Cardiff Devils fan Josh Cummings says he’s still stunned at receiving support around the world that helped him land a free season ticket with the club.
The 26-year-old, from Aberdare in South Wales, challenged the champions to stump up if he got enough retweets after taking inspiration from New Jersey Devils fan Nick Donnelly.
And he admits it’s been quite an experience to after picking up his brief from forward Sean Bentivoglio from something he says was a “cheeky” request.
“It’s been mind-blowing and when I was at the game with Milton Keynes on Saturday, the people I was sitting next to were getting as anxious as I was,” he said.
“I had butterflies in my stomach and the whole thing was crazy. When the club contacted me to do a presentation, I couldn’t believe it.
“To not only reach the goal was unbelievable, but to smash it was crazy and I’m a little bit overwhelmed by it all to be honest.
“It all came about when New Jersey Devils got a tweet from one of their fans asking them how many retweets would it take for him to get a free season ticket and they responded with a challenge.
“It took him only a couple of hours to do it so I thought I’d ask Cardiff cheekily off the back of it to see if they would do the same for me.
“They worked out a number based on what the New Jersey Devils did and set it to me. The challenge was set and I had to go for it.”
Donnelly was set a challenge by the NHL side to get 9,450 retweets within a week to get his free ticket, which took only two hours to achieve.
Josh was given a figure of 18,000 retweets and achieved it at the weekend with the Devils making good on their side of the bet.
He revealed he bought a season ticket just the week before his request went viral, with support coming from around the globe.
Josh added: “I’d actually just bought a season ticket the week before for when the season was starting. From what Cardiff said, I’ll keep the ticket I have and they’ll sort it at their end.
“The support I got came from Cardiff at the beginning then it was fans of Braehead, Nottingham, Belfast out to the new teams form Guildford and Milton Keynes.
“All of a sudden, it kind of blew up from there with fans from Sweden, Germany and as far afield as Canada and America. The whole thing’s been incredible.
“I put out a tweet thanking everybody for their support, but I’m still in shock that almost 23,000 people went out of their way to help me out with what was a cheeky challenge.
“It will live with me a long time and it’ll be quite a story to tell for years to come.”
