AS 2023 comes to a close, we’re taking a month-by-month look at the sporting year that was in Warrington.
Today, we look back at October and despite Warrington Wolves’ season being over, there was still plenty to talk about…
INTERNATIONAL rugby league took centre stage in October, with Wire players heavily involved as England whitewashed Tonga.
Matty Ashton got his first international tries and crossed the whitewash three times in two appearances, while Ben Currie also got on the scoresheet in the third Test at Headingley.
Danny Walker and Daryl Clark interchanged at hooker for all three games while George Williams returned from suspension to skipper the side in the final game of the series.
Back at their club, new head coach Sam Burgess touched down in the country to get down to business ahead of the start of pre-season while Josh Thewlis scooped the Super League Young Player of the Year award – the first Warrington player to do so since Lee Briers back in 1997.
The winger, who was called into the England squad for the third Tonga Test but did not end up playing, beat teammate Matty Nicholson and Wigan’s Brad O’Neill to the honour.
The club’s academy side headed Down Under for a once-in-a-lifetime tour of Australia, with a series of Wire legends lending a hand along the way, while the PDRL side lifted the Super League crown once again by beating Wakefield in the Grand Final.
The amateur game saw Woolston Rovers earn promotion to Division One of the National Conference League in dramatic fashion, with Craig Lawton’s late penalty securing a 14-12 win at Shaw Cross Sharks in a nervy Division Two play-off final.
The other rugby code saw former Lymm Rugby Club junior Alex Mitchell don the England jersey and form a key part of their run to the Rugby World Cup semi-finals.
The scrum-half, who plays his club rugby for Northampton Saints, started five of the six matches Steve Borthwick’s side played in France, including the agonising loss to eventual champions South Africa that denied them a spot in the final.
In football, goalkeeper Dan Atherton provided perhaps the highlight of the month for Warrington Town as he emerged as an unlikely goalscoring hero by scoring a last-gasp equaliser to rescue a 1-1 draw with Farsley Celtic at Cantilever Park.
Former Lymm High School student Nathan Lowe earned a call-up to the England under 19s side as a result of his displays for Stoke City in the Championship having scored his first senior goal during a 3-2 win at Bristol City.
Meanwhile, there was success on a couple of fronts in Muay Thai, with Longford brothers Connor and Lewis Shaw and Latchford’s Daisy Sumpton all winning world medals.
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