THE local rugby league family came together as one to give the late Derek Foy a fitting farewell at a Requiem Mass at St Edward’s RC Church in Lees.
Derek’s sons Martin and Des both played at the highest level, centre Des hitting the very top when he was one of five Oldham players who were selected for the 1984 Great Britain tour of Australia and New Zealand.
Mick Worrall, another member of the famous five, was at the Requiem, along with numerous former Oldham players, including Wally Jones, Pasquale D’Adamo, Leo Casey, Neil Flanagan, Joe Warburton and Martin Hall.
Joe Warburton was there in a dual role, as a former player and as current secretary of the Players’ Association, formerly known as the Ex-Players’ association.
Also there in a double role were John Watkins, assistant physio and well-known “sponge man"at Watersheddings for several decades and currently the treasurer of the Players’ Association and Roger Halstead, former Oldham Evening Chronicle rugby league reporter for 40 years and newly-installed president of Oldham RLFC.
Martin Hall, once one of the best hookers in the game, began his illustrious career at home-town Oldham, but later hit the heights at Wigan where he was a colleague of Martin Foy.
Also there were lots of former amateur players in the town — too numerous to mention — and scores of family friends, including Maureen Gartland and her son Shaun, himself a well-known former player and coach on the local scene.
Family members, led by Martin and Des, carried the coffin out of church after a Requiem led by Father Callum Brown, who said Derek wasn’t only a well-known figure on the local rugby league scene in his own right, but was also a keen worker for St Edward’s and for Catholic charities and causes until he was struck down by illness.
Our sport in Oldham will be the poorer for the passing of Francis Derek Foy, a real rugby league man and a gentleman in every sense of the word.
