Victories could be a real saver for supporters

WIDNES Vikings are never shy of coming up with innovative offers for their Stronghold members but the latest might prove to be the best yet.

In association with club partners Backhouse Group the club are offering a ‘two seasons for the price of one’ Early Bird membership deal – providing the team does the business on the field in 2017!

Supporters who sign up for a 2017 Stronghold Membership before November 5 will be able to claim a FREE 2018 membership if Widnes win 17 or more of their 30 ‘league’ fixtures next season. ‘League’ in this context means the regular Super League season (23 rounds) plus the seven extra rounds in either Super League or the Qualifiers – hence 30 games in total.

Luke Backhouse, owner of Backhouse Group, was the first to sign up for a 2017 Stronghold membership and he’s fully expecting to get his 2018 Membership for free – courtesy of himself!

Backhouse told the Weekly News: “I’m fully expecting to have to honour this offer.

“I don’t think we were that far off from getting the 17 wins this year really.

“I thought we had a bit of hard luck when we hit that losing streak after our great start to the season.

“There were a number of games which just tipped the wrong way which we might have won.

“We’ve added some players to the squad in the second half of the season and when we get the likes of Alex Gerrard and Eamon O’Carroll back, we’ll be stronger again.

“We’ve got some good youngsters coming through so I think the squad’s looking better.

“If you look back a few seasons, in a number of the games we were losing we were getting battered.

“You don’t see much of that now; even when we lose, the games tend to be quite close. We’re getting stronger every season.”

Having been a partner of the club for three years, Backhouse sees similarities between the progress the Vikings have made and the way he’s developing his own business.

He added: “I like the way Widnes Vikings are going about steadily improving their business and that’s what I’m doing with Backhouse Group.

“We’ve both got big ambitions but we’re not daydreamers. Stuff doesn’t just come all right overnight – you have to work at it.

“If you do that and you keep knocking on the door, eventually you’ll get the answer you want.” ● Full details of the Vikings 2017 Stronghold Membership packages can be found on the club’s website www.widnesvikings.co.uk