White welcomes ‘dad’ Craig home on red-letter day
RECORD-BREAKER GOES FULL CIRCLE
ESTATE AGENT Ben White is looking to sell his ‘dad’ Craig Lingard a dummy on a landmark day in Batley colours.
Half-back White will break the club record for successive appearances when he plays his 104th straight game in today’s Challenge Cup sixth-round clash with Castleford.
Fittingly, the Championship part-timers are facing their old head coach Lingard, a Batley legend who left for the Super League outfit last year.
White has played every game for the Bulldogs since Lingard signed him from Barrow in 2020 – leading to some team-mates crying nepotism.
White said: “There was a bit of a running joke. No matter who we played, I was always on the teamsheet.
“Some lads said tongue-incheek that I’m Linners’ son. It’s quite comical.
“But it’s nice it’s gone full circle: my first Batley appearance was under Craig and now my 104th consecutive one for the record is against him.”
It is a remarkable run, especially given White often plays the entire 80 minutes.
He said: “It’s more down to luck with injuries and I’m quite versatile, which helps.
“Also, being an estate agent, I’m not on the tools like most of the lads. When I have to get up for work on a Monday, I don’t have to go straight to a building site in the cold and wet.
“But I’m pretty consistent as well. I put that down to my German engineering!”
His mum is German and met his dad while he was stationed there with the army. White came through Leeds’ academy and made a solitary Super League appearance in 2014 before joining Swinton.
It is in the second tier where he has forged a career but now the Germany international is looking to cause an upset against Super League strugglers Castleford, who have lost their first five matches under Lingard to sit 11th in the table.
Batley have not beaten the Tigers since 1961 but White said: “We’ve nothing to lose: a Super League team coming to little old Batley?
“We just want to go out, express ourselves and play some good rugby. We played Hull KR last year which didn’t work out too well [a 50-0 defeat]. We’re hoping for a better performance.
“Anything can happen in the Cup. I was part of the Swinton team that beat Huddersfield [in 2017] and, in 2019, the Halifax side that defeated London when they were in Super League.”