The induction of John Hough into the club’s ‘Hall of Fame’ at the Fox and Pine yesterday (Sunday December 22nd) was a great occasion with a good turnout of supporters and people from right across the Roughyeds spectrum.
A brief film was screened highlighting John’s career with the Roughyeds accompanied by a slide show of images taken during the ‘Hough Years’ of 1998 – 2007. A real fans favourite, John, who is over on holiday from Perth, Western Australia, was a model of consistency at hooker playing 228 matches over nine years. Included in that total was a consecutive run on of 82 matches between Feb 1st 1999 and April 16 2001. He scored 53 tries, a great return for a number nine, many of which involved a classic dash from acting half-back.
Mike Elliott presents John Hough with his Hall of Fame certificate at the Fox and Pine flanked by Kevin Fitzpatrick (left) and Steve Brown of the Oldham Rugby League Heritage Trust. Photo – Dave Walker.
The upstairs rooms at the popular town centre venue were packed out to witness MC Kevin Fitzpatrick introduce existing ‘Hall-of-Famer’, Mike Elliott who presented John with his ‘Hall of Fame’ certificate.
The Hough family were out in force, as were representatives from the Heritage Trust, the Players Association, Rugby Oldham, the Yeds supporters group and the parent club represented by Managing Director, Mike Ford who presented John with his Heritage certificate. Mike of course was one of John’s team-mates and was in good company with Jason Clegg, Wes Rogers, Neil Roden and Steve Molloy also in attendance along with local rugby personalities including; Shane Tupaea, John Watkins, Ray Hicks and Joe Warburton.
Special thanks must be given to Chris and Michelle and the staff at the Fox and Pine for their continuing support for all things relating to the Roughyeds.
Roughyeds fan Bernie Allen was in for an unexpected surprise when he visited the NRL museum in Sydney earlier this week.
While visiting relatives ‘Down Under’, Bernie called in at the museum to drop in a spare copy of the Oldham RL Heritage Trust book, “Kangaroos, Kiwis and Roughyeds”. The book was gratefully and enthusiastically received and although the museum is actually closed for refurbishment at the moment, Bernie in company with son-in-law, Brian were afforded a quick trip round the facility by Luke Scifleet who is the Content Operations & Media Assets Lead at NRL Central in Sydney.
Left: Bernie hands over the book to Luke at the NRL museum. Middle: Bernie with the World Cup. Right: Brian and Bernie in their Oldham colours at the Allianz stadium.
Later on, proudly wearing Roughyeds shirts, they visited the Allianz stadium and were taken on an official tour.
It is with great regret that the Oldham RL Heritage Trust has learned of the death of ex-Roughyed, Jim Crellin (Heritage Number 716) aged 81.
Jim signed for Workington Town from Moresby Rugby Union club in 1965 and went on to play 35 games for the first team. A centre, he spent three full seasons at Derwent Park scoring seven tries and kicking 29 goals.
He signed for Oldham making his debut in January 1969 at Huyton and played 38 times, scoring seven tries and 31 goals before his last game for the Roughyeds at Salford in February 1970.
He then went to Rochdale Hornets where he played 154 games, scoring 34 tries and kicking 58 goals before retiring in 1975. As a player he represented Cumberland County on two occasions.
Jim then went into coaching and in May 1976 took over at Blackpool Borough where he caused a few raised eyebrows by guiding the ‘Seasiders’ to the 1976/77 John Player Trophy final after beating Halifax, Barrow, Workington and Leigh en-route. They lost 25-15 in the final to Castleford.
He also had spells coaching at Halifax, Swinton, Mansfield, Rochdale and Leigh.
The sincere condolences of the Heritage Trust go out to all of Jim’s family and friends.
Ray Hill continues his trek around Australia meeting up with former Roughyed’s heroes on the way.
Mal Graham and Peter Walsh receive their Heritage Certificates from Ray Hill.
He recently handed certificates over to Peter Walsh and Mal Graham which no doubt brought back memories about their time at Oldham and I would imagine especially that wonderful day at Old Trafford when the Roughyeds defeated Featherstone Rovers 28 – 26 in a pulsating 2nd Division Premiership final.
A happy day at Old Trafford on May15th 1988. Mal is in the centre with the cup and Peter (wearing no 6) on the right of the front row between Gary Warnecke and Mike Ford.
The Oldham Rugby League Heritage Trust is pleased to announce that three more players are to be added to the ‘Hall of Fame’ for Oldham RLFC:
John Hough, Phil Larder and Mike Ford
John Hough wrote himself into the folklore of the Roughyeds when he became the first player to sign for the re-formed club on December 2nd 1997.
Local born John had played his early rugby down at Keb Lane for Oldham Rugby Union before joining Waterhead ARLFC. He was later snapped up by Warrington before returning ‘home’ to become that historic first signing.
After playing in the emotional first fixture in the Law Cup against Rochdale on New Year’s Day 1998, a few weeks later he further enhanced his claim to fame by scoring the first points for the new club in a senior match with an early touchdown against Heworth in a Challenge Cup tie at Boundary Park on January 18th.
Playing mostly as hooker, John was a model of consistency playing 228 matches over the next nine years. Included in that total was a consecutive run on of 82 matches between Feb 1st 1999 and April 16 2001. He scored 53 tries, a great return for a number nine, many of which involved a classic dash from acting half-back.
He captained the club in the 2004 Law Cup victory against Rochdale Hornets at Boundary Park and made his last appearance against Harlequins on May 13th 2007.
Now settled in Perth, Western Australia, John will be back in Oldham in December and will be presented with his Heritage number and inducted into the Hall of Fame at the ‘Fox and Pine’ on Greaves Street, Oldham on Sunday December 22nd at 2.30pm.
Phil Larder
Born locally in Moorside, Phil played for the Werneth club, before switching codes and going to play for Oldham Rugby Union. His good form down at Keb Lane made the more senior clubs take notice and before his arrival at Watersheddings he had played for Broughton Park, Manchester, Loughborough College and Sale, picking up Lancashire county recognition along the way.
His debut for Oldham came in a pre-season friendly against Blackpool on August 10th 1968 when he immediately endeared himself to the home fans by scorching 60 yards up the touchline for a super try. Phil is one of the few players to have scored most tries/goals in a season, three times finishing top try scorer and on four occasions being best goal kicker, although never both in the one season.
He passed the century mark of goals in 1971-2 & 1972-3. His consistency on keeping the scoreboard ticking over made him the most prolific, “three-quarter” points scorer in the history of the club.
Although he played occasionally on the wing, the great majority of his games were at centre, with the Larder / Elliott wing partnership enjoying much success, in what was to prove to be a most enduring and productive three-quarter pairing. His last appearance for Oldham came against Featherstone Rovers on September 14th 1980 by which times he had played 328 times for the Roughyeds scoring 111 tries and 475 goals for a total of 1,283 points which puts him third on the all time list for the club. Only Bernard Ganley and Tommy Rees have scored more.
Phil was appointed director of coaching at the RFL in 1982. He wrote the Rugby League Skills Manual, published in 1983 and The Rugby League Coaching Manual, published in 1988 and subsequently went on to have spells in charge at Widnes, Keighley and Sheffield before becoming involved in the Great Britain set-up and was the coach to the England team in the 1995 World Cup and although they beat Australia in the first match of the tournament they eventually lost to the Kangaroos in the final.
He switched to Rugby Union in 1997 becoming the defence coach for England and was still there in 2003 when they won the Grand Slam and the World Cup.
He was awarded the MBE in the 2004 New Year’s Honours List for services to Rugby Union.
Mike Ford signed for his home town club in January 1988 from Leigh, after having first had a successful spell with Wigan, tasting Wembley glory in the 1985 victory over Hull. This was his second game in the famous stadium, his first being for the Oldham under-11’s schoolboy side in the curtain-raiser to the 1977 Challenge Cup Final.
A scrum-half of real pace and a great ‘reader’ of a game, Mike played with the local St Anne’s club before his move to Wigan, toured New Zealand with the BARLA Under 18’s and won Great Britain Colts honours. He came to Oldham in January 1988 when the season ended in promotion and that thrilling win over Featherstone at Old Trafford. This was supplemented by being selected for the 1988 tour ‘down under’, with Mike acting as Great Britain captain in some of the club matches.
The 1989-90 season saw Mike pick up the man of the match in the Second Division Premiership Final after skippering the team in another remarkable game at Old Trafford when the team came back from 29 – 6 down to win 30 – 29 against Hull K.R.
He later left to join Castleford where he enjoyed much success. After two spells in Australia and several other British clubs, Mike was back at Oldham as player-coach for the 2000 season and took the club to being just one game away from Super League in 2001.
In 2002 he became the defensive coach for the Ireland Rugby Union team and would go on to earn more plaudits in this capacity with the full England national team.
After further appointments in Rugby Union at club and international level, Mike returned to Oldham as the managing director in March 2023, as he looked to establish the club back to the top level of the game.
In spite of his many journeys in the rugby world there is no doubting Mike’s passion for his home town club and his desire to take Oldham back to the top.
In his two spells as a Roughyed, Mike played 157 matches scoring 37 tries, 1 goal and 13 drop goals for a total of 163 points.
Mike and Phil will be inducted into the Hall of Fame at the Law Cup match against Rochdale at Boundary Park on January 12th 2025.
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.
The club’s former commercial manager Ray Hill is currently away in Australia and has kindly offered to hand out Heritage Certificates as he renews acquaintances with some of our former players.
Ray has been in Canberra and Sydney where he presented certificates to former Roughyeds Gary Warnecke and Chris O’Sullivan.
ABOVE: Ray hands Gary Warnecke his Heritage Certificate in Sydney and meets up with Chris O’Sullivan in Canberra. BELOW: Gary and Chris in their Oldham playing days.
There will be further updates from Ray in the coming weeks.
The annual ‘Players Association’ dinner was held at St Herbert’s Parish room in Chadderton on Friday November 1st when approximately 200 people sat down for an enjoyable meal and entertainment from comedian Lee Roberts and guest speaker Dr. Kevin Jones with popular MC Pete Emmett.
The evening began with John Chadwick reading a list of ex-players who had died during the last twelve months with a toast to “absent friends”.
Heritage Certificates were handed out on the night to: Tony Wainwright, Bob Marsden, Richard Russell and Leo Casey. There was also a certificate presentation to the son of the late John Fairbank and also the son-in-law of Jack Keith (John Walker) who brought with him Jack’s impressive collection of medals including his Championship winners medal from 1956-57 and the three Lancashire Cup winners medals from 1956-57-58.
The Oldham Rugby League Heritage Trust was saddened to learn of the death of ex-Roughyed, Brian Lockwood (Heritage Number 845) aged 78.
Although he only played 15 times for Oldham in the 1980-81 season, he left a lasting memory of “what might have been”, had the club been able to hang on to his services for a longer period.
Originally a second-row who later switched to prop, he began his career at local club Castleford and was in the team that won the RL Challenge Cup in 1969 & 1970. He was part of the 1972 World Cup winning team before spending time is Australia at Canterbury-Bankstown and Balmain. He then has a spell at Wakefield before being snapped up by Hull KR and during his time with the ‘Robins’ he was voted the ‘man of the match‘ as Great Britain beat Australia at Odsal in 1978 and won the Lance Todd Trophy in the all Humberside cup final of 1980. He then had his brief spell at Oldham before going on to more glories at Widnes picking up another Challenge Cup winners medal in 1981 against his former club HKR and a runners-up medal the following year against Hull FC.
The condolences of the Oldham RL Heritage Trust go out to all of Brian’s family and friends.
The Oldham RL Heritage Trust was saddened to learn via the Rugby League Journal that the former Roughyed, John Cheshire (Heritage Number 656) had died on September 4th aged 91
John was born in South Wales, from where he was picked up by Salford in 1955, signing from his local club Cross Keys. He stayed with the Red Devils until 1963 when he transferred to Oldham. A centre three-quarter, he made ten appearances for the Roughyeds all of them in 1963.
The sincere condolences of the Oldham RL Heritage Trust go out to all of John’s family and friends.
