SKIPTON firefighters teamed up with Keighley Cougars RLFC at the weekend for a memorable team building exercise.

Following a winter of turmoil and uncertainty at Cougar Park, former owner Mick O’Neill returned from his home in Australia to purchase his beloved club in the hope that one day it will bring back the family party atmosphere of ‘Cougarmania’ that existed during the mid 1990s.

Martyn Hughes of Skipton fire station said: “As a Cougars fan, I was acutely aware of the situation building at Cougar Park over the winter when it looked highly likely that the club with 143 years of history as a professional rugby league side was going to cease existence.

“I approached the media team at Keighley to see if there was anything North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service could do to help. We were asked if the fire service could facilitate some type of team building exercise.”

Tony Peel, fire station manager for the Craven district, said: “There are many similarities between that of a rugby team and that of a team of firefighters. For each team to succeed, they are heavily reliant on teamwork, togetherness, determination, commitment, loyalty, camaraderie and ultimately 100 per cent trust in each other.

“This event was a great success with firefighters delivering various activities including assault courses, hose running, searching for casualties in a smoke filled building wearing breathing apparatus and a simulated road traffic collision where a van was cut up using hydraulic cutting equipment. We hope the Cougars team enjoyed the experience, having had the exposure to work outside of their normal comfort zones.

“We would like to thank K.R.Martin Ltd of Cross Hills for donating a vehicle to cut up as part of the exercise - we continually look for vehicles to practise our life saving skills on. We are also on the lookout for on-call firefighters at Bentham, Settle, Grassington and Skipton.

Cougars’ first home game of the season is this Sunday at 3pm against Coventry Bears RLFC.