Great and the good coming to Boundary Park

The great and the good are watching Oldham RLFC at Boundary Park, attracted by all that's happening at the club, the big-name signings, the much-publicised aims to take the club back to the top and the fantastic match-day facilities in the new Joe Royle stand.

Ages ago we told you former England footballer Dion Dublin and stand-up comedian Jason Manford, a season-ticket holder at Manchester City, were at a Roughyeds game and since then Bill Quinn, Mike Ford, Sean Long and Co have guided Roughyeds to a record-breaking season in Betfred League One, winning the title with two games to spare, clinching promotion to the Championship next season and more than doubling the 2023 average crowd figures.

The big test will be next year in the Championship, but all the signs are good; the powers-that-be have worked wonders in little more than a year in charge – and big-name personalities are continuing to pour through the Boundary Park doors on rugby game day.

Athletic's wealthy owner Frank Rothwell, who hit the national headlines and our TV screens when he rowed solo across the Atlantic for charity while in his twilight years (not that you would ever think it) is among our regulars.

At the recent Cornwall game we were honoured to have Andy Gregory, one of the finest half-backs this country has ever produced, as Mike Ford and Sean Long would both happily endorse, and my attention was drawn to two Oldhamers sitting on the back row with well-known connections at the RFL and in the world of refereeing, Robert Hicks and Gerry Kershaw.

Robert, an international referee of master-class repute, works as a lawyer these days with a top job at the RFL, but to many of us he is the young Oldham lad who was almost brought up at Watersheddings as the son of former Oldham forward Ray Hicks and Karen Fisher as was, now Mrs Karen Thompson, who has Oldham Rugby, rugby league and Saddleworth Rangers running through her veins and was chair at Rangers for several years until her recent decision not to seek further election. She was brought up at the Hen and Chickens public house on Miles Street and her dad, Robert's grandad, was former Oldham chairman Ken Fisher, who was himself a Rangers official in later life.

As Robert's father became coach of Saddleworth and is now a leading figure in the Oldham RL Players' Association, it is accurate to say, I think, that Robert is steeped in rugby league.

As for Oldham-born Gerry he too has RFL connections. He was a senior referee for many years, living in the pretty village of Easingwold, north of York. Having famously attended Counthill Grammar, as it was back then, he had come under the wing of a teacher with a disciplinarian reputation, the much-loved and fondly remembered late Sam Shepherd, himself a top referee in the game he loved, rugby league.

Sam was instrumental in cultivating the rugby league interests of loads of boys, including Gerry, and the attendance of Robert and Gerry at Boundary Park was a timely reminder of the numbers of Oldhamers who have devoted much of their lives to our sport over the years, going right back to Joseph Platt in 1895.

I vividly recall the days when the RFL would never put a referee in charge of a match if one of the teams involved was from his home town or the town where he lived. Gerry and Sam went years without handling an Oldham game. Then the RFL rescinded the home-town rule, Gerry was given Oldham games, and fans on one side claimed he favoured Roughyeds while supporters on the other said he leaned the other way in his desire not to be labelled unfair. It was a no-win situation

Another Oldham referee, Dickie Thomas, was similarly affected in 1964 when it took Hull KR three games to get the better of Oldham in a Challenge Cup semi-final. Had Oldham got to face Widnes at Wembley, Dickie would not have fulfilled his dream.

Eventually the rule was scrapped and clubs to this day no longer give the home town of referees in match programmes etc, thus concurring with an observation from, HQ to discourage the geographical significance of home towns or towns of residency.

Back to Andy Gregory, who said a few words under interview in the Broadway Suite before being led back into the Holy of Holies. Mike Ford said: "Andy replaced me at Wigan, but he was, without doubt, one of the best No 7s ever to play for Great Britain."

Fast forward seven days to the Workington game and the 'names' were out in force, headed by Sir Lindsay Hoyle MP, Speaker of the House of Commons since 2019, and my old mate Trevor Hunt, his right-hand man in RFL presidential terms if not in in the political arena.

Both were resplendent in their RFL chains of office as they congratulated Bill Quinn, Mike Ford, Jim Minton, John Chadwick, Sean Long and club captain Jordan Turner etc, while the leader of Oldham Council, Arooj Shah, placed a medallion on the end of a surround over each player's head.

The star of the show was undoubtedly The Right Honourable Sir Lindsay Hoyle MP, who has worked with four Prime Ministers – Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and now Keir Starmer – and has a personal crest which includes a rugby ball to represent his love of League and his presidency of the RFL.

Also there were entertainer Tommy Cannon, he of Cannon and Ball fame; Andy Wilson, head of communications at the RFL; the BBC regional sports news cameras and personnel; Jack Dearden of Royton, known to thousands of local radio listeners; and numerous former Oldham players, including Bob Mordell, all the way from London, and Steve Molloy.

It seems like only yesterday that Bob Mordell and his good mate Adrian Alexander, another Londoner, were photographed at 'Sheddings holding aloft the Second Division trophy, but Bob reminded me it was 40 years ago, How time flies when you're having fun.

Alex settled here, married a local girl, Ginny, submerged himself in the Oldham political scene, became a Labour councillor and is now an ambassador for the club.

Tommy Cannon helped the Boundary Parkas to officially launch the club's adopted anthem: "I'm a Roughyed" which will double-up as a song for Oldham folk generally and. more specifically, for the club's anthem.

It sounds great; ideal as the club song and one that will go from strength to strength the more it is played across the town, Congrats, too, to Tommy, who sang for us on the pitch pre-match, did a boogie or two and generally did his late pal and business partner Bobby Ball proud.

Andy Wilson is the RFL's top media man; son of Joy and Ian, who is secretary of Rugby Oldham, our Supporters' Trust. The Wilsons live in Macclesfield but they are of Oldham stock and are mad-keen Roughyeds supporters.

Such connections between Oldham and the RFL, going all the way back to 1895 and Joe Platt, surely go down well with IMG.