Mike Ford has, not surprisingly, grabbed all the headlines, but the new owners of Oldham RLFC numbered five at today’s Boundary Park media scrum, writes ROGER HALSTEAD.
“This isn’t about me, or us, but about the town, the club and YOU, the supporters,”
Ford told a large gathering of fans, former players, ex-officials, media personnel and other well wishers .
They included representatives from Oldham Council, Oldham Athletic, Rugby Oldham (the Supporters’ Trust), the Oldham RL Heritage Trust, the Oldham Amateur Rugby League and the Players’ Association.
On the top table, the famous five (new owners) flanked head coach Stuart Littler who has the full backing of the new board along with assistant coach Brendan Sheridan, the backroom staff, players and volunteers.
The logistics of the day-to-day running of the club have still to be formulated.
“Collectively, we have a lot of different skills,” said Ford, “but we haven’t yet worked out who does what.”
The five new board members are Mike Ford, local businessmen Mick Harrington, Gary Kershaw and Simon Winnard and Mike Ford’s assistant coach at Oldham more than 20 years ago, Haydn Walker.
They are all Oldhamers apart from Walker, who comes from Wigan.
Mick Harrington, aged 38, lives in Delph and is the grandson of the late Ken Wilson, an Oldham and Waterhead legend who played in more than 300 games for Roughyeds at prop between 1963 and 1973.
Gary Kershaw, aged 52, lives in Denshaw and has previously held a management role at Huddersfield Giants.
Simon Winnard, aged 53, has been an Oldham fan all his life. He used to report on Oldham games for John Huxley at the Rugby Leaguer and was a founder member of Rugby Oldham, the Supporters’ Trust, with the late Brian Walker.
Haydn Walker, 61, was Mike Ford’s assistant boss at Oldham more than 20 years ago and worked full time at the club on development and on the lottery. Since then, he has worked for ten years on development at the RFL. He hails from Orrell, which he says is the “posh” part of Wigan.
Ford himself carved a coaching career in Rugby Union before moving back to this area five years ago. He bought land in Diggle, had a house built, and now lives close to his middle son George, who plays for Sale after winning 82 England caps at fly half.
Eldest boy Joe, 33, coaches Union at Doncaster and the youngest, Jacob, is head of rugby at Ipswich School and director of rugby at Bury St Edmunds RFC after going to the world-famous Harrow School where he rose to be head of his house.
Dad Mike, who was brought up in Grasscroft, left Roughyeds to become defence coach of Ireland in Rugby Union and then worked for Saracens, England, Bath and in France before moving back to his roots here.
He said:
“Our sole aim is to provide this town with a rugby league team of which everyone can be proud. The move to Boundary Park was a key part of our interest. We have worked closely with Latics and with Oldham Council and we would like to thank both for giving us so much help. Going forward, we will have close links with Athletic, with whom we have a long-term agreement.”
The five new directors preferred not to talk about financial details of their purchase or about each director’s outlay, but they didn’t rule out the possibility of at least one more director coming on board soon.
It was pointed out that no fewer than 12 Oldham-born players were currently in Super League — a statistic which the new board says is proof that the town is a hot-bed of rugby league and creates a dream of Oldham boys wanting to play for Oldham like they used to when Mike Ford was a boy.
At the promotion of Oldham Community Radio’s Gerald Brierley, there was a long and lasting round of applause for former owner Chris Hamilton for keeping the club alive for 25 years, most of them on his own.
