25/01/2025
WHEN Mike Ford and the man who first put him on the road to stardom, Phil Larder, were inducted into the Roughyeds' Hall of Fame before the Wigan game ,I couldn't help feeling that the Players Assn, or the EX-Players as they are still popularly known, and our club's Heritage Trust, are two of the stakeholders who have taken to this Partnership initiative like a duck to water.
The Heritage Trust has provided the parent club with more exposure, or publicity, than it has had for years thanks to its Heritage Certificate and Hall of Fame activity, while the Players Assn is inextricably linked because so many former players, who shaped our history after all, are directly involved.
The Players' Assn and the Heritage Trust are REAL partners so take a bow Joe Warburton, John Watkins and Ray Hicks, of the Players Assn, and Mike Turner and his wife, Mary, who are the big two in all things heritage. Mike isn't the club's official historian for nothing. A keen fan all his life, Mike has his finger on the pulse of everything that has happened in the past. Mary doesn't have a title and, knowing her as I do, she will curl up and die when she sees her name in print, but she does a wonderful job for the club and has often burnt the midnight oil over recent times as certificates have gone out to hundreds of old players scattered around the globe.
As for Fordy and Phil Larder going into the Hall of Fame, there couldn't be two more worthy recipients of the honour. Larder's long service and his remarkable record as a stylish attacking centre, as an accomplished try-scorer and goal kicker, and as the centre partner to the even-longer serving Mike Elliott, made him a natural for inclusion — and that's before any consideration is given to the major part he played, first as Ford's head of PE and games at Saddleworth School and later as his team mate, mentor and former school teacher, in the development of our managing director as a man as well as a gifted, all-round sportsman who might easily have slipped off into football but for Larder's timely tonic and intervention
It was Larder, too, who paved the way for a young, green-behind-the-ears Ford to switch to RU with Ireland. The rest, as they say, is history. Ford went to the top as a coach in Union, having done the same as a player in League. He came back after 20 years in Union, more mature, more experienced and infinitely more street-wise, teaming up with financial backer Bill Quinn, his chairman, to put the Wow Factor back into Oldham and to get the kids of the town, boys and girls, re-engaging with the club and dreaming of the day they will don the famous re-and-white jersey;
Few will make it, like Ford and Larder did; thousands more will fail in the attempt; but its the sporting dream of Bill and Mike to rekindle in local kids a lifetime's interest in rugby league generally and in the Oldham club particularly.
In the last 30 years or so one of the best periods at the club was in the 2000 and 2001 seasons when Fordy was player-coach and we won thrilling play-off games at Leigh and at Rochdale. We qualified to play Widnes in the final at the Crown Oil Arena in Rochdale. The winners would go up to Super League. We lost, but its sobering to know we were so near and yet so far — and that was 24 years ago
As I say, Ford, Larder, and John Hough just before Christmas at the Fox and Pine were just the job for Hall of Fame entry and it was good to see our vice president, John Chadwick, officially sending them off to join the club's elite.
John was both secretary and chairman back in the day and it was fitting that he should be involved in the official part of the presentation to two guys who did so much for Oldham Rugby back in the day with their efforts on the pitch. "I'm proud and privileged to be in the presence of such players," said John.
Our pictures show Mike Ford, John Chadwick and Phil Larder OBE plus two former players who have received heritage certificates, Uri Stondin and Charlie McAlister.
Charlie lives in Auckland, and our former commercial man Ray Hill, who also worked for Salford and Huddersfield at different times in his career ,is on holiday with his wife in New Zealand and they spent a week with Charlie and Trish, Their son, Luke, who was a small boy here when Charlie played for Oldham, is 41 now. He played 31 Tests for the All Blacks as a fly-half (same as George Ford for England) or as centre, often his dad's position for Oldham.
Ray took Charlie's certificate with him, One day they met up for lunch with former Wigan star Frano Botica (pictured) — a longstanding friend of the McAlister's.
Uri Stondin received his certificate at the Wigan game. He is on the left of the group picture which also features Players' Assn president Mike Elliott, Phil Larder OBE, who won the gong as England's defence coach when England lifted the Rugby Union World Cup in Sydney in 2003, Players Assn chairman Martin Murphy, holder of the club's post-war appearance record and Mike Ford himself.
The Players' Assn is going from strength to strength with more members joining, more former players of the club going to home games and a general feeling that the Assn, as a body, is closer to the parent club than previously and closer too to the Heritage Trust.
STRONGER TOGETHER, THE CLUB'S BATTLE CRY, IS CERTAINLY HAVING AN EFFECT IN THE CORRIDORS OF THE EVER-POPULAR JOE ROYLE STAND. BOUNDARY PARK IS RAPIDLY BECOMING A HUB FOR RUGBY LEAGUE, BUT THAT'S ANOTHER STORY FOR ANOTHER DAY.