West Cumbrian rugby league fans will be especially pleased at the latest additions to the Rugby League Hall of Fame.
The first two inductees for 2024 into the sport’s most prestigious and exclusive club are James Lomas and Alan Prescott.
They will receive the greatest honour that Rugby League can bestow when they are inducted into the RL Hall of Fame at a gala dinner hosted by RL Cares at The Edge, Wigan, on Tuesday October 22.
A proud son of Maryport, Cumberland’s James ‘Jimmy’ Lomas was one of the brightest talents in the years following the birth of the Northern Union in 1895.
Alan Prescott played 404 times for St Helens between 1949 and 1960, mainly at prop, having begun his senior career as a 15-year-old winger with Halifax in 1945. He spent a short time in the early 1970s coaching Workington Town.
The dinner will also see four other players deemed to be the best of the best in the long and proud history of Rugby League be inducted into the hall of fame and more details will be released next week.
RFL chief executive Tony Sutton said: “We are proud and privileged to be able to acknowledge the important contributions made by the greatest players the game has ever seen.
“James Lomas and Alan Prescott are worthy entrants into the RL Hall of Fame, two players whose talent, dedication and achievements set the standard both in the eras in which they played and for all who followed them.
“We are also looking forward to revealing the names of the other new inductees next week, when more Rugby League legends will take their rightful place in the RL Hall of Fame.”
James Lomas
James ‘Jimmy’ Lomas was one of the brightest talents in the years following the birth of the Northern Union in 1895. In a stellar 24-year career at centre or on the wing with Bramley, Salford, Oldham and York, Lomas made 535 senior appearances, scoring 304 tries and kicking exactly 700 goals.
The Cumbrian twice broke the sport’s transfer record when he joined Salford from Bramley for £100 in 1901 and 10 years later moved to Oldham for a fee of £300.
He played in the sport’s first-ever international game, Northern Union vs Other Nationalities at Wigan in 1904, and became RL Lion Number 1 when he captained the first tour of the southern hemisphere in 1910. Lomas also captained the Northern Union twice against the 1911-12 Kangaroo tourists.
His 39 points for Salford in a match against Liverpool City in 1907 remains a club record.
James died in Manchester in February 1960, aged 80.
Alan Prescott
Alan Prescott made 404 appearances for St Helens between 1949 and 1960, mainly at prop, having begun his senior career as a 15-year-old winger with Halifax in 1945. He led Saints to victory at Wembley in 1956, winning the Lance Todd Trophy as player of the match in a 13-2 victory over his old club, Halifax.
He made 39 international appearances, 11 for England and 28 for Great Britain, 10 times as captain, including leading the 1958 Lions on a tour which saw him deliver one of the most remarkable and courageous performances in sporting history.
Great Britain had lost the first Test against Australia and had to win the second to keep their Ashes hopes alive. However, in just the fourth minute of the match in Brisbane, Prescott broke his right arm and in an era before substitutes were allowed, opted to stay on the field for the duration.
Through the coaching know-how of Jim Brough, the Workington Town coach who was in charge of the team, Prescott was moved from prop to scrum-half and carried on making tackles and dictating play throughout a brutal game with his right arm useless down by his side.
Britain’s stand-off Dave Bolton had to leave the field with a broken collar bone and three other players seriously injured.
Thanks to Prescott’s inspired leadership and Brough’s tactical acumen, the Lions won 25-18 to level the series before securing the Ashes with a 40-17 success in the third Test decider, after which Prescott, his arm in a sling, was carried around the Sydney Cricket Ground on the shoulders of the victorious tourists.
Alan died in September 1998. He was 71.
The pair become only the 36th and 37th players to be elevated into the RL Hall of Fame, which was established in 1988.
To be considered for entry into the RL Hall of Fame, players must have a record of outstanding achievement at the very highest levels of the game; possess a reputation that transcends the era in which they played; and have made a contribution to the game that will last as long as Rugby League is played.
Inductees are selected by a specially-convened panel comprising representatives from across the sport, including former international players, coaches, historians, administrators and media.
Ahead of the Rugby League World Cup in England in 2022, significant changes were made to the RL Hall of Fame induction procedure, to allow the consideration of women and wheelchair players – consistent with the staging of men’s, women’s and wheelchair competitions in sport’s most inclusive World Cup.
Two years ago, former Great Britain internationals Brenda Dobek, Lisa McIntosh and Sally Milburn had the honour of becoming the first three women to be inducted into the Hall of Fame alongside the distinguished quartet of Andy Farrell OBE, Adrian Morley, Clive Sullivan MBE and David Watkins.
