The Heritage Trust and all of the Oldham RL fraternity were saddened to learn of the death of former Roughyed, Cliff Hill who recently died in a Wigan hospital, aged 78.
Cliff , was a clever ‘old school’ stand-off who joined Oldham from Wigan towards the end of his career and, with prop Frank Foster and coach Graham Starkey, helped to transform Oldham’s fortunes in the early 1970s.
A master tactician he dictated tactics, used to the full his great vision and sense of anticipation, and generally brought out the best in those around him.
Hill captained a side which played a brand of touchline-to-touchline rugby that wasn’t only pleasing on the eye, but brought out the best in outside backs and wingers. Hill, as playmaker-in-chief, and Foster, as the side’s enforcer, were the perfect fit for Starkey’s advanced thinking.
In seven years at Wigan earlier in his career, Cliff scored 57 tries in 192 games and then at Oldham, between 1971 and 1973, he played 59 times, scored nine tries… and made scores of more for others.
Brought up in Ashton-in-Makerfield, he was spotted by the great Eric Ashton while playing for Newton-Le-Willows RU club, the club. In replacing full-back Colin Tyrer, who was injured in the 1970 Cup Final, Cliff made Rugby League and Challenge Cup history by becoming the first substitute in a Challenge Cup final.
The following year Cliff signed for Oldham for £2,250. He made his debut for the Roughyeds at Halifax on February 7th 1971 in a team including Martin Murphy, Mike Elliott, Phil Larder, Kevin Taylor, Ken Wilson and Bob Irving.
He made one appearance for Great Britain against the French in January 1966.
The sincere condolences of the Oldham Rugby League Heritage Trust are offered to Cliff’s family and friends.
The members of the Heritage Trust were saddened to learn of the death of former Roughyed, John Rae.
‘Johnny’, as he was often known, was signed from the Cumbrian amateur club Wath Brow. A native of Pica, which is more or less half way between Workington and Whitehaven, John was signed by Gus Risman for the Roughyeds making his debut at Salford on March 4th 1961.
A second row or loose forwad, John played 41 matches for Oldham scoring 12 tries.
He left Watersheddings to join the newly reformed Bradford Northern club in 1964 which turned out to be an astute signing for ‘Northern’ as John went on to play for Great Britain in the second test against the Kiwis in 1965 and helped Bradford win the Yorkshire cup in the same year. He made 132 appearances for the Yorkshire club scoring 40 tries and nine goals in four seasons before persistent knee injuries forced his early retirement at the young age of 27.
The sincere condolences of the Oldham Rugby League Heritage Trust are offered to all of John’s family and friends.
It is with great regret that the Heritage Trust have learned of the death of former Roughyed, Brian Lord.
A noted local swimmer and swim instructor, Brian signed from local amateur rugby in 1959 and made his senior debut at Widnes on January 30th 1960 where the Roughyeds recorded a ten nil victory against the ‘Chemics’. That day Brian played at left centre and his 88 matches for Oldham were split almost equally between the centre and wing positions. A robust player with a good turn of pace he scored 40 tries for Oldham before moving on to the newly reformed Bradford Northern club at the end of the 1963-64 season along with team-mate, John Rae.
The sincere condolences of the Oldham Rugby League Heritage Trust are offered to all of Brian’s family and friends.
The Oldham Rugby League Heritage Trust was sad to learn of the death of ex-Roughyed Dave Nicholson on the Isle of Man.
Fans will remember Dave as a hard-working second-row forward in two of Oldham’s most successful seasons for many years.
Dave, who played originally for Blackbrook ARLFC and toured Australia, New Zealand and PNG with the pioneering BARLA open-age international squad before turning pro for Swinton in 1979. He played a total of 31 games for the Lions making a lot of friends at Station Road along the way.
He impressed Swinton coach Frank Myler in his two seasons with the Lions, so much so that when Myler took charge at Watersheddings ahead of the 1981-2 season and wanted to tighten the defence, he went back to his former club and signed Nicholson and utility back Alan Taylor in a joint deal worth £20,000.
It was the start of a brilliant season in which Dave played 25 times as Oldham won 30 of their 32 league games to finish top of Division Two, to carry off the Slalom Lager Rose Bowl, to pick up £6,000 in prize money and to lift their first trophy since 1964.
They also reached their first cup semi-final in 17 years, beating Doncaster, Huddersfield and Leeds, all at home, to take on Hull at Headingley, losing 22-6 in the last four of the John Player Trophy with Dave playing at prop
Dave played in 35 matches for Oldham scoring 7 tries.
The Myler years will be long remembered . . . as will the part played by Dave Nicholson in Frank’s first two seasons.
Rest in peace Dave, the condolences of the Oldham Rugby League Heritage Trust and all the Oldham RL fraternity go out to all of Dave’s family and friends.
It is perhaps appropriate that on August 29th 2020, exactly 125 years since the formation of the Northern Union / Rugby League at the George Hotel in Huddersfield, Joseph Platt the first secretary of the then new sporting body was inducted into the Rugby League – Roll of Honour. He is the first person to be posthumously so honoured.
Joe served as secretary of the league for 25 years and was an official / vice president at Oldham for over forty years having first being elected to the committee in 1885
The Oldham Chairman Chris Hamilton was there to receive the award from the CEO of the Rugby Football League, Ralph Rimmer at the special 125th anniversary event at the George Hotel.
Chris Hamilton with RFL CEO Ralph Rimmer at the George Hotel in Huddersfield.
History tells us that Joseph Platt was a tireless worker on behalf of Oldham F.C. and all things Rugby League and the award is long overdue.
The Infirmary Cup (Law Cup) was first contested between Oldham and Rochdale Hornets in May 1921. The trophy was donated by the Rochdale MP, the Right Hon A. J. Law with the proceeds of the match being given over to the infirmaries in the two towns.
After a 0 – 0 draw at the Athletic Grounds on May 7th, Oldham became the first recipients by winning the replay 12 – 2 at Watersheddings on May 13th with Joe Ferguson the first winning captain to hold the cup aloft.
The competition would subsequently become a pre or early season event and when, as in 1954 and 1976, the match ended in a draw the cup was retained by the current holders.
Watch this space for further updates and Law Cup facts.
The Heritage Trust were saddened to learn of the death of former Roughyed Tommy Parker.
Tommy was signed from the Lock Lane amateur club in Castleford during the 1959-60 season and made his senior debut on April 18th 1960 in a 36 – 8 home victory over Whitehaven, playing at loose forward. Most of Tommy’s 21 first team games for Oldham saw him at the back of the pack with a few in the second row. His final first team match was in the 8 – 15 home defeat to Swinton on April 28th 1962. Tommy left to join Bramley later that year and made 75 appearances during four seasons with the Villagers.
Strangely enough we had three “Parkers” on the books in the early 1960s: Dave, Peter and Tommy none of them related.
The sincere condolences of the Oldham Rugby League Heritage Trust are offered to Tommy’s family and friends.
Due to a decision by the Rugby League Record Keepers club to include some fixtures from the 1918-19 season as senior matches, Joe Ferguson, Oldham’s record appearance maker has had his total increased to 631.
There were four matches played in March / April 1919 that originally had their status changed from senior fixtures to “friendlies”. However, for record keeping purposes these games have now been declared good to count towards official statistics.
The matches were as follows:
Oldham
11
St Helens Recs.
0
March 15th 1919
Swinton
6
Oldham
5
April 18th 1919
Oldham
28
Swinton
12
April 19th 1919
Oldham
18
Broughton R.
5
April 21th 1919
Joe played in all four matches and the other players affected are as follows:
4 matches: Alf Wood, Jim Parkinson, Danny Thompson, Rod Marlor and Herman Hilton.
3 matches: Tom Fitton, Ernest Forshaw, Harry Carter and Bill Biggs.
2 matches: Billy Hall, Evan Davies, Ned Thomas and Tom Taylor.
1 Match: George Cook, Joel Tetlow, George Evans, Robert Duff, Hallam Fenton, Dave Holland, Jack Wiltshire and J Foster.
These are the points that have been added to their totals:
Alf Wood: 7 goals – 14 points.
Jim Parkinson & Herman Hilton: 3 tries – 9 points.
Tom Fitton & Danny Thompson: 2 tries – 6 points.
Evan Davies, Ned Thomas, Joe Ferguson, Ernest Forshaw, Bill Biggs & Jack Wiltshire: 1 try – 3 points.
It is with sadness that the Heritage Trust learned the news of the death of former Oldham player Alan Taylor at the age of 68.
After originally signing for Wigan, when turning professional from the Widnes Rugby Union club, Alan came to Oldham from Swinton in 1981 when Frank Myler took over the coaching job at Watersheddings.
Between 1981 and 1985, he scored 15 tries in 75 appearances, most of them at full-back. He was a tough, talented player who also turned out at stand-off, loose-forward and on the wing.
In 1981-82, his best season, he scored ten tries in 35 games as the Roughyeds won the Second Division championship at the first attempt under the new coaching duo of Myler and Peter Smethurst.
After a spell working away as a teacher in the Bahamas, Alan returned to captain the Roughyeds for the 1984-85 season when Oldham finished fifth in the old first division, their best return since the heady days of the late 1950s.
The sincere condolences of everyone at the Oldham Rugby League Heritage Trust are sent out to the Taylor family.
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.
