Oldham chairman Bill Quinn, presents the Heritage Certificate to Patricia and Andrew Whittle, also in the photo are Michael Turner from the Heritage Trust and Mike Elliott of the Players Association.
At the recent home match against Cornwall on April 14th the ORL Heritage Trust were delighted to present the Heritage Certificate to Patricia and Andrew Whittle, the great granddaughter and great, great grandson of the Oldham winger from the Edwardian era Tommy Cash. Patricia kindly brought in to show the Heritage Trust, an Oldham shirt of Tommy’s along with a Lancashire shield medal from 1908-09 and an Oldham cap.
Left: Tommy with the Lancashire Shield in 1909. Right: The winners medal.
Tommy (Heritage number 80) played for the Roughyeds between 1902 – 1909 and later went on to be a decorated war hero in World War 1.
Tommy was born on Ashton Road, Oldham and was first introduced to Rugby football at the local St Pauls school. A diminutive, figure he went on to play for Oldham Edge Recreation and Glenby at half back. He made his Oldham debut at centre in the 7 – 2 win at Hull Kingston on September 27th, 1902. He made 21 appearances that season, all the rest were on the wing, this being the position where he would become a great favourite with the Oldham crowd.
He topped the Oldham try list in 1904-05 with 13 and 1905-06 with 21 and irrespective of his slight stature, Tommy was well known for his courage and would take on the heftiest of opponents. Once he received his marching orders, to the amusement of the crowd, after an entanglement with a burly Leeds forward. Along with several of his team mates, he left to assist the newly formed Coventry club in 1910.
In total he made 139 senior appearances for Oldham in which he scored 63 tries.
During the First World War he joined the King’s Royal Rifles and earned the Military Medal and bar for heroism. A brief description of the action as reported in the local press is below.
‘For great gallantry at Olive trench near Hollebeke on June 14th 1917, when he rushed forward
with the first wave and bombed the enemy’s dug-out and, being an orderly to an officer who had
been wounded, attended him with great devotion under heavy shell fire in the open.’
Then three months later he was awarded the bar …
‘At Passchendaele Ridge on September 20th, he led his section, the NCOs having become
casualties, against a strong point where he personally killed three of the enemy and after capturing
his objective showed great coolness under heavy shell fire and was of great assistance.’
The “Brian Walker” – Player of the month awards have resumed with the winners for February and March 2024 being Matty Wildie and Adam Lawton.
Matty received the award for February after a tremendous opening to the season with his prize of £250 being donated to the “Wakefield Hospice”.
Likewise Adam has had consistent good form and his March award prize was given over to the “Macmillan Cancer Support”. Both players are seen receiving their cheques from club chairman Bill Quinn.
OLDHAM RLFC’s forthcoming mid-season dinner promises to be an evening highlighting the club’s accomplishments over the past twelve months, as well as looking to the future.
It has just been over a year since the club was taken over by a five-strong consortium headed by Mike Ford on March 24th 2023.
The main purpose of the purchasing of the club – as revealed to the rugby league world at a press conference at Boundary Park by Ford – was to “provide Oldham with a team that everybody can be proud of”.
It all started in early 2022, fresh from the club’s first ever loss to an amateur club.
Playing in the third division, and being the lowest ranked heartland club in the whole of rugby league, Ford felt the need to act.
Fast forward to now, the club has secured its long-term future at Boundary Park, a venue which would rival many Super League grounds. Enthusiasm for Oldham Rugby has massively increased with sales of season tickets more than tripling and average attendances seeing similar increases.
On the field, a championship calibre of squad has been amassed, spearheaded by a first class coach in Sean Long, with the ultimate goal of reviving Oldham’s prominence in the sport.
The event, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on April 26, will serve as celebration of the above, as well as a reflection on the past, while also providing an insight into what is to come for the club.
John Chadwick, Sean Long and Mike Ford will speak about the Past, Present and perceived Future for Oldham RLFC.
MD Mike Ford will share where he envisages the club going in the next few years, including growing the club’s boys’ and girls’ pathways, as well as further increasing attendances and building the Melrose training base into a first-class facility for use of the club and the community at large.
Cross-code rugby star Jason Robinson will be speaking at the event, which will have Michael Bradshaw as MC with entertainment throughout the night provided by comedian John Gillam.
Tickets are priced at £48 per head, which includes a three course meal.
There will also be a raffle, plus an auction on the night.
Mike Ford said: “We hope to have a brilliant turnout for what promises to be a fantastic night. “It’ll be great to hear the stories Jason Robinson has to share. I coached him when he was captain of the England side which reached the 2007 World Cup final – I loved coaching him because he was a lot smaller than me. There are not many more decorated players in both codes than Jason and it’ll be a real treat. We have come so far in twelve months as a club, both on and off the field, with the dinner recognising that.”
Guests are asked to arrive by 7pm to allow a prompt start at 7:30pm with the event expected to run until late.
Venue details: The Queen Elizabeth Hall, West Street, Oldham, OL1 1QJ
