process began when Lisa Powe and Jordan Mattinson from the #LH7 committee were invited to meet by Town director Graeme Peers who asked if Town could support the fundraising!

What followed has been incredible and the wheels were in motion. First stage was to pick a date and the Midlands Hurricanes home game was chosen, what was quickly decided was that Town would play in a specially designed kit that Town would wear on the matchday and that was chosen after over 100 entries into a quickly arranged 'Design a kit competition' that would capture the attention of youngsters across the area and also raise awareness at a young age of why they were doing it.

A stunning shirt was produced and of into production it went with Ellgren who were fantastic in their support and replica shirts were put on pre-sale with 150 sold across the junior and adult sizes! An amazing start to the fundraising with all profits going to the fund.

Further detail was added to the day, Hensingham U12s arranged a game against Broughton Red Rose u12s, Logan Holgate was named in our matchday squad,bucket collections, raffles and Town agreed to donate 25p of every pint sold on the day of which there was 1092!

Ahead of the game the matchday squad received their playing shirts from Logan's family in the marquee, the kit designers received their own jersey as a gift and Town presented a Holgate 7 shirt to the family and also hosted the Holgate family and friends in the Tom Mitchell Lounge. In an incredibly emotional moment Fletcher Holgate brought the match day ball onto to the field of play with his young cousins Aston and Alvie, carrying the ball the way a natural rugby player does, one handed like it's glued to his fingers! The ball was signed after the game and given as a gift to the family.

The players had walked out to Logan's favourite song, Firpress printers kindly donated the matchday tribute programme and we were set for the game. Town as you know produced a clinical performance to win 60-10 in a day of wonderful moments, Luke Charlton, ex-Hensingham captain on home debut crashed over for a first pro try, Jordan Burns put brother Aaron in for a debut pro try and ex-Hensingham stars Jordan Thomson, Jason Mossop and Jake Bradley were at the forefront of Towns spirit and with man of the match Ciaran Walker again outstanding with ball in hand and 10/10 with the boot the day couldn't have gone much better, but it got even better! 

The Syndicate entertained the large crowd that had gathered in the marquee and after the matchday presentations had taken place everyone was ready for the live playing shirt auction. What followed was electric, an incredible collective show of generosity from the rugby league community with shirts going for a total of £8500 with Sean Sabutey's going for a new record of £1010 to Julie McFarland to cap a superb event! 

The relief and celebrations that the day had been a huge success was evident as officials from both clubs had a fun filled karoake competition with prominent performances from Joe Kirkup, Liam McNicholas and Ellis Postlethwaite but nobody steals Paul ' Slonedog' Slone's thunder and he took the win when he wowed the crowd to take the spoils!

A superb end to a superb day where Town, Hensingham ARLFC and many other community clubs come together to 'Make a difference' to the work of the Logan and Gary's Lions Heart fund. 

News will be coming shortly of how and where you can get heart screened! Please keep your eyes peeled on our website and social media channels!

Photo credit: Ben Challis