Worthy gongs for two Saints legends; Prescott and Perelini honoured by the club.

Byline: WITH JOHN LAWLESS

IT was a privelege to be present earlier this week when Steve Prescott MBE and Apollo Perelini were inducted into the St Helens' Typhoo Hall of Fame at Langtree Park.

As you can imagine, the existing 'Famers' are a pretty august group featuring the likes of Alex Murphy, Tom Van Vollenhoven, Vinty Karalius and George Nicholls.

Current Saints chairman Eamonn McManus is also a member in recognition of his contribution to the club in recent times and he was on hand to do the honours alongside Ray French, chairman of the St Helens Past Players Association.

There can be few more worthy of the honour bestowed upon them than Steve Prescott.

Since he was diagnosed with a rare form of stomach cancer back in 2006, the former full-back has worked tirelessly to raise awareness and funds for others suffering from the illness through the Steve Prescott Foundation.

During that time he has rightly earned the respect and admiration of people way beyond the boundaries of rugby league.

Steve was understandably moved by the award and his composure probably wasn't helped by the fact he's been duped into attending the event believing he was coming to witness the renaming of a stand!

He said: "It is a brilliant occasion to be part of with so many older players here too. I am just moved by it all.

"I've been through a lot over the past seven years, but over the last eight weeks I have slowed down quite a lot as you can see.

"I only got back from Oxford hospital on Saturday and I have still got a long way ahead and a long battle that's not finished.

"The last seven years have been difficult."

While we all now recognise him for his charity work, it shouldn't be forgotten that Prescott was a fine full-back for St Helens and later Hull.

As Saints' star Jon Wilkin pointed out in his ECHO column on Wednesday, he was one of the first of a new breed of attacking full-backs which have since become the norm.

Prescott selected the amazing 40-32 comeback win in the 1996 Challenge Cup Final at Wembley as one of the highlights of his career.

He added: "I have so many great memories of that occasion; I thought we were dead and buried. I scored the first two tries and was on for three that day.

"We just wanted to win. "We were desperate to bring some silverware back to Saints and it was a great occasion.

"This club has got great history over the years and looking at what the chairman Eamonn McManus and coach Nathan Brown are doing, this club is going places and that is where it should be."

Hard-tackling forward Perelini became something of a cult figure amongst the Saints faithful during his time at the club from 1994 to 2000.

Now the director of sports for one of the biggest international schools in Dubai, he too picked Wembley '96 as his Saints highlight and revealed that as 'a man of God' he took some inspiration from on high.

Perelini said: "The 1996 Challenge Cup Final at Wembley in 1996 was one of the greatest occasions of my career.

"We hadn't won it for about 20 years prior to us getting to Wembley.

"What made it so special was we were losing heavily to Bradford and we got together behind the posts after Bernard Dwyer, a former St Helens player, had scored for them.

"But we were determined not to give in and the kicks from Bobbie (Goulding) went up and we started to come back and I started to believe.

"With about five minutes to go I remember standing in the middle of the field and I was absolutely blowing.

"But I looked up at the sky and I said 'God, if you want us to seal this game, do it through me!' "And it was like the parting of the Red Sea and I went through and scored. It was one of the best occasions of my life."

Well done and good luck to both Apollo and Steve, particular the latter in his battle against cancer.

And well done to Saints for recognising two fine representatives of the club.

CAPTION(S):

HALL OF FAMERS: Steve Prescott and Apollo Perelini (inset) Picture: DAVE KENDALL

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Title Annotation:	Sport
Publication:	Liverpool Echo (Liverpool, England)
Date:	Aug 10, 2013
Words:	724
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