Whitehaven racked up the trophies at tonight's Betfred Championship and League 1 awards night tonight.

Coach Gary Charlton, youngster Andrew Bulman and experienced star Dion Aiye all walked away with silverware.

Whitehaven boss Gary Charlton is the Betfred League 1 coach of the year after leading them to promotion in his first year in charge.

Charlton beat off competition from Antony Murray of North Wales Crusaders and Oldham's Scott Naylor to grab the gong.

A proud Charlton said: "The biggest thing for me when Whitehaven approached me was that we wanted to go local. We do have two good Papua New Guinea lads and a car load from Lancashire but the rest are from West Cumbria and it has just worked.

"It has been brilliant this year from the coaching staff, Jonty Gorley, Scott McAvoy and Barry Quayle to our captain Marc Shackley and and his troops behind them. They've all been brilliant.

"A lot of praise also has to go to the board, from where we were to where we are now."

The second award to head back to the Recreation Ground was for Andrew Bulman as League 1 young player of the year.

He was on a shortlist of five that also included Workington Town's Caine Barnes but Bulman claimed the honour.

He said: "My dad played for Whitehaven so this is something I always wanted to do. When I first came back from rugby union I had kind of fell out of love with the game but being at Whitehaven has brought it all back.

"I'm just happy to wear the same shirt as my dad. Every week we we thought we were edging closer (to the title) but when we won at Doncaster I think that's when I thought we were going to do it."

Dion Aiye was the final star to pick up an award, being named as League 1 player of the year, pipping team-mate Marc Shackley to the accolade among others.

The influential Papua New Guinea player is in his fifth year at Haven and said he has got used to Cumbria and enjoys his time at Whitehaven.

"We have all the local boys now and we are all close," said Aiye. "The coach has been outstanding and so have all the boys. And we won the title so it has been a great year."

Workington Town did not finish the night without anything as Ollie Wilkes picked up a special achievement award for his services to the game of rugby league.

Wilkes announced his retirement from the game near the end of the season after injury forced him to hang up his boots.

But at the ceremony tonight his long career was acknowledged, alongside Leigh star Micky Higham.

Wilkes admitted he was going to miss the game, saying: "I will miss the camaraderie with the boys, going up to training and having a laugh.

"Everybody loves playing but at some point your body is going to give up and mine has. I'm not retiring on my terms and I would have loved to carry on playing but my body won't let me."