Seana nets prize role for Town ladies

Jan 13 2009 by Mel Booth, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

SEANA POTTS was mascot for Town Ladies – and opened a scrapbook of Huddersfield football memories.

The 11-year-old sporting fanatic from Dalton, who plays for the Ladies’ Under 13 side, is the great granddaughter of Charles ‘Chuckie’ Luke – the popular Town forward of the 1930s (inset).

Almondbury High student Seana (pronounced Shauna), who will be 12 next month, has inherited his passion for the game and is a member of a team who have gone unbeaten for a season and a half.

Her mother, Jasmin Burgin, explained: “Seana is obsessed with football – in fact with sport in general. She has been playing football since she was five (at Moldgreen Junior School and Dalton Dynamoes) and follows Town and Manchester United as her teams, but she’s also into athletics, tennis and cricket and loves her sport.

“We’ve told her all about her great granddad and shown her the newspaper clippings we’ve got, so it was nice when she won the club raffle to be mascot for the senior side – especially with it being Town’s centenary season.”

Luke, one of the smallest players ever to represent Town at 5ft 3in, was a quick and skilful inside forward or wingman who delighted the Leeds Road fans with his eye for goal. A Durham miner, he was prolific for Bishop Auckland, once scoring 61 goals in a season, before joining Town in January 1931.

At Town, he was an ever-present in the team which finished as Football League runners-up to Arsenal in 1933-34 and, by the time he signed for Sheffield Wednesday in February 1936, he had scored 47 goals in 143 league and cup appearances. He later played for Blackburn and Chesterfield and retired during the Second World War.

“He lived in Whitstable in Kent but my granddad always kept an eye on what Town were doing and he used to go mad when they lost!” said Jasmin.

“All through his life he retained fond memories of playing for Town.”

Seana became mascot through the club’s weekly fund-raising raffle, which offers younger players the chance to accompany the senior side.

“The Ladies don’t receive any funding, so we have to raise whatever we can for ourselves,” said Jasmin, who helped raise over £900 through bag packing.

“Any help we can get is terrific.”