Profile

Born locally in Scouthead, Joe Lawton first played for the Highmoor club and later moved on to Mayfield. He was invited to turn out for Oldham “A” team on an occasion when Gwynn and McCutcheon had been selected for Lancashire and the regular “A” teamers were promoted to the senior side. He joined Oldham in 1892 just one week after his famous half back partner Arthur Lees. The first honour he attained was in helping the “A” team win the “Advertiser Cup” in 1893.

After the retirement of Harry Varley, Joe took his place at stand off for the commencement of the 1897-98 season. This was the beginning of a remarkable run of consecutive games that saw him play in every match between September 4th, 1897 and November 2nd, 1901. The total of 134, remains the club record.

It was during this time that he established the half back pairing with Arthur Lees that would reap rich rewards for the club. Although it was Lees who usually worked the base of the scrum, sometimes he and Lawton would swap places to confuse the opposition. Both players captained the Lancashire county team. On one occasion, to much local amusement, when they were each selected for a “Red Rose” encounter, Joe was chosen to lead the county in preference to Arthur who at the time was the Oldham club captain. One of Joe’s greatest assets was his speed of delivery of the ball and as a result the threequarters flourished, particularly Sam Williams and Tom Davies. He was, of course, stand off half in the team that won the Challenge Cup in 1899.