Serbian hopeful Soni to trial for Whitehaven

By Martin Morgan

Last updated 09:54, Saturday, 15 November 2008

Whitehaven's new Serbian hopeful is to fly to England to trial in one of the club’s pre-season matches.

The NL1 outfit have already announced that they will host Super League Bradford Bulls on February 1 and they also entertain Workington Town over Christmas, while a couple of other friendlies are in the pipeline.

And coach Ged Stokes is keen to see Soni Radovanovic in match action before the season-proper gets underway.

The prop/second-row was man-of-the-match in Serbia’s recent narrow defeat against Lebanon in Beirut last month.

Stokes coached the Serbs in the Euro-Med clash and plans to lead their national team in future internationals, as long as it does not interfere with his Haven commitments.

“I want to see him in a game situation, but I’d like him to have a couple of weeks here, first,” the coach said.

“I didn’t want to disappoint the lad until I knew he would be coming, and I’ll be in contact over the next couple of days.”

Signed Haven and Bradford shirts will be auctioned tomorrow during the CFM roadshow, which marks Whitehaven’s Christmas lights switch-on by former Wizzard frontman Roy Wood.

Cash raised will go to CFM’s Cash for Kids appeal. Ten family tickets for the Bulls clash will also be on offer in special competitions. The roadshow starts at 1pm and the big switch-on is at 6pm.

Meanwhile, Haven’s Pride of Five lottery is on the up again, with an ongoing recruitment drive adding around 200 new members since early October.

“We have added about 20 to 25 new members a week since the beginning of October, increasing the numbers in the region of 10%,” a lottery spokesman said.

“There was a big push around the same time last year which didn’t do to badly, but it’s a bit more difficult this time, in the current economic climate.”

The club started its recruitment drive with around 2,500 lottery members and hopes in time to get the figure up to about 3,000.