Crowdfunding a real team effort in memory of Brian

WIDNES RUFC President Martin Griffiths has announced the closure of the Crowdfunding Appeal in memory of Brian Gill, who sadly passed away recently.

The Appeal raised the magnificent sum of £6,150 with the monies received to be split between Whiston ICU, and grass roots rugby within Widnes, Cheshire the Wids and Halton Hornets.

The Club’s tribute to ex-team mate Brian Gill, a 64-year-old victim of Covid-19, became an unexpected travelogue of selfies with contributions that circled the globe and trekked from the North to the South of England, and, which, can now be seen on YouTube.

Lockdown prevented a mass gathering at the club but former captain Andy O’Neill felt that an appropriate alternative would be to ask Brian’s friends to take pictures of themselves running, walking or cycling five kilometres within the restrictions of the pandemic. By fitting coincidence, a circular walk from the defunct Halton RUFC via Birchfield RUFC to Widnes RUFC measured exactly that distance. This route took in Widnes Golf Club where Brian spent much of his post-Rugby leisure time.

The message went over the Irish Sea to Wids players in Belfast where Brian had played for Malone Rugby Club, then the Atlantic Ocean to Alabama and across the USA to Oregon. Next stop was New Zealand before heading for the Sunshine Coast and around to Western Australia with one call on the way. The passage home to the UK took in Brunei, Dubai and Belgium.

The British leg traced an indirect path from North West to South East, starting from Blackpool’s golden mile, heading to New Brighton and into North Wales, Shifnal in Shropshire, back up towards Delamere Forest and along the Dee in Chester before arriving at Halton, home of the majority involved.

Photos taken in the area include the newly reopened Silver Jubilee Bridge, Spike Island, Runcorn Hill Park, Pickering’s Pasture, Pex Hill and, just across the border in St Helens, the Dream. The Trans-Pennine trail followed the canals from Penketh to Lymm Dam and Salford, travelling across the moors to Bradford and Leeds. A visit to Hertfordshire and a Thames-side run in the City of London were the last halts before coming to the final destination where Brian had played in his Army days - the RFU’s HQ at Twickenham.

The video compilation can be seen on widnesrufc. com, Facebook and YouTube “Widnes RUFC - 5k for Bri”.

Elsewhere, there has been more information coming out of Heath Road over this last week, and whilst rugby currently remains off the agenda, there is some hope that the continuing roadmap to recovery, will see an eventual return to live action on the field perhaps by the Autumn.

A restart date of March 29 under adapted rules still remains in place, but with each passing day and restrictions only being lifted slowly that date looks wildly optimistic, with September now considered to be more likely. In the meantime, never afraid to try and innovate, the Lancashire County Rugby Leagues have developed a concept of ‘virtual’ ADM Micro Leagues to create some fun and interest amongst Clubs, players and supporters alike during this long period of inactivity.

The format - now at the play-off stages - involved taking results from previous years, in this case 1998 2019. The League Committee, then chose a random season and take the points scored by each club on the corresponding date to provide a ‘result’. However, things didn’t turn out too well for the Heath Road outfit.

Despite having remained unbeaten in the real world since September 2018, they were shocked to find themselves on the wrong end of most of their virtual games.

Competing in the Mersey East Group of Conference West, they ended up securing just one win and a draw from their eight matches and therefore missing out on qualification for the latter stages of the competition.

That said, if any motivation were ever needed for when the real action does eventually start again, then this was it.

The Wids have a long and proud record to maintain and this competition will have the ‘red-and-blacks’ champing on the bit and in search of a third successive league title!