Glen Burgess is hoping that the 25th anniversary of a Workington success story will kickstart the Championship season for Town.
Burgess was coach of the Workington Town Academy side which won their age group Championship in 1997.
To mark the occasion the majority of people involved in that triumph are holding a reunion as special guests for Town’s home game with Batley Bulldogs on Sunday (ko 2pm).
A Leeds and Great Britain legend Garry Schofield is also a special guest for the day, and will be speaking to sponsors before the game, as well as Workington-raised ex-Warrington utility back Jon Roper who ended his career at Town.
Burgess, delighted that the team is being recognised for its achievement 25 years on, had taken over from Dave Smith as Academy coach after the late Kevin Gartland had been the first man in charge.
He says: “We only had four players to start with so I had a bit of recruiting to do, players that I knew about and I thought that they would have a chance in the game.
“In the end we had 25 in the squad and two of them, Stuart Rickerby and Malcolm Christie were the first that Town put on a Scholarship scheme. Mark Wallace and Craig Armstrong went on to play for the first team.
“I think our success was down to having a close knit group running the team – Barry Earl, a member of the board acted as Academy director; Keith Singleton did a great job as manager; Ian Humphreys was our physio and trainer while I did the coaching.
“It hadn’t got off to good start when we lost our first game to Hunslet and when we were getting beat at Dewsbury it didn’t look good. But we rallied and won the game and that really was the turning point.
“We only lost once more after that, to Prescot, and we clinched the final game by winning at Cardiff after Hunslet had lost their final game.
“There were two overnight stops, too, when we played at Cardiff and Hemel Hempstead and for much of the season we were self-supporting.
“It will be great to see the lads again on Sunday and as far as I know the vast majority are going to be there.”
Town are still looking for their first Championship win of the season and Burgess says: “It would be terrific if they could get those first points of the season while we are there.”
