Oldham Rugby League Club was in sombre and reflective mood today following the death, aged 65, of a former Roughyeds forward who totally epitomised the concept of the hard-working second-row man.
Colin Hawkyard played nearly 200 game for Roughyeds, scoring 32 tries , in his decade at Watersheddings between the 1978-79 season and the 1988-89 season.
He was one of the last Oldham players to receive a ten-year benefit and I was proud and privileged to serve on his testimonial committee, writes ROGER HALSTEAD.
The heartfelt and sincere condolences of everyone at the club go to Colin’s family and friends, especially to his nephew, Ritchie, who also played for Oldham as a tearaway full-back in 2019, having spent most of his career with Swinton Lions.
Ritchie had the typical Hawkyard traits as demonstrated so consistently by Colin many years earlier — qualities like hard work, sheer graft, honesty in always doing his best for 80 minute irrespective of the score or how a game was going.
Both Hawkyards were what is commonly known as “players’ players’; respected and highly-valued by team mates, who knew better than anyone the value to the team of what they did, how they played.
For every Andy Goodway, a marvellous runner and a brilliant player, or Terry Flanagan, who could almost make a ball talk and who could read a game like no other, there had to be a Colin Hawkyard, a no-nonsense journeyman of a forward who could always be relied on to do the donkey work from first minute to last and was more than happy to see others take the headlines and the plaudits so long as he could look in the dressing room mirror and know that he had put in a shift and done his job.
It speaks volumes for Colin that he made the starting line-up 147 times and also had 42 substitute appearances when there were so many talented back-rowers at Watersheddings across his ten years at the club. During that time there were long spells in the ‘A’ team for Colin but I don’t ever remember a single moan or an expression of discontent from the man who could reasonably be described as a coach’s dream.
He made his debut in December, 1978 in this team: Murphy; Elliiott, Larder, Lund, Fitzsimmons; Fricker, Ogden; Connor, O’Mahoney, Hall, Forster. Hawkyard, Jewitt. Subs: Arnold, Munro.
During the next decade, Hawkyard gave tremendous service and loyalty to Oldham, seeing many changes up there on the hill and actually scoring the try that will forever live in the memory of those there that night. It will forever remain one of the club’s magical moments, comparing favourably with that Paddy Kirwan try later the same season which knocked star-spangled Wigan out of the Challenge Cup.
Colin’s classic came in the first half of the tour game against the Aussies. Mick Worrall made the all-important break and on his shoulder was Colin Hawkyard, who went in for the try that brought the house down. Oldham lost 22-16, but they gave the mighty green-and-golds their toughest game of the tour; received fulsome praise in the national press; and even had Aussie fans admitting it was a close thing.
That was, without doubt, Colin Hawkyard’s finest hour in the Oldham jersey. How fitting that centre Des Foy, who scored the other Oldham try on that memorable night under the Watersheddings floodlights, should message his own condolences to Colin on our social media channels.
For the record, Oldham lined up like this: Edwards; Sherman, Foy, Warnecke, M’Barki; Topliss, Ashton; Clark, Flanagan, N Clawson, Worrall, Hobbs, Raper. Subs: Hawkyard, Nadiola (two Huddersfield lads)
Colin played the only way he knew how – by giving his all.
The following season Mike Ford came into the team at scrum-half and played in the same team as Hawkyard on numerous occasions across two seasons before the Hawkyard era came to an end in 1988-89. Therein is the link between the Oldham of today and the Oldham when Hawkyard was always there to answer his club’s call to arms.
Thanks for the memory Col – a forward with the heart of a lion and the determination to match !
