ArthurO

Yes. All of the above, but it was mainly rank bad management. At the end of the phenomenally successful years of the 1950s what did we get ? A new stand in 1960 at the Pavillion/Wattersheddings end of the ground. Investment after that for the next 37 years ? Nothing. Nowt. Not a penny. All the money just disappeared into thin air. And during that same 37 years there were some horrendously expensive and bad signings such as Geoff Shelton and Bob Lindner (to name but two) and the sale of our best players such as Andy Goodway, Chris Joynt, Tommy Martyn and Barrie Mac., for a fraction of their true value. Who knows what happened to the training ground and the greyhound track ? After our last game against Swinton I looked in the players' changing/first aid rooms under the main stand. Small, no heating, cold, cracked tiled floors, a battered old leather treatment bench, water was dripping everywhere through the ceilings and there was dark-green mould growing on the ceiling and walls. You wouldn't have treated an injured dog in there. Our beloved stadium had sadly become a run-down and decrepit relic. If it had been developed into a big, modern, stadium as it should have been with all the land that was available, it was ideally placed on the main road and rail links over the Pennines almost exactly half-way between rugby heartlands of Lancashire and Yorkshire. All the semi-finals and International matches could have been played there. I still get depressed thinking about how it all went wrong. I hate what happened to Watersheddings as much as I hate Holdsworth. And I shall continue to do so until my dying day.

Without wishing to give too much away in this friendly, the ideal result in a hard and close-run contest between us and Newcastle would be a narrow win for us. Say, six points. With exactly the same winning margin again and again whenever we play them throughout the season. 😃

I hate Holdsworth. And I will continue to do so until my dying day !

And, by sheer coincidence, I was thinking today about a souvenir photograph that I kept for more than 45 years from the day it was printed. It was a black-and-white, double centre-fold picture, in a national newspaper (Daily Mirror ?) of three Oldham forwards laying in deep snow, purportedly in 'training' for the C.C. third round game against Leeds in 1968. The names of those three players were, in order, Geoff Fletcher, Bobby Irving and ...............Alan Ogden. So sad. Another great Oldham player is no longer with us. RIP Alan.

I'm so sad to read of the passing of Dave Parker. He followed-on from our other great loose forward, Rocky Turner. Dave was an elegant, thoughtful and skillful player. I believe he would have played for Great Britain more often in the 1960s had he not been playing at the same time as the other great loose forwards of that era, Don Fox, Dave Robinson and Laurie Gilfedder. I also believe that he would have led us out to victory at Wembley in 1964 had he not been 'targeted' and badly injured by his opposite number, Harry Poole in the second replay against HKR. Dave Parker. RIP.

Bower Fold. Sunday 2nd April 2017. Let's hope for a repeat performance !

As a matter of interest, Rob, if you substitute the words 'Swinton' with 'Oldham' and 'Station Road' with 'Watersheddings', I think that many Roughyed supporters would agree with your heartfelt comments. I know that I do, just as my late father also did.

Ah. Terry Fogerty. I was at Springhead school with Terry in the 1950s. He was a big lad. Literally 'head and shoulders' bigger than any of the other lads in his age group. He learned his rugby 'trade' at Saddleworth Rangers and Halifax signed him straight from school at the age of 16. He went on to be a brilliant ball-playing second rower. I never understood why he slipped underneath Oldham's scouting 'net' and went over the Pennines to 'Fax. I wished he could have played in our pack along side Bobby Irving. What a partnership that would have been.

Andy. Charlie joined us from Whitehaven in the late 1960s. He was a brilliant ball-playing second rower and played for us in the 1968 Lancashire Cup final, on a Friday night, at Central Park against St Helens. I remember jumping about wildly when we scored first (penalty goal). Unfortunately that was as good as it got. We didn't score again and suffered a bit of a 'pasting' by the final whistle. It was a long, and quiet, journey back to Waterhead on the supporters' coach, that night. Charlie was an electrician by trade and he sadly died as a result of an accident whilst working on the construction of the Channel tunnel in 1990. His name is one of the eleven men featured on a memorial.

I was born and lived in Austerlands. We used to look downwards towards the ground. It was so high up there we could almost see the players running about on the pitch. Then, as a little boy, we moved to Ashes Lane in Springhead. We could always tell when Oldham scored because, even from there, we could hear the crowd cheering. Great days. Great memories.

Arthur was 26 years of age, 6' 2" tall, weighed over 18 stones and played on the wing. He was the Jonah Lomu of his day.

Clifford. Notice the 100% INTENTIONAL similarity in sound between my chosen username (ArthurO) and the subject of this topic ? So, even after all these years thanks to your grandfather, Clifford Bradley, the Spirit and fleeting memory of Arthur Rowe the iconic player, continues to live, on the Roughyeds forum.

Clifford, as a youngster I was there at the 'Sheddings and I watched him play on the left wing. He was a big, strong, physical lad and when he ran, all too briefly, it always took three or four of the opposition to put him on the floor. He only played for the 'A' team on Saturday mornings but even then thousands came to watch him. As you say, sadly he didn't last for very long in our game. In later years I was often reminded of him when I watched our great Charlie Mac and the powerful way that he used to run with the ball.

What about Bobby Irving and his, now 'illegal', spear tackles ?