Relatives of former Oldham player TOMMY CASH, who starred for Roughyeds in the early 1900s before becoming a hero in the First World War, were proud to receive his Heritage Certificate (no. 80) on the pitch at Boundary Park when Cornwal were there.
Patricia Whittle, Tommy’s great grand-daughter and her son Andrew, Tommy’s great, great grandson, came from Bury; were entertained in the Broadway Suite pre and post match; and went on the pitch to proudly hear details over the tannoy of Tommy’s Oldham career and what he did in the Great War,
A local man who was born on Ashton Road, Tommy made his Roughyeds debut in September, 1902 in the 7-2 win at Hull KR. He would go on to play 139 first-team matches, scoring 69 tries, between 1902 and 1909. He topped the Oldham tries-in-a-season charts in consecutive seasons, 1904-05 and 1905-06.
During the First War, he served in the King’s Royal Rifles and earned the Military Medal and bar for two feats of heroism at Hollebeke and Passchendaele in 1917 – a proud and fearless Oldham lad doing his bit for the land of his birth, writes ROGER HALSTEAD.
Our picture shows (left to right): Oldham RLFC chairman Bill Quinn, Patricia Whittle, Andrew Whittle, Mike Turner of the Oldham RL Heritage Trust, Mike Elliott, chairman of the Players’ Association and himself a long-serving Oldham winger of many years ago.
Talking of the Players’ Association, it had a large following at the Cornwall game and there were several former players there independently, among them Bob Mordell, Adrian Alexander, who is a club ambassador and heavily involved at the club; Terry Flanagan and Paul Lord.
Also there were several old mates of Alex and Bob from the Twickenham area of London.
Said Bob:
“It’s always good to come back, to watch a game and to check on Alex and Ginny’s health.”
My conversation with Paul Lord inevitably turned to the try John Holdsworth called back for offside in a Challenge Cup semi-final against Warrington at Central Park when the jet-propelled Lord turned on the after-burners to chase a Mike Ford kick to the left-hand corner.
Said Paul:
“The decision still haunts me to this day. Mike used to kick regularly for me and we had it off to a tee. We both knew when it was ‘on’ because he would give me the eyes and the nod to tell me to get prepared. I was never offside.”
Paul still lives near Wakefield and he said his elder brother Gary, who also played for Oldham as a forward, was well and in the best of health.
The Players’ Assn., going from strength to strength, now has about 170 members, many of whom are scattered across the world and it is credit to all concerned within the Assn that heritage certificates have gone so far to so many.
The Assn. will hold its annual major social event – the dinner – at St Herbert’s on Broadway in the autumn, but coming up soon will be its second biggest event of its kind in the annual calendar at the fashionable and ever-popular White Hart, Lydgate – namely an evening of vocal entertainment featuring Victor Michael and Andy Lee, two young vocalists who deliver a classic programme of operatic arias in the mould of Andrea Bocelli or The Three Tenors.
This is an event that is always well received and this year’s offering on Thursday, May 9, includes potato-pie or cheese and onion pie supper. Company is mixed, dress code is smart casual and tickets at £25 a head can be obtained by ringing Ray Hicks (07526948334), John Watkins (0794612038) or Joe Warburton (07882848340).
Victor’s voice takes him far and wide, but he loves nothing better than to come home to Manchester, the city of his birth, and to meander up to Saddleworth where he is always keen to sample the local hospitality.
