BOROUGH PARK MEMORIES: And now for something completely different

We are all fully aware that Borough Park has been the home of Workington AFC since 1937, became Workington Town’s headquarters after the Second World War and has even been the film set for the 1940 production, ‘The stars look down’.

But Borough Park has been used for many other activities including rugby union, rugby league, athletics, cricket, yes cricket, with markets and car shows held outside the stadium too.

Helicopters have used the centre circle as a landing pad on numerous occasions with the likes of David Bellamy and Noel Edmunds ‘flying’ into the town for special guest appearances.

But in the summer of 1981 the ground hosted a ‘Superstars’ competition – an imitation of a popular TV series of the same name.

The competition was based on the gathering of ten athletes from different sports who would then compete in different skill sets against each other.  If their own sport featured, they had to sit out that particular activity.

Reds commercial director, the late Kevin Harkins, had the wonderful idea of bringing the event to Workington and his cast of top sportsmen included Geoff Capes (shot putter who regularly competed for Great Britain), Lynn Davies (long jumper who won gold medals in the Olympics, European Championships and Commonwealth Games), John Sherwood (Great Britain 400m hurdler who won an Olympic bronze), David Wilkie (swimmer and an Olympic gold medal winner) and renown footballer, Graeme Souness, with the octet completed by our very own John Reach and local rugby league players, Vince Fox (Whitehaven) and David Beck (Workington Town).

Kevin had some wonderful innovative ideas to help boost the coffers of the club.  But this event, which produced a very entertaining afternoon of sporting challenges, was affected by the weather and heavy rain throughout kept the attendance down to hundreds instead of the thousands he had hoped for.