A new documentary telling the stories of Oldham rugby league’s Hall of Fame members is to be released.
It’s being produced by BBC reporter and former Roughyeds player, Kevin Fitzpatrick, and will focus on the careers of the 22 players considered among the best in the club’s nearly 150 year history, as well as the memorable team moments they were involved in.
The players range from Arthur Lees and Joe Ferguson who played from the late 1800s up to John Hough who was the first signing for the reformed club in 1997.
The audio documentary will be downloadable and feature interviews with all the living Hall of Famers as well as Alan Davies, Bernard Ganley, John Etty and Frank Stirrup from the legendary team of the 1950s.
These interviews were part of an earlier project about the first ten members of the Hall of Fame in 2002.
Kevin, who recently joined the Oldham Rugby League Heritage Trust, said; “It’s been a privilege talking to the Oldham players who had such an impact on the team and the fans. I’m trying to discover what made them the players they were and capture their memories of the ups and downs during their time with the club.”
The documentary will also feature teammates, rugby league historians and relatives of older players who are no longer with us.
A launch event is being planned for the Broadway Suite at Boundary Park on Friday 28th March with tickets available in due course.

Oldham retained the Law Cup after a mighty struggle against Rochdale Hornets which saw them winners 16 – 14 in the rearranged match at Boundary Park on Wednesday January 22nd. After Oldham had gone into a ten points to nil lead, Hornets hit back to leave the home supporters much relieved to hear the final hooter with the Roughyeds only two points to the good. In the absence of regular skipper Jordan Turner, it was Pat Moran who had the honour to lead the team out and lift the cup.

Owen Farnworth was a worthy winner of the Heritage Trust Trophy with a typical non-stop performance. He was run close by several of his team-mates but his all round effort in defence and the ability to make the extra yards after impact swung the vote in his favour. A good example of this was the ‘drive’ into the Rochdale defence just prior to Kieran Dixon’s try which proved to be the match winner.

Phil Larder and Mike Ford were presented with their ‘Hall of Fame’ certificates at a brief ceremony in the Broadway suite before the match against Wigan at Boundary Park last Sunday, January 19th.

Phil (Heritage Number 705) and Mike (HN 934) received their certificates from club vice-president, John Chadwick and both spoke fondly about their time with the Roughyeds.

2nd January 2025

The Heritage Trust were saddened to learn of the death of former Roughyed, Ken Gwilliam (Heritage Number 838), who passed away on January 2nd aged 77. St Helens born, Ken began his rugby league career with Blackbrook before signing for Salford in 1967 and was the youngest member of the team that lost to Castleford in the 1970 Challenge Cup Final when he played at full-back.

He signed for his hometown club in 1974 and made 151 appearances for St Helens before making the move to Watersheddings in 1979. He made his Oldham debut on November 11th in a narrow 6 – 5 victory over Barrow. All of Ken’s matches for Oldham were in the scrum-half position. He made a total of 33 appearances for the Roughyeds scoring six tries and a drop goal.

The sincere condolences of everyone connected with Oldham RLFC goes out to all of Ken’s family and friends.

Ray Hill has continued his trek ‘Down Under’ as far as New Zealand where he met up with Roughyeds’ legend Charlie McAlister in Auckland. Ray presented Charlie with his Heritage certificate during a week-long stay and they took the opportunity to have lunch with the former Wigan star, Frano Botica.

Ray will be homeward bound soon with, no doubt, many stories to tell of his adventures in Australia and New Zealand and his meetings with the Roughyeds stars of yesteryear.

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.

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.

Stronger Together!

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.

Later on, proudly wearing Roughyeds shirts, they visited the Allianz stadium and were taken on an official tour.

17th November 2024

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.

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.

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.