BBC man our new Heritage trustee

YOU may well have seen Kevin Fitzpatrick on television's BBC regional news programme 'North-West Tonight' or heard him chatting on BBC Radio Manchester about politics, but did you know he's a local man who played for Roughyeds more than 20 years ago

For someone of my age who has been closely watching this club play since 1964 — and that's every home and away match, every 'A' team game home and away, every Academy game at home and most away, plus most first-team training sessions, be they at Watersheddings, Castleton Gabriels when Mike Ford was player-coach here; or at Hathershaw College; or at Oasis Academy on Hollins Road in more recent times — different eras tend to merge into one and I have to be reminded that lots of Roughyeds fans haven't been watching the club for 20 years, let alone 60.

When I talk of Martin Murphy, Mike Elliott and Phil Larder in the same breath as Fordy, the Gibbons lads, Pat Rich, Neil Roden, Phil Farrell etc, my sons remind me that times were very different in those two periods and that they are even more different today, as Mike Ford will testify.

So I ask again, quite seriously: Did you know that Kevin Fitzpatrick, the man on the tele, out on the street with the mic knocking on doors for political analysis or sitting in a warm studio at Radio Manchester talking you though local election results, is a rugby league nut who lives in Saddleworth, who played for Roughyeds back in the day when Fordy played for us, who used to coach one of the Saddleworth youth teams, and who has joined our Heritage Trust as a trustee.

Said Mike Turner, who runs the Heritage and is that body's spokesman: "Having lost Brian Walker and David Whitehead across the years, both deceased, we were down on numbers and Kevin was an obvious choice to join us. I'm sure he will do a great job. "

Indeed, 'our Kev' will figure on Oldham Community Radio on Saturday morning, interviewed by Gerald Brierley and thus following in the footsteps of Bill Quinn and Mike Ford, arguably the two most 'hands on' and influential figures at the club right now.

Gerald will quiz Kevin about his great interest in rugby league, his days as a player at Oldham, his enthusiasm for Saddleworth Rangers, his journalistic career, how he handles home life while working for the BBC and following Roughyeds, and the new page Heritage have set up on Facebook to share some of their historic pics and stories.

Gerald might also ask Fitzpatrick about the work he is doing individually (nothing to do with his work for the BBC) about the Oldham RLFC Hall of Fame, which currently numbers 19.

Now aged 46, Kevin was in his early 20s when he was a young full-back at Oldham, appearing on the sheet against Whitehaven at Spotland as a substitute in 1999, under the coaching of the late Mick Coates, and three more substitutions in 2000, Ford's first season as player-coach.

Ford came to Oldham from Bramley and he brought a clutch of players with him, among them Mark Sibson, the Gibbons twins and Andy Proctor.

Other key members of the team in Ford's first season as coach were winger Joey Hayes, quality goalkicking centre Pat Rich, Ford himself at scrum-half, Leo Casey at prop, John Hough at hooker, Jason Clegg, first as a sub and then in the front-row where he formed a more-than-useful front three with Casey and Hough.

With forwards like Casey, Hough, Proctor, Mark Campbell and Wes Rogers to go at, Ford had plenty of fire-power available and later that season came forwards of the calibre of Dann y Guest, Ian Sinfield, Shayne McMenemy, Steve Molloy and Phil Farrell and a brilliant half-back, also from Wigan, called Neil Roden.

Ford certainly didn't neglect his backs, Mark Sibson scoring 24 tries, Joey Hayes 18, Anthony Gibbons 15 and Pat Rich 11, plus 115 goals in 2000, but one got the feeling that his priority was a big, strong pack — a priority we still see all these years later.

With Sibson one of the Northern Ford Premiership's top try scorers, it was hardly surprising Fitzpatrick's appearances were so limited, but he was sub at Doncaster in the NFP early in the season; in the next match against Wigan St Jude's at Boundary Park in the Challenge Cup; and later in the season against Swinton at Boundary Park in the league. He only got on the pitch once — against St Jude's — but he was named as a sub four times in total and three times with Fordy in charge.

It was about that time that Kevin was establishing his long-term future, his further education and his career in journalism. He and Gareth Walker of Littleborough won places at UCLAN in Preston on a course to learn all about journalism, Kevin eventually taking the BBC job and Gareth becoming rugby league reporter at the Sunday People, although he is not in journalism now.

Ultimately, Kevin was released by Oldham, but he never lost his interest in the club and in the early days of his new life on the mic he recorded a piece about the Roughyeds' Hall of Fame, which back then numbered only ten — Joe Ferguson, Alan Davies, Berbard Ganley, John Etty, Andy Goodway, Herman Hilton, Martin Murphy, Derek Turner, Bob Irving and Frank Stirrup.

Since then, nine more have been added and its these nine --Arthur Lees, Jack Read, Fred Ashworth, Alex Givvons, Harry Ogden, Sid Little, Mike Elliott, Kevin Taylor and Terry Flanagan -- that Kevin will be concentrating on in his updated audio documentary, which should be ready by next Spring.

Most of the nine have left us, but Kevin has been or will be in touch with relatives and he has spoken directly with Mike Elliott and Terry Flanagan.

He said: "I was very much the novice when I did the original feature, but more than 20 years on it's much easier, both from the technical point of view and the fact that I am much more experienced in these things than I was when I was a young Oldham player."

Back to Ford and the 2001 season — his swansong year as player-coach here and one that had a fantastic finale with a run to the Grand Final against Widnes at a packed Spotland Stadium.

Who will ever forget that play-off win at Leigh and, most of all, that sensational win at Rochdale in the semi when Fordy took himself off the bench to rescue a lost cause late in the game. He turned a 32-14 deficit into a 39-32 triumph almost single-handedly.

It was Ford's finest hour in the Oldham story. It didn't go according to plan in the final against Widnes at the same venue, but Ford had taken his home-town club to within one game of a return to Super League and now he's back as managing director, still yearning of the day when a dream will come true.