THIS weekend our town’s greatest ambassadors once again take to the field to fight for silverware.

We’ve got a lot to be proud of in St Helens and sometimes we take much of it for granted, not least in my opinion our rugby league team.

I’ve watched Saints since I was seven years old.

My first game was the cup final defeat to Halifax in 1987, and since then I’ve been lucky to see plenty of outstanding Saints teams.

The 1993 Premiership winners who came within a whisker of winning the league; the 1996 double winners; the 2001 world champions; and the 2006 season, when we won everything going including the BBC Sports Personality Team of the Year.

But the club right now is in the middle of a golden age with both the men’s and our women’s teams winning the Challenge Cup this year and this weekend they’ll both appear in their respective Grand Finals.

It’s a first for the women’s team, and the third in a row for the men as they look for a historic three-peat.

At the Super League awards on Monday Jodie Cunningham was crowned Woman of Steel and Jack Welsby the Young Player of the Year, and both thoroughly deserved this recognition.

Throughout both squads are players who represent the very best of St Helens.

Local players who we can all be proud of, led superbly by James Roby and Jodie Cunningham.

Boys and girls growing up in our town couldn’t ask for better role models.

For 25 years the club has maintained such a high level of performance on and off the field that it beggars belief.

That’s down to the Saints chairman Eamonn McManus and the board, and Mike Rush and all the staff who work day in day out to set the standard, steer the club, and consistently lay the foundations for future success.

And it was recently reported that the Saints stadium is in the top three rugby stadiums in the whole world according to a survey of more than 15,000 global reviews.

What an accolade!

Whatever the results this weekend we can and should be so proud of the club.

I can’t imagine St Helens without it, and we should enjoy every minute of this special era.

Good luck to both teams this weekend.

Come on you Saints!

Best wishes to all Star readers.