NOW and again, a story surfaces about the commitment and dedication of a Roughyeds fan which cannot be ignored.
Such a case is that of Derek Tunney, a single, 67-year-old, originally from Oldham, now living in Cleveleys, who missed only three games all last season despite using public transport to get to wherever we were playing.
He missed the away games in Birmingham and in London on a Friday night and one home game because of a rail strike.
He hired a car to go to Cornwall and also managed to get to Llanelli for our game in South Wales.
It takes him four hours to get to the Vestacare Stadium like this — tram from Cleveleys to Blackpool; train from Blackpool to Manchester Piccadilly; bus from Manchester to Hollins; short walk to the Vestacare Stadium.
He did that nine times last season — and then took another four hours getting home.
“It was well worth it,” said Derek. “I’ve been watching Oldham Rugby since my Dad took me to Watersheddings as a ten-year-old. The games were on Saturdays back then, but these days I look forward all week to Sundays and my regular fix of the Roughyeds.”
It was his love of rugby league that caused him to move from High Crompton in the first place five years ago.
He explained:
“It was always a dream of mine to go to Australia and New Zealand so when an opportunity arose in 2017 to go to the Rugby League World Cup in the southern hemisphere, I sold my bungalow in High Crompton to raise the money to go and bought a static caravan in Fleetwood.
“I was 63 then and I didn’t want to leave it until I was in my 70s so that’s why I decided to sell up and go.
“I used to work at J.D. Williams in Shaw as a labourer, but Oldham Rugby always meant the world to me and it still does. Dad used to walk the dogs at the Watersheddings greyhound track so we used to spend a lot of time up there.”
Derek spent two months on his 2017 tour, meeting Paul Sculthorpe and stopping off in Malta on the way home.
He has since sold his caravan and now rents a sea-front flat at Cleveleys.
We bumped into him before the recent England v Fiji World Cup warm-up game at the A J Bell Stadium. Cleveleys seemed a long way off . . . but not to this fanatic of the Roughyeds in particular and of Rugby League in general.
