Frank Pitchford was yet another of the great 1950’s team to hail from Leigh. He was spotted playing for Leigh St Joseph’s amateur team and signed for Oldham at the start of the 1952-53 season, making his debut at Liverpool on Boxing Day.
As tricky a scrum half as ever played for the club, Frank was famous for his lightning bursts away from the scrum and the ability to exploit the slightest flaw in the opponents’ defence, by darting through the gap himself or delivering a pin-point pass to a colleague. He remains the only scrum half to score more than 100 tries for the club.
By the 1954-55 season he was the regular first choice No 7 and would remain so for the next seven years. He scored the only points for Oldham in the 1955 Championship Final defeat (7- 3) at Maine Road, in the mud against Warrington. The disappointment of that day was offset when Frank played a starring role in the success against Hull two years later.
He represented Lancashire and won two full Great Britain caps, one against France in 1962 and the other against New Zealand in Auckland on the 1958 tour “Down Under”. Frank left to join Wigan in 1962 and like so many of his colleagues, he went on to play at Wembley, after leaving Watersheddings, but it is as an elusive scrum half in the red and white of Oldham, that he will always be remembered.
Player profile
Frank Pitchford was yet another of the great 1950’s team to hail from Leigh. He was spotted playing for Leigh St Joseph’s amateur team and signed for Oldham at the start of the 1952-53 season, making his debut at Liverpool on Boxing Day.
As tricky a scrum half as ever played for the club, Frank was famous for his lightning bursts away from the scrum and the ability to exploit the slightest flaw in the opponents’ defence, by darting through the gap himself or delivering a pin-point pass to a colleague. He remains the only scrum half to score more than 100 tries for the club.
By the 1954-55 season he was the regular first choice No 7 and would remain so for the next seven years. He scored the only points for Oldham in the 1955 Championship Final defeat (7- 3) at Maine Road, in the mud against Warrington. The disappointment of that day was offset when Frank played a starring role in the success against Hull two years later.
He represented Lancashire and won two full Great Britain caps, one against France in 1962 and the other against New Zealand in Auckland on the 1958 tour “Down Under”. Frank left to join Wigan in 1962 and like so many of his colleagues, he went on to play at Wembley, after leaving Watersheddings, but it is as an elusive scrum half in the red and white of Oldham, that he will always be remembered.