HEREFORD Harriers have been crowned Wheelchair Challenge Trophy champions following their defeat of Edinburgh Giants at the National Basketball Performance Centre in Manchester.

 

The Harriers qualified as best runner up in the group stages of the tournament and celebrated a shock defeat of Sheffield Eagles in the semi-finals with their triumph in the final the cherry on top of a historic day for the team.

 

The West Midlands side, featuring the Wales co-captain Gary Preece and experienced Wales player turned head coach Alan Caron trailed 6-8 at one point in their semi-final, but overturned the gap to knock Sheffield out, before beating Edinburgh Giants in a golden-point final.

 

"It’s a day that many of us won’t forget in a hurry”, Hereford Harriers’ Gary Preece told the Rugby League.com website. “To go on to win the final, in the manner we did was great, two very evenly matched teams going at it after a long day of playing was just the right way for it to end.

“Credit to Edinburgh, they pushed us all the way and fought back really well to take the game into golden point extra time.

Edinburgh topped their group - which included a win against eventual champions Hereford – before beating four-time winners Gravesend Dynamite to progress to the final.

Some 15 teams from England, Scotland and Wales competed on the day with other notable performances including Gravesend not conceding a single point throughout the group stage and Sheffield defeating 2023 championship winners North Wales Crusaders.

Following a restructure of the Betfred Wheelchair Challenge Cup at the beginning of this season, both Hereford and Edinburgh qualified for the quarter-finals of that competition which took place last weekend.

Hereford Harriers came up against a tough Leeds Rhinos Wheelchair team and fell to an 86-12 defeat.