The Logan Holgate LH7 memorial game in West Cumbria between Hensingham and Kells served up a feast of rugby league as a season opener, writes Ben Challis.
It celebrated the life of Logan, the former Hensingham youth captain at Under 16s and Under 18s, open age player, and member of the England Community Lions Under 19s side which won the European Championships in Italy in September 2022, who died in 2023.
Watched on by Logan’s older brother Ellison, now a Whitehaven RLFC player, and with younger brother Fletcher playing for Hensingham, this was a cracker of a match, with a large and vocal crowd cheering on both sides.
It was Kells who opened the scoring with their first set as Keelen Parr sprinted clear on the right wing and dived over, with the try converted by Ross Gainford for an excellent start.
That was it for the scoring for the next half an hour as the game was tightly fought and end to end, and even though Hensingham began to dominate possession, excellent Kells’ defence stifled and frustrated every Hensingham attack, and five minutes before half time Kells’ Blaine Graham went over for an unconverted try, and it was 0-12 at the break.
On a glorious afternoon of warm sunshine, the second half was more of the same, with two well matched sides battling with pride and passion in a very even game.
Despite more Hensingham pressure, the Kells defence held, and the visitors took their chances in attack with both Harry Watson and Lewis Smith adding tries, Smith somehow just squeezing inside the corner flag on the left wing without going into touch.
With one conversion added by Grant Gainford, Kells now had what looked like a decisive 0-20 lead. Hensingham finally got on the scoreboard when Jaylen Conway sprinted through on the left wing and dived over, with an excellent conversion added by Adam Williamson for the final score of 6-20 to Kells.
Kells were worthy winners on the day, with the trophy presented by Logan’s aunt, Lisa Powe, to Kells’ captain Ryan Watson, with Lisa commenting that Logan would have loved to see all of his friends from both clubs battling it out on the rugby field, but the result would have annoyed him!
