sport news Huddersfield to be left like a ghost town on a huge weekend of sport in the ... trends now
'The last person to leave needs to shut the door on their way out,’ says Jermaine McGillvary.
The Huddersfield Giants and England winger is not wrong. On Saturday, McGillvary and his team-mates face Wigan at Tottenham in rugby league’s Challenge Cup final. On Sunday, his hometown football club will be at Wembley to take on Nottingham Forest for a place in the Premier League.
For one weekend only, this part of the Pennines will become a burglars’ paradise as tens of thousands flock to the capital. ‘I’ve got my cameras switched on, so they’d better not come to my house!’ the 34-year-old jokes.
Jermaine McGillvary is looking forward to this weekend's Challenge Cup final
More than 100 coaches will leave West Yorkshire for London. Rarely have they seen anything like it. In a cricket-mad county, some of the local leagues have taken the extraordinary step of cancelling fixtures.
The bars and restaurants down the hill from the statue of famous son Harold Wilson are bracing themselves for their quietest Saturday night since lockdown.
If, as the former PM famously said, a week is a long time in politics, a weekend will be a long time in sport. ‘There’s a buzz about town,’ McGillvary says. ‘Everyone is going down for it — even people who don’t normally watch sport. When I’m walking about, people are coming up to me saying, You can do it”. It’s humbling.’
McGillvary will take a keen interest in the fortunes of fellow underdogs, the Terriers. Football dominates family life. His eldest son, 11-year-old Isaac, is at Manchester City while his middle son Elijah, eight, is at United.
When we speak, he is heading across the M62 to the Etihad. ‘I pick him up when I can,’ he says. ‘People say how come they don’t both play for the same team, but they’re different kids and it’s horses for courses. United suits one and City the other. It’s down to them where they go. As long as they enjoy it, that’s all that matters.
