Vikings’ year to remember

Jun 12 2008 by Dave Bettley, Runcorn and Widnes Weekly News

Sports editor DAVE BETTLEY talks to the author of a new book which provides a lasting reminder of one of the most turbulent years in the history of professional rugby league in Widnes.

A CHANCE encounter for sports fan Mike Healing turned into a love affair with Widnes Vikings.

Six years ago, Mike and his wife Lynn had stayed overnight in her Widnes home town after a family party.

The following day, they were invited along to a Vikings game at the then Halton Stadium and that unexpected visit was the start of a strong and lasting relationship.

“I was immediately hooked and have only missed one home game since then,” explained Mike.

Enthusiasm for his adopted club has now led the 57-year-old into print – with a book all about the Vikings’ rollercoaster 2007 season.

And all this for a football fan from Watford, who coaches athletics and lives in the rugby union stronghold of Sale!

“I have lived there for 30 years, never more than a mile from Sale’s old ground before they moved to Stockport.

“I used to coach at Sale Harriers and a fellow coach used to go quite regularly to Sale.

“I always promised myself I’d go along but never made it.

“Now I’ve got my teeth into rugby league, I can’t abide rugby union although I have only ever watched it on the television.

“League to me is much better, faster and skilful. The more I went, the more I appreciated the game.

“Certainly, my disappointments with Watford – and their sad times this season – have been tempered by the fact rugby league and Widnes in particular has become my chief sporting preoccupation.”

The Healings were minor shareholders in the club’s previous regime and in 2008, they are sponsoring a player.

“Not so much Gavin Dodd as his position,” explained Mike, whose sporting associations, say it quietly in Runcorn, stretch to him helping out on the commercial side at non-league football club Altrincham – traditional arch rivals for the Linnets.

While every sports club has its highs and lows, the trials and tribulations endured by Widnes fans in 2007 were particularly testing.

A season in which the team won the Northern Rail Cup and got to within 80 minutes of returning to Super League before Grand Final defeat to Castleford was blown apart when the club went into administration.

Facing the unthinkable, the club was rescued from the brink by Widnes businessman Steve O’Connor whose investment has breathed new life into the former world championship-winning outfit.

All this is documented by Mike in his new book Dreams to Reality: A Pivotal Year in the History of Widnes Vikings – although once again quite by accident.

On being gently pushed to take up the ‘pen’ in semi-retirement by his daughter, Mike had envisaged his book would chronicle something entirely different.

“From its inception, the book was intended to record, from a fan’s perspective, a dream journey back from the relative obscurity of National League One to Super League rugby,” he explained.

“Even right up until about the 50th minute of the Grand Final I felt that I could still be publishing a book about a fantastically successful double-winning season.”

It’s said everyone has to experience pain and anguish to become stronger and more rounded.

Mike firmly believes his book is a better read than it could have been because of all the trauma.

“Several people have said going into administration was the best thing that could have happened to the club,” added the writer.

“It’s not nice at the time but it’s better to have gone through it and come out the other side with a clean balance sheet, a Super League ground, a new and totally professional approach and one of the best sponsorships in rugby league.

“We can be stronger, get back into Super League and make a mark.”