Ninety-year-old Ken Porter saw Workington Town’s first ever match in 1945 and on Sunday his loyalty was rewarded with the honour of officially renaming the club’s home as the Fibrus Community Stadium.

As a teenager he would walk from Pica to matches, but yesterday he had a very different experience, being treated as a VIP and named the guest of honour.

Ken was given lifetime membership of the club, presented with a shirt by head coach Anthony Murray and cheered by the crowd as he cut the ribbon on the pitch to rename the stadium.

“It’s good of the club to do this - I have loved Town all my life,” said Ken, who still goes to every game.

He was accompanied on to the pitch by his twin sons Graeme and Bryan and great grandson Kaiden.

“This has been such a special day for the whole family. We are all proud of this honour for my dad - all four generations of our family are Workington Town mad, but my mum has never been to a game. She likes to spend her Sundays baking all day long," Bryan said. 

Also being inducted as a lifelong club member was Joe Hill who has been supporting Town for 72 years.

Joe and Ken were able to enjoy a full day of rugby league with the newly formed Workington Town Ladies playing their historic first ever match in the sunshine and two sessions of kids’ rugby which helped swell the crowd to 1,395 for the men’s victory over Rochdale.

The double header match day marked the launch of Fibrus broadband as the new official sponsor of the stadium alongside sponsoring the men’s and women’s teams.

Times and Star: Workington Town Ladies, a brand new team, also played their first ever fixture on Sunday.Workington Town Ladies, a brand new team, also played their first ever fixture on Sunday. (Image: Johnathan Becker)

The Ladies' team were delighted with their win and celebrated in style on and off the pitch after a 38-16 victory over Newcastle Thunder with Lauren Bold scoring the historic first ever try for the new team.

Captain and ‘Player of the Game' Laura Ivison said: “We are all absolutely buzzing after that. We were a bit nervous to be playing in front of a crowd, but we couldn’t have wished for a better start.

Men’s team head coach Anthony Murray said he was proud that Workington Town now had a ladies' team and praised the women for the hard work they had been putting in on the training pitch and in the gym.

“Workington has had a good week. The investment from Fibrus has created a massive buzz around the place," he said.