Now entering its third year, this special night for the Leigh Rugby League fraternity is getting bigger and better each year. The game kicks off at 8pm with an entry charge of just £2.

Dave Parkinson recently caught up with former East halfback and Lloyd's brother Stuart Pugsley who takes up the story behind the game. 

"I was helping Chris Snape down at the Miners with the second team and Chris and Ryan King had organised a friendly between the second teams. It was just after Lloyd's passing and we thought why not make it a memorial game in honour of his name. We put the idea to Ryan, he was all for it and it all snowballed from there."

"We wanted to make it a second team game to play in front of a big crowd. Every week those boys turn out infront of crowds of upto a couple of hundred and we wanted to give them the chance to have that five minutes of glory. It's the third year now and it's got bigger and bigger." 

Lloyd began his coaching career with East, "He was coaching with Kevin Anderton." Stuart recalled. "He took the team that consisted of the likes of Paul Rowley, Simon Baldwin, Glyn Davies and Scott Martin, just to name a few. They were really successful. That age group also saw the likes of Andy Farrell at Orrell. It was a really good team that he had. 

"Then, when his lads started playing, he went over to Rangers and started coaching down there where he had the likes of Neil Turley, Tommy Goulden and Martyn Ridyard. He just had this connection with lads. I don't know what it was, they just seemed to bust a gut for him when they played. If you speak to any player that played for Lloyd, they all have a story about him."

"They all loved playing for Lloyd and I think you will see that with the number of them that will turn up on the night."

"It's also a good benchmark for both teams to see where they are at. There is a charge on the gate but that money also goes back to both Miners and East junior sections which I think Lloyd would have really liked. I've got to thank both clubs from the bottom of my heart and the money will come in really handy for them."

East's Ryan King, coach of their second team has been involved in this fixture from the start. "Myself and Snapey had organised a game because in years previous Leigh Miners and Leigh East always skipped each other in the divisions, passing each other. Leigh East were in the higher division for a long time and then Miners came up and then we went down. Snape coached me here and he said 'I fancy a stab at my old club, do you want a friendly?' I said why not. And what a ding dong it turned out to be!

"That first game was pretty special." 

Pugsley added, "The banter starts on social media, thats the build up to it all and it goes from there. There are alwaysa few old scores to settle and fireworks going off. Its part and parcel of a derby. You've got lads that have played alongside and against each other since being kids and they've then split off. They go out drinking as well. Last year what was really nice was both teams mingling afterwards and drinking together in the pub. There was no animosity and that was really good to see."

Easts and Miners would like to thank the Britannia public house in advance for sponsoring medals and the man-of-the-match award for the evening.