IF you like your rugby league live and local you’ll be glad to know you can watch it at Manor Park, Bardsley tomorrow (Saturday) when Higginshaw go head to head with Waterhead ‘A’ in the final of the Oldham Amateur League’s Championship Cup, kick-off 2pm.
It promises to be a feast of good community rugby, given that Higgy have had a good season and are clearly on an upward trajectory, while Waterhead ‘A’ are strong and purposeful, having naturally benefited from the increased strength of their NCL side, which brought the National Cup back to our borough.
The Oldham Amateur League now has SEVEN clubs under its wing — the three ‘biggies’, St Anne’s, Saddleworth Rangers and Waterhead plus Higginshaw, Hollinwood, Fitton Hill Bulldogs and Limehurst Lions.
The recent meeting of the Oldham RLFC Players’ Association heard that the facilities enjoyed by Bulldogs were unbelievably good.
This year’s junior finals will take place on Waterhead Park on Sunday week, October 16, starting at 11am.
Don’t forget, too, that it’s the Oldham RLFC Players’ Association’s annual dinner next Friday night, October 14 at St Herbert’s on Broadway — a facility that has staged the last few dinners and has always proved popular.
Paul Sculthorpe will be guest speaker and this year, for the first time, there will be programmes on each table, an idea taken from a similar dinner organised by the Huddersfield Giants Players’ Association,
If you have booked a table at St Herbert’s for next Friday night please let the organisers know the names of your guests for programme purposes.
Oldham RLFC, celebrating its 25th Anniversary, will be heavily represented and led by chairman Chris Hamilton.
The club was also in attendance at the last Players’ Meeting at Springhead, along with Rugby Oldham, the Oldham Amateur League and YEDS, the new and official Roughyeds Supporters’ Group.
On Sunday, October 30, YEDS are running a trip to a club near Blackburn, which is owned and run by former Oldham player Micky Edwards.
So far, more than 20 fans are going on a coach leaving the Fox and Pine in late afternoon and returning late that night. The £25 ticket includes travel, food, a comedian and a Q and A featuring Micky himself.
There are plenty of seats remaining on the 52-seat bus so anyone interested in joining YEDS on a trip that will be a real Oldham Rugby event is invited to book with any YEDS official or at the Fox and Pine, which has become the group’s HQ.
It was also reported that Rugby Oldham, which has about 120 members, held its agm recently at the Fox and Pine.
A big weekend of World Cup warm-up games starts tonight (Fri) with England v Fiji at the A J Bell Stadium and you can watch them LIVE. The newly re-branded RLWC2021 app will be showing England v Fiji for FREE, while The Sportsman will have coverage of Scotland v England Knights tomorrow.
You can also get streams of Wales v Lebanon and of Leeds Rhinos v New Zealand. Book before midnight tonight for the early-bird price of £4.95 for each game.
The World Cup starts at St James’ Park, Newcastle next Saturday, October 15, when England kick it all off with a clash with Samoa, which promises to be a humdinger.
