This Sunday’s derby clash against Workington Town will be special for some famous names in Whitehaven’s club history.
The League One clash with their neighbours will see the release of Haven’s first heritage numbers.
Six of the club’s former players or their relatives will be presented with heritage certificates.
The sterling work of former club statistician, the late Brian Sharples, has allowed his good friend and successor Bob Sewell to compile the numbers.
Brian spent hundreds of hours collating and checking rugby league records as well as the local and RL press to accurately record stats for every first team player and game in Haven’s 77-year history.
In total, 885 players have made a first team appearance for Haven since the club’s first game on August 21 1948.
Each of those players has been given a heritage number corresponding with the date of their Haven debut.
Fittingly, Haven’s legendary fullback John J McKeown, the club’s record appearance holder and points scorer has been allocated heritage number 1.
John’s granddaughter Suzanne McKeown will collect his certificate on behalf of the McKeown family.
Phil Kitchin, Eddie Bowman, Peter Donnelly and Ralph Calvin will also be present to collect their certificates, while Gordon Cottier’s daughter Leanne will collect her dad’s certificate on behalf of the Cottier family.
Bob and David Seeds, the newly formed Ex-Players Association representative will present the certificates during the half-time interval.
