The Heritage Trust are sad to report the death of former Oldham player Vince Kenny.
Vince, regularly known as Vinny, was signed from the Folly Lane amateur club in Swinton at the start of the 1961-62 season.
A winger, Vince played in the Law Cup charity match against Rochdale on August 12th 1961 as a trial and was signed straight away. He made a try scoring start to his Oldham career in the match against Halifax the following week.
Vince played 14 matches in the first team scoring eight tries.
His uncle also called Vince Kenny, a stand-off half, played for Oldham from 1939 to 1948 and his brother Peter played for Swinton.
The sincere condolences of the Oldham Rugby League Heritage Trust are offered to all of Vince’s family and friends.
The Oldham Rugby League Heritage Trust have added to the website a video of the match against Batley on January 10th 1982. This is the oldest match for which we have extended footage (44 minutes). The match was played at Boundary Park due to Watersheddings being snowbound for several weeks. There is no commentary but the ambient crowd noise is present. The Oldham team was as follows:
Alan Taylor, Geoff Munro, Brian Caffery, Mic Parrish, Phil Ward, Ashley McEwen, Paddy Kirwan, Brian Hogan, Alan McCurrie, Adrian Alexander, Bob Mordell, Mick Worrall, Terry Flanagan.
SUBS: Ray Ashton, Alan Platt.
Does anyone out there have any footage older than this? In the same season Oldham played Hull at Headingley in the semi-final of the John Player trophy on November 29th 1981. This match was screened live by the BBC. Does anyone have a tape of this match or any that are older? If so the Trust would be like to take a copy to add to the collection.
We are saddened to report the death of former Oldham winger Ian Holland, aged 74.
Ian signed for Oldham from Salford in January 1974 making his debut in the 6 – 5 defeat at home to Hull KR on January 6th with Oldham’s points coming from a try by David Treasure and a goal from Phil Larder. Tony Wainwright was his centre that day and amongst his team-mates were “Hall-of-Famers” Martin Murphy, Kevin Taylor and Mike Elliott. In all he made 28 appearances for the Roughyeds spread over the second half of the 1973-4 season and the first half of the following campaign.
Known as an aggressive, hard tackling wingman, Ian scored seven tries and 22 goals in 28 appearances for Oldham. He went on to subsequently play for Swinton, Barrow and Rochdale where he ended his career having captained the Hornets for a spell.
The condolences of everyone at the Oldham Rugby League Heritage Trust go to the Ian’s family and friends.
The Heritage Trust were saddened to learn of the recent death of former Oldham full-back Brian Curry, who had played for Oldham in the mid 1960s. Brian was aged 84.
The Roughyeds acquired Brian from Huddersfield, his home-town club, where he signed in 1957 at just seventeen years of age. Initially as understudy to Frank Dyson, he spent his best years at Fartown where he also ended his career having made 212 appearances scoring 1,003 points.
Oldham paid Huddersfield £5,000 for Brian who made his debut on September 2nd 1966 in a Lancashire Cup victory over Swinton at Watersheddings. The Roughyeds won 16 – 13 with five goals from Brian the telling factor.
In all he would make 53 appearances for Oldham scoring three tries and 145 goals. He later joined Blackpool Borough before returning to Huddersfield where he went on to join the coaching staff.
The sincere condolences of everyone at the Oldham Rugby League Heritage Trust are sent out to all of Brian’s family and friends.