HERE are our three nominees for the Saints RLFC Sportsperson award ahead of the Pride of St Helens awards taking place on Friday, November 18.
Ahead of the awards next Friday, we are sharing profiles on each category of the awards highlighting each of the nominees.
Liam Burbidge
IT has been a rollercoaster of an 18 months for amputee Liam Burbidge.
After Liam had his left leg below the knee amputated following a motorbike crash in 2013, he thought his days of playing football were over.
However, the 30-year-old from Clock Face has been enjoying success in the amputee game.
He has been playing for Everton since June last year. And while on loan at Manchester City, he etched his name into the history by scoring the winning goal in a 1-0 FA Cup final victory over Portsmouth at St George’s Park.
This year, Liam also played in the Amputee Football World Cup for England in Istanbul in September and October of this year. They faced the USA, Indonesia and Argentina in the group stages, before progressing to the last 16 where they faced Angola.
Liam also played in a game in Japan, and has made five international appearances so far.
Meanwhile, Liam also travelled to Budapest to play in the first ever teqball and para teqball combined competition.
Teqball is described as similar to Ping Pong but with a football instead. In the Para Teqball Sport Class 2 singles, which is for athletes with a prosthesis, Attila Laszlo from Hungary won gold, Liam took silver, and also won gold in a pairs event.
Liam says he is “honoured” to be nominated. His nomination stated Liam “has shown how anything is achievable when you put your mind to it” and that while being an amputee “you can achieve your dreams and goals”.
Ellie Threlkeld
ON the fringes of the England set-up, 24-year-old Ellie Threlkeld is a huge wicketkeeping talent and the front-runner to take over the gloves when incumbent Amy Jones retires.
Part of the Lancashire set-up since under-11s, she made her Lancashire Thunder debut in 2016 and scored 285 runs in 30 Kia Super League appearances, never missing a fixture.
In 2020, she scored 114 runs in six matches, including a half-century against Lightning, and completed one catch and four stumpings.
She followed it up with 229 runs, 10 catches and four stumpings across both formats in 2021 as well as representing Manchester Originals in The Hundred and England A during their winter tour of Australia.
Ahead of the 2022, Ellie was named captain of Thunder cricket taking over from former England international and World Cup winner Alex Hartley.
She represents Rainford CC at club level and was previously a centre-forward for Wigan Athletic. A professional cricketer since 2020, she is also studying for a master’s in sports psychology at Loughborough University.
Jonny Lomax
SAINTS half back Jonny Lomax capped a quite remarkable 2022 in the red vee by steering the side to a record-breaking fourth Super League title in a row.
Lomax won the Harry Sunderland Award for his display in the Grand Final against Leeds Rhinos - a fitting accolade for a player whose season looked as though it was going to be seriously derailed or even ended when he ruptured a bicep against Salford in April.
But the timing of that injury, coming the week after Saints had lost half back partner Lewis Dodd, meant Lomax’s response was to think of the collective.
The 32-year-old’s selfless commitment to the Saints cause paid dividends for the team.
An initial adjustment in the way Lomax played after the injury – most notably defending at full back to protect it – was one thing, but positionally rolling back the years to 2011/12 and become the organising half was another.
Lomax pulled the strings and orchestrated the moves at Old Trafford – like he did for the semi-final and in the previous past five months – to help deliver the second piece of silverware.
In the semi it was Lomax’s short kicking game that wreaked havoc, but at Old Trafford it was his taking on the line in the opening moments that led to prop Matty Lees storming over for the fastest ever Grand Final try.
Lomax’s performances this year were rewarded by winning the club’s Players’ Player of the Year and Player of the Year awards.
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