Sporting Success

Bill Shankley is a man best remembered for winning countless trophies as manager of Liverpool Football Club in the 1960s and 70s, as well as giving the world the immortal words, ‘football is not a matter of life and death, its much more important than that’.

However Shankley honed his managerial skills at Workington Reds from January 1954 until October 1955. During which time he led the club to their best league finish to date; eighth in the old Division Three North. Workington’s players today enjoy post-match drinks in the Shankley Bar after completing matches.

Today, as in Shankley’s time, the Reds have to compete with Workington Town, the Rugby League club, for support. Today Town are still going strong as a professional club in the Northern Ford Premiership and Tony is pictured at an annual awards ceremony. However, their glory days were in the 1950s.

At this time a team packed full of internationals were runners up in the Rugby League Championship in 1958 and appeared at Wembley three times in Challenge Cup final, winning in 1952.

Malcolm Wilson has achieved great sporting things more recently. He is Managing Director of M-Sport, based in Cockermouth and employing around 160 people. When the Ford World Rally Team won the Mexico Rally in 2004 it was the 100th World Rally Championship event M-Sport had won since taking over the Ford engineering contract in 1997.

Those in Aspatria are proud of their Rugby Union club’s long history as it was founded in 1875 – just 4 years after the formation of the RFU and 16 years before the birth of Celia Leith, who was later the most renown female golfer of her day and whose “home” course was to be found in Silloth.

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