Ray Hatton RIP
17th November 2024
The Oldham RL Heritage Trust were sad to hear the news that former club chairman Ray Hatton had passed away in Australia. Please find below an appraisal of Ray’s time at Oldham RLFC by Roger Halstead.
The death in Perth, West Australia, of former club chairman Ray Hatton, at the age of 93, will come as a shock to the many people in Oldham who remember him as the man who was in charge at the time of the great scratchcard boom when the club became famous for its money-making venture and signed the likes of Terry Flanagan, Ray Ashton, Andy Goodway and Mick Worrall on the back of it.
They were among the best kids around and they went from unknown boys to fully-fledged internationals and Great Britain tourists in next to no time — all down to the money raised on the famous scratchcards.
They were the days of town-centre booths, of long lines of people hoping to win a fortune, of cash swelling the Watersheddings coffers — and of Ray Hatton, the boy from Limeside, who became the man of the moment as chairman of Oldham RLFC with a rags-to-riches story to tell in the bargain.
“He was a great guy — a revolutionary. A man who knew where he wanted to take the club, and what he needed to do to take it there..” said John Chadwick, who worked alongside him at the club, went with him to Hull to sign Brian Lockwood and Clive Sullivan, and who affirms what we all say: Rest In Peace, Raymond, you ran the race, won the race, and Oldham RLFC was all the better for your input.
My personal memories of Ray Hatton are numerous. He was a prominent member of the infamous ginger group that swept all before it at the annual members’ election of 1970 after Oldham had finished 29th out of 30 clubs in a single-division set-up called the Northern Rugby League in 1969-70. Only Blackpool Borough finished lower than Oldham, the club’s worst position since the formation of the Northern Union in 1895. Huyton were above us, Oldham losing 28 of their 34 games. Members were shocked and saddened. They demanded change and got it with nine knew committee men, a new chairman in Arthur Walker, a new coach in Graham Starkey, a new pools organiser — and lots of new ideas.
Progress was steady, with the Roughyeds climbing from 29th to 16th, to 13th, to 9th in Starkey’s first three years, but it wasn’t fast enough bearing in mind the promises made by the new men and in early 1972, the Oldham Evening Chronicle headlined my story: “A trip to the moon that ended at Mumps.”
What I didn’t know, of course, was that the great Frank Foster was on his way from Barrow and with Foster organising the forwards and that magnificent ball handler Cliff Hill looking after the backs, with Starkey in overall control, Oldham had a great run and found themselves in the First Division when the 30 clubs were split into two in 1973/74.
From memory, Ray Hatton was Arthur Walker’s vice-chairman in those early days of the ginger group. It was certainly Ray who took me on one side after my “trip to the moon that ended at Mumps” story, admonished me, and pointed out that if I wanted the club to do right by me, then I had to do right by the club. He was right, of course. He never once mentioned that hiccup again and we became firm friends, especially so when he was club chairman from 1977 to 1983.
Under Ray’s leadership, Starkey returned to the club for a second spell as team manager, the lottery went through the roof, Brian Gartland and Derek Foy came in to oversee a youth policy and the famous colts were formed in season 79-80. In his book, ‘ Roughyeds – The Story’, Brian Walker wrote: “For years boys with potential had been going out of town to play the pro game, but now the traffic was coming in the opposite direction.”
Havn’t we heard that before somewhere? Locally, we got Terry Flanagan, Paddy Kirwan. Pasquale D’Adamo, and Joe Warburton, but from further afield came Ray Ashton, Mike Cowley, Les Cook, Alan Platt, Mick Coombes, John Walls, Steve Littler, Andy Goodway and Mick Worrall.
Another Oldhamer, Des Foy, came in from Widnes, and as the likes of Flanagan, Kirwan, Ashton, Foy, Goodway and Worrall hit the big time, Oldham won the Colts Cup, won the Second Division Championship in 81-82 and in the following year, with Ray as chairman, finished eighth in the First Division — their best year since 1960-61.
Eventually, Ray Hatton left the club, settled in Perth, West Australia, via Portugal, but never forgot his Watersheddings days or the many friends he made in Rugby League. In 2001, he and his wife, Janet, met up with me in Queensland. I told him my youngest boy David, an Oldham mascot in his youth, was in New Zealand and later the Hattons dropped in on him to talk about the Roughyeds.
That was typical of Ray Hatton — a man we will NEVER forget.