SIX new inductees to be added to the Woolston Rovers Hall of Fame have been revealed.<\/p>\n
The sextet will be officially inducted at the club\u2019s season launch dinner next month.<\/p>\n
Ray Pickersgill, John Tilling, Chris Lawton, Gary McKean, Jon Cole and John Welch are the new additions, spanning three distinct eras – 1959-1980, 1981-2000 and 2001-present.<\/p>\n
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Former inductees conducted the voting process.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll six inductees have played a significant role, both on and off the pitch for the club, and thoroughly deserve this recognition,\u201d says a club statement.<\/p>\n
Pickersgill and Tinning are to be inducted from the 1959-1980 era.<\/p>\n
A stalwart of the side in the late 1960s and 1970s as a strong running and hard-tackling prop who never took a backward step, Pickersgill was a powerhouse in the pack along with his brother Roy.<\/p>\n
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He is still a prominent member of the club\u2019s past players association.<\/p>\n
Tilling was a goal-kicking winger who regularly topped the point-scoring charts for the club during the 1970s.<\/p>\n
He was fast, had a great sidestep and kicked goals for fun after coming through the successful under 19s side of the early 1970s.<\/p>\n
After he finished playing he coached several open-aged sides.<\/p>\n
Lawton and McKean\u2019s selections represent the 1981-2000 era.<\/p>\n
Coaches knew what they would get from Lawton, a player who always gave 100 per cent and when the going got tough in the forwards he put his hand up in both attack and defence with his never-say-die attitude.<\/p>\n
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McKean was Woolston\u2019s first-choice hooker during one of their most successful eras, in the 1980s.<\/p>\n
He was an 80-minute grafter who was always near the top of the tackle counts.<\/p>\n
\u2018Gaz\u2019 famously landed the drop goal in a 1-0 win over Wigan St Patricks.<\/p>\n
Onto the 2001-present era, Cole and Welch, with the former making his debut in the open-age first team at 17 and never looked back.<\/p>\n
Equally at home in the back row or at centre, he came through the junior ranks and went on to represent Great Britain.<\/p>\n
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Jon Cole, back in 2011 when he was Woolston Rovers vice-captain (Image: Mike Boden)<\/p>\n
Welch, who started at the club in the 1990s but his contribution spanned well into the 2000s, was a strong runner and excellent goalkicker who started life in the backs but as time went on transitioned into a formidable front-row forward.<\/p>\n
He was instrumental in steering Woolston to move to Monks Sports Club and eventually became chairman for a period of time.<\/p>\n
After a few years away he came back and played in the National Conference League side when in his 50s.<\/p>\n
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Woolston\u2019s annual season launch dinner will take place at Warrington Masonic Hall, Winmarleigh Street, on Saturday, February 7 at 7pm.<\/p>\n
Also on the season-launch evening, coaches Liam Lawton and Craig Woolvine will be outlining their hopes and aspirations for the forthcoming season, with the first team featuring in a revamped league \u2013 the North West Conference – which starts against town rivals Crosfields at Monk Sports Club on Saturday, March 7.<\/p>\n
The North West Men\u2019s League side are looking to regroup after \u00a0last season\u2019s difficulties and Rovers will be running an under 18s side again.<\/p>\n
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There will also be heritage numbers handed out to numerous players who have represented the Green and Gold with distinction over the years.<\/p>\n
Tickets are now on sale, \u00a325 each. To reserve a place, contact Dave Whalley, either by phone call or text on 07809 647014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SIX new inductees to be added to the Woolston Rovers Hall of Fame have been revealed. The sextet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,211576,211583,183948,211581,211578,211577,211580,211582,211579,760,85,211575],"class_list":{"0":"post-396917","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-chris-lawton","11":"tag-gary-mckean","12":"tag-inductees","13":"tag-john-tilling","14":"tag-john-welch","15":"tag-jon-cole","16":"tag-liam-lawton","17":"tag-pickersgill","18":"tag-ray-pickersgill","19":"tag-rugby","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-woolston-rovers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}