The Bartons Pickles Johnny Vegas Celebrity Bowls for the Lol Pennington Memorial Cup took place Saturday 13th August The Wicket Bar & Grub Ruskin St.Helens

The Steve Prescott Foundation (SPF) along with partners Woolyback Productions Ltd and Ruskin St Helens promised to take this annual event to the next level and with the help of glorious weather, this was achieved!

Over 1500 people flocked to the sports ground and were entertained throughout the day with A List celebrities and SPF ambassadors from the world of Sport and Rugby League mingling with members of the public.

With monies still to be collated it is estimated the event will raise in excess of £10k which will significantly help the SPF chosen charities, the Christie NHS Foundation Trust and the Rugby League Benevolent Fund.

Even though the games of Crown Green Bowling were hugely competitive, all were played in a fantastic spirit which mirrored Lol Pennington’s effervescent personality.

All bowlers were generously provided Taylor Bowls Ltdcourtesy of Glassbond NW Ltd and subsidiary Moulding Compounds Limited and Mark Thompson; an amazing gesture by all involved.

SPF Chairman Mike Denning and former Saints halfback Neil Holding took advantage of the hours of practice to lift the coveted Lol Pennington Memorial Trophy by whitewashing John Gripton and John Thomson who got Cold Feet in the final.

This year Johnny Vegas who once again played with Jonathan Peter Whitworth reached the Second Round. They “Murdered” co star Sian Gibson in the preliminary game and took on crowd favourite Sherrie Hewson who struggled to acclimatise in the Benidorm like weather! JV thought it was his year until John Thomson put on a Nice Fast Show performance to end Johnny’s dreams for another year!

The highlight of the Crown Green Bowls was the talented St Helens youngsters from our TV Screens, BGT Runner Up Jamie Leahey and Chuck took on Jude Riordan from Coronation Street . This contest was initially refereed by CBEEBIES Hacker T Dog who got distracted and ran off with ex Sky Sports presenter Angela Powers!

Jamie was a natural from the start and raced into an early lead, but Jude dug deep and came back to win 11-8.

All participants enjoyed hospitality with great food from our friends at @Brunch courtesy of Ian Barker. The Christie’s Charity team also provided refreshments along with St Helens favourite and Principle Sponsor Barton’s Pickles.

Bubble Customised Clothing provided the great T shirts sponsored by Mark Breary at Concrete Creative.

The whole day was an unmitigated success with lots of people to thank for their time effort and support.

Thank you to St Helens Borough Council especially Suzanne Davies, Gary Maddock and David Baines.

Thanks to all the great staff at Ruskin Leisure especially owner Stephen Palfrey and manager Mark Hayes who were the perfect hosts.

To all the TV Production Team lead by Karl Rooney which included Angela Powers, Pete Emmett and Dave Howarth who provided a Live Feed throughout the day and are now providing fantastic clips for social media. This could not have happened without the generosity of Gaz Langley and MGB Scaffolding Limited.

The 99th Garrison entertained everyone with their Star Wars Characters. Man of the match has to be the Giant Chewbacca who must have been melting in the heat of the day.

           

Hugely popular was the Lightning McQueen Car thanks to Ian Marsh and his team and family along with Ponts Funfair, Face2Face entertainers.

All above could not be down without the army of SPF volunteers on the day, we simply could not put on any event without their unequivocal support! Thank you the Prescott family, Alex and Roy Chicken, Paul and Joanne Griffiths, Jonathan Fenney, Les Hatton, Brian Fowler, Karen Blondel, Sarah Blondel, Jack Roylance, the Denning family, Jim Housley, The Eden Family, Brian & Gayle Shaw.

Special gratitude to Ian Roberts from St Helens #LitterHeroes who collated an astonishing 38 bin bags full of waste!

Everything was glued together by the incredibly talented and versatile Tom Loughlin who was the Master of Ceremonies and gave us a phenomenal rendition of Abide with Me to start off proceedings, Tom carried on working through the night with supporting the fantastic evening acts, Jack Bennett, Ashley Welding, The Bathtub Gin Band, Amelia Coburn and quite possible the best tribute act in the history of the SPF, The Southmartins who were top of the tree and had the Percival Suite rocking, thanks to Live events LTD for their great support.

The final thanks of sincere gratitude goes to the beautiful soul inside and out, Johnny Vegas and his brilliant personal assistant Beverley Dixon who work tirelessly throughout the year on making this a special day for St Helens. It is truly wonderful to see A List celebs coming out every year in the name of JV's father Lol Pennington.

The celebs and partners were amazing and without their support we could not continue Steve Prescott’s incredible legacy and help those less fortunate than ourselves!

          

All pics are courtesy of Mike and Harrison Dean

Celebrities who took part:

Johnny Vegas
Sian Gibson
Sherrie Hewson
John Thomson
Shobna Gulati
Mark Charnock
Paul Loughlin
Neil Holding
Chris Joynt
Tommy Martyn
Bennie Westwood
Lewis Dodd
Wagga
Danny Sculthorpe
Alan Hunte
David Fairclough
Peter Reid

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