SHAW can now call itself home to rugby league royalty.
However, Marc Sneyd would rather not have collected a third Lance Todd Trophy as man of the match in the Challenge Cup final.
He would have preferred making it a hat-trick of victories.
The Warrington Wolves scrum half, who comes from the area and coaches the under-7s side at Waterhead ARLFC, received 31 of 37 votes for the honour.
That made him only the second player in the sport’s history, the other being current Odham RLFC coach Sean Long, to win it three times.
But Warrington’s last-gasp 8-6 loss to Hull KR on Saturday, June 7 left Sneyd pining for another piece of silverware, the one he lifted with Hull FC in 2016 and 2017.
Speaking in the Wembley tunnel, he said when asked if he felt proud: “I’m not, to be honest. I’d rather have not won it if I’m being honest.
“Not many people have won it three times and when I retire, I’ll probably look back and be proud of myself.
“For the time being, though, I’d have rather not won it.
“It was a great game, wasn’t it? I think the neutral fans, the proper die-hard rugby league fans, probably appreciated that game more.
“The weather really made it an old-fashioned ding-dong, so to say. Obviously, kicking in that weather becomes a huge factor of the game, which is probably why I won the Lance Todd, through the kicking game.”
Sneyd received the honour after a masterful display with the boot, which saw him convert a try by another Oldhamer, Grasscroft’s Josh Thewlis, from the touchline and continually pin Hull KR back.
However, Mikey Lewis’ conversion of Tom Davies’ 78th minute try earned the Robins an 8-6 win which ended their 40-year trophy drought and earned their first Challenge Cup since 1980.
Sneyd’s captain George Williams believes his half-back partner ‘kicked them to death’ and said: “I said in the week, ‘If he wins the Lance Todd, we’ll win,’ but that wasn’t the case.”
The 34-year-old, though, admitted that despite how well Sam Burgess’ side played, they were done by the best.
However, despite the hurt, there is something his side can take from their performance.
He added: “It’s tough. The older you get, you deal with it a bit better but I won’t lie, it still stings – like mad.
“For 77 minutes, we were by far the better team. I thought we were brilliant, but it’s an 80-minute game and for those three minutes, they were brilliant.
“Hull KR have been in and around finals for the past few years and they’re there for a reason.
“They’re doing all the right things on the field and have a certain way of playing – in my opinion, they’re the best at doing it.
“They’re such an 80-minute team. They grind teams and they did it to us, but we’ll will learn from it.
“We’ll learn from it. Unfortunately for us, after 77 minutes, we thought the job was done.
“There are a lot of heads down in the changing rooms. They’re always difficult to take, but I feel like we’ll take a lot from it.”