Robert Hicks might be a leading official at the RFL and remembered previously as a top referee at Super League and international level, but he will never forget his early life in Oldham, his connections with Watersheddings and with Saddleworth Rangers and his time at Hulme Grammar School.
“I’m very proud of where I was born. Oldham is a great town and rugby league is in my blood,”
he said when interviewed by George Riley, of the Oldham RLFC media department at the club’s latest Networking get-together of sponsors, potential sponsors and local and national leaders of industry.
Robert was invited to be the club’s chief guest at Networking, thus following England RU fly-half George Ford, Paul Sculthorpe and Terry Flanagan as Oldham men who had made massive names for themselves in sport, in business — or in both.
Hicks was a classic ‘both’, becoming one of the best-known and most honoured rugby league referees and a fully-qualified lawyer who has gone to the top at the RFL.
As a referee, he handled more than 500 games, including more than 300 in Super League plus three World cups, two Challenge Cup Finals, two Grand Finals, two World Club.
Challenges. He handled games on four continents and now can play his part in the development of the sport as a top administrator.
As a lawyer, he was called to the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn in 2004, having worked in private practice in Oldham, writes ROGER HALSTEAD.
“I was once told at Hulme Grammar that refereeing would never pay the bills,” he said, “so I juggled it with studying to become a lawyer. I always knew I wanted to be involved in rugby league and I knew I would never be good enough to be a player. That’s why I went into refereeing. Juggling that with being a young family man and studying for the Bar was hard work, but I like to think I got there in the end.”
Indeed, he did. Now, he is on the RFL board as company secretary and serves as Director of Operations and Legal with special responsibility for the administration and regulatory framework of all sectors of the sport, including Player Welfare and Safeguarding.
Until he joined the RFL in 2011, he had practiced law at a firm in Oldham. Initially, he did two days a week at the RFL and refereed each weekend. He said:
“The RFL was very supportive in allowing me to continue both roles with a primary focus on officiating.”
The number of Oldham-born people who have made their mark in Rugby League is amazing and reflects the love for the sport in this area – not only in producing players but in advancing a very good argument that we are indeed a ‘rugby league town’.
Robert Hicks, whose father is a former Oldham player, now a leading light in the Players’ Association, whose mother was chair at Saddleworth Rangers for many years until recently, and whose late grandfather was once chairman of Oldham RLFC, is a classic example of what Oldham can offer.
His successor as the next guest speaker at Networking will be announced as soon as it is confirmed.
Robert Hicks image via SWPix