Wakefield Trinity half-back Liam Finn has admitted to mixed emotions after close friend and fellow goal-kicker Jamie Ellis moved level in the world record stakes over the weekend.
Finn has held the record of 41 consecutive goal kicks without a miss since his days at Featherstone, but Ellis had been threatening to break that in recent weeks.
However, Ellis missed his 42nd attempt – from in front of the posts – to ensure he only tied with, and didn’t beat Finn in the record books: and he joked he knew his record would be safe all along.
He told TotalRL: “People started to tell me about it as it got nearer. Jamie is a good friend of mine and I’ve played with him in the past so I was sending him messages hoping he could keep going and carry on because he’s a top lad.
“He’s done really well to get level and I won’t lie, there were some mixed emotions when I found out he’d missed the one to go in front of me and he missed! He text me saying he was bang in front so we had a bit of a joke saying doing 42 in a row is actually impossible!
“I was never worried!”
Finn also revealed just how difficult it is to get to over 40 goals in a row without missing a single one – particularly at some grounds where conditions do not favour the men tasked with converting the goals.
He said: “It’s nice he’s equalled it and not gone past but I take my hat off to him, because it’s not easy getting to that many. I’ve seen some of the kicks he was making at Dewsbury and the wind is pretty bad there, so he’s done well to get anywhere near it!
“To be fair to him, it can be pretty windy at Hull KR too so I imagine he’s had some tough conditions to deal with! In the Championship it’s different because the crowds aren’t quite as big; I remember when I was kicking a goal at Keighley there was just one man behind me shouting and it’s harder sometimes kicking it in those scenarios than in front of a few thousand.”
