On Saturday the 18th of September Crosfields ARLFC and the Military community are celebrating the life of a true hero, a soldier, a rugby league player, a son, brother and friend. Tom Sephton was 20 and a soldier in the 1st Battalion the Mercian Regiment (Cheshire), he came from Great Sankey in Warrington and he lived for his rugby league. On Monday 5 July 2010, Private Thomas Sephton died in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, of wounds sustained during service in Afghanistan.

A Crosfields ARLFC Select team will host a Royal Engineer RL Select team in 80 minutes of Rugby League in memory of Private Tom Sephton. The Tom Sephton Memorial Trophy will be played for in aid of Help for Heroes, and will kick off at 3:00pm at Crosfields ARLFC’s Hood Lane ground in Great Sankey Warrington.

Along with the memorial match the event will also stage military displays, vehicles and stands including a 60 foot long inflatable assault course with 5 different sections to fight through, a paintball shooting range with real military targets, and archery for all the budding Robin Hoods out there, and much more.

An application for a fly past by the RAF’s Red Arrows display team has been made (They are taking part in the Southport Air Show - 20 miles away - on the same day and this is their only commitment ) – as this article is written their fly past is still subject to confirmation, but hopefully more details will follow.

The Hood Lane ground will be open at 12 noon and entrance is completely FREE! The Crosfields ARLFC clubhouse will be open with food and drink available to everyone.

Dignitaries from the Rugby Football League, Members of the House of Lords, The Members of parliament for Warrington, The Mayor of Warrington, Local Councillors and the Military have all given notice of their intention to attend.

The event will also supported in the media and attended and covered by the BBC , Granada Reports, Sky Sports TV and local radio and Newspapers and the Rugby League press.

Toms Parents, Angela Horn and Ian Sephton will present two awards on the day, firstly, the winning team will receive the Tom Sephton Memorial Cup, and secondly the team will be presented with the Tom Sephton Memorial Trophy – A figure of a Soldier and Mortar - Donated by the Mortar Platoon 1 MERCIAN. Which will remain in the Crosfields ARLFC Clubhouse.

It is envisaged that this trophy will be played for annually between an Armed Forces Rugby League Team and a Crosfields ARLFC Select.

Rugby Football League and Military dignitaries will also present medals to both teams and then make a special presentation to the match officials.

Great idea, hats off to the people organising it. I'll do my very best to attend.

Tom played at Crosfields in an Under 16s team that included Adam Neil (Warrington u20s currently on loan at Salford) and Alex Thompson (Warrington U20s) and it is this team that Tom Was part of at Crosfields that will make up the team that takes on the Royal Marines so all of the players will have had a personal connection with Tom.

Hope this goes well, sounds like a good day

Ladies and Gents;

This is going to be a special day....

changes are afoot!

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

[sizeTHE ARMY ARE COMING![/size
The Army Rugby League has deemed that The Tom Sephton Memorial Trophy match is of a much greater importance than initially announced. The Director of Army Community Rugby League, Major Richard Naivalurua, has stated that it deserves a MUCH higher profile.

To that end, The original Crosfields ARLFC opposition, A Royal Engineer Select 13 Team, has now been stood down, in their place a Full Strength ARMY Rugby League Select 13 will now take their place on the field.
Players in the ARMY Select side are coming from all over the UK, Northern Ireland and Europe and will feature soldiers from countries even further afield, of Fiji, South Africa and Australia.

Brigadier Andrew Sharpe OBE – The Colonel of the MERCIAN Regiment, (The regiment of the late Tom Sephton) will be amongst the military dignitaries in attendance – and will be bringing his ‘boots along in order to take part in the match himself! (Post match he will be amongst those presenting awards to the teams.)
This in itself is a major honour – it seems that Brigadier Sharpe may be the highest ranking military officer to ever play for an ARMY rugby representitive side!


THE CHALLENGE CUP IS COMING!!!!!!

Warrington Wolves RLFC have very kindly allowed Crosfields ARLFC to look after the CARNIEGE CHALLENGE CUP for a few hours on the day of the match.
The Cup will be on display outside of the Crosfields Clubhouse from 11
Along with all of the above the Big Crosfields Raffle has made a reappearance. Along with the usual array of top quality prizes on offer – signed Superleague and Championship players Rugby shirts, signed rugby balls and much much more,(Booze!) the star prize is a pair of VIP Corperate Tickets for the Superleague grand Final!!

Please come along and help make this a day to remember for all the right reasons.

A Mercian

RL at its very best

and i'll be mentioning the game during friday sports bulletins on the breakfast programme on Radio Merseyside and ive also sent it to BBC Radio Manchester to ask them to mention it during their output as well

REally looking forward to watching this game in memory of a true hero.

just wanted to say that although i wont be able to make it tomorrow, i hope the day goes extremely well! i played against tom in my days and am friends with the whole of the team he was a part of! this means a great deal to his family and is a brilliant gesture in all!

Whoever organised this well done, and good luck!

hope the people of Warrington give the occasion the time & effort that it truely deserves.To all the people who have & will be participating have a fantastic day & keep the Help for Heroes flag flying high in the name of Tom.

from everyone at RadioWarrington let the sun shine

regards

Gary

can anybody please let me know how the day went all in all, raffle and prizes etc, but more importantly amounts raised for hfh and also the score? thanks

Superb day yesterday, shame about the weather & a couple of no-shows from promised things (Red Arrows, didn't spot archery or paintballing or any army vehicles other than the Transit that got stuck in the mud on the side pitches...), but the game was a full blown committed one finishing 30-30 & hopefully much was raised.

Unfortunatley the weather (red arrows and army vehicles) broken generator (paintball) and health and safety (Archery) put pay to a few things but the day was a roaring success.

Total count isn't in yet but we are already at about £8,000 raised for help the heros.

The game was a full blooded afair and considering the Crosfields lads hadn't played together for 4 years in fact a lot of them hadn't picked up a ball in that time they aquitted themselves very well and did their mate Sefo proud.

brilliant, all i wanted to hear! shame i missed it!

thanks geordie!

Close but not quite Geordie ..... after much recounting of the many, many coins .... just to be 100% sure, the grand total that Crosfields ARLFC will be sending to Help for Heroes is .... £7659.86p ....... not bad if I do say so myself!!!!! 2.17041015625:5