Clare Balding CBE officially handed over the chains of office as RFL President to her successor for 2023, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, as the President’s Ball returned after a three-year Covid-enforced interruption.
In addition, Clare made presentations to the two winners of RFL President’s Awards in 2022 for their services to the sport – Tracy Herd from Movember, and the Wales Rugby League’s Chief Medical Officer Dr Richard Lawrance – while there was special recognition for England’s Wheelchair World Cup winners, who attended the event for the first time.
But the priority for all on a glittering night at the Queens Hotel in central Leeds, the traditional venue for the event, was the RFL’s Benevolent Fund.
The Fund was set up 15 years ago in response to the life-changing injuries suffered by Matt King OBE playing for the London Broncos Academy, to provide all forms of assistance to players and their families.
One of the highlights of the night came when a cheque for £50,000 was presented to the Benevolent Fund by the Steve Prescott Foundation, as a result of their fund-raising efforts in 2022 in continued memory of the former St Helens and Hull FC full-back – which also generated an equivalent sum for The Christie Charitable Fund, the Manchester hospital where he was treated.
There was another poignant moment when Matt King’s parents spoke of the support they had received from the Benevolent Fund.
“The Benevolent Fund is a wonderful charity which does so much important work, and for all RFL Presidents it is a privilege to be involved with it,” said Sir Lindsay, the Speaker of the House of Commons and the MP for Chorley, who has had a lifelong association with Rugby League.
Clare Balding CBE was appointed to the ceremonial role of President in July 2020, originally for 18 months with her term extended until the end of 2022 as a result of the postponement of the World Cup – also allowing her to host the President’s Ball, which was postponed in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
“It will be quite odd to give it up after such an enjoyable couple of years, but when you take the role you know you’ve only got it for a short time,” she said in a farewell interview in the latest Rugby League World magazine.
“So I’m not sad about passing it over - I knew it would happen - I’m just really glad that I have done it.
"It has genuinely been the greatest honour of my life. I don’t say that lightly, because so many wonderful things have happened, but this is the first time I have been asked to do a role that I genuinely didn’t think I had earned or deserved. But I said yes because thought it would be different and interesting and that I would learn something.
“I am so pleased I said yes and has made me think differently about all sports and the way we engage and communicate with people and what those athletes want.
"Honestly it has been a massive privilege and I have been so appreciative of the messages that so many people have sent. They have been so positive and I have received a lot of love from the Rugby League community.
“Sir Lindsay is going to be brilliant,” she said of her successor.
“He’s a man of huge status, but he’s also a worker and a genuine human being so he’ll be terrific in the role. He will have different connections and different thoughts to me so he’ll add something new.
“I greatly admire his ability to work mentions of Rugby League into seemingly anything in the House of Commons and it always makes me smile when he does it.
“He’s a real life-long fan and he really gets the game. He has a real understanding of the Wheelchair and PDRL game. I went to the Disability Month event he hosted at Speakers House and both teams were there with their medals and trophies, and it was lovely to see them recognised in that way in such a grand setting.”
For further details of the RFL benevolent fund click the link here.
