Guest DanOverlay Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 TL;DR - Long lost supporter turns up for new season, gets all excited, self-commits to keep going to matches. I've been lurking in this forum for a little while so I thought I'd say hello. I was actually born in Watersheddings and was a regular ORLFC supporter throughout most of the 80s and 90s. Sadly the ending of the old club coincided with a change in my personal circumstances. Work, a move over the border into Yorkshire and a period of illness prevented me from carrying on supporting the new club and rugby league in general slipped from my radar. Whoosh forward to the present day and I find myself living in Leeds within walking distance of Elland Road and have a partner whose parents live behind the boundary wall at Headingley. I've spent many a Sunday enjoying dinner at the in-laws with the sounds of cheering Leeds fans pouring over into the garden. By pure coincidence my partner's sister is married to another Oldhamer who also has an RL background. So one week last October my brother-in-law tells me that Oldham are appearing in the play-off final at Headingley and did I want to go. I fancied a bit of that so we duly turned up to watch the game. I thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon (apart from the tragic result) but the odd thing for me was chatting to the Hunslet fans around me and not knowing the name of a single Oldham player. I'd been a bit of a statto in my day and finding myself blissfully ignorant wasn't something I enjoyed. As I left the ground (for Sunday dinner round the corner!) I hatched a plot to resurrect my interest in Oldham Rugby. Despite not exactly being a young bloke any more I now have a three and a half year old son. If I'm not careful he'll end up being influenced by his Leeds United supporting Mum and the rest of his Yorkshire maternal family. I'm determined that's he's going to be opening the batting for Lancashire at the very least! So, me and my lad turned up at Spotland on Good Friday accompanied by a disinterested Mum and my RU supporting daughter. By the end of the game lad was copying Dad and we were both jumping up and down out of our seats with me losing my voice. Fantastic! I knew that the next game I could attend would be last Sunday's match versus London Skolars, my first visit to Whitebank. I'd seen some images from the club website, I'd read the derogatory comments about the place and I wasn't sure what I was letting myself in for. I didn't know how child friendly the ground would be so I dropped off the lad at my Mum's on Ripponden Road on my way through and drove down to Limeside, a place I always considered to be the "other side of town". I have to say, I didn't find the ground half as bad as I was expecting. In the spring sunshine it was probably looking as good as it could and for sure, it's a bit Heath Robinson, but I didn't begrudge the 12 quid at the turnstile, the one pound parking and the two-fifty programme. The crowd of 400 and odd looked bigger than what I expected it to be and my viewing position behind the sticks seemed to be the most vocal part of the ground. I did feel as though everyone around me knew everyone else and may have been thinking "who's this guy?" but maybe I was just a bit self-conscious. Probably that! I know that as an example of one lost supporter my views may not represent those of the many other absentees but my interest in the club has been genuinely renewed by my recent experiences. I'm already working out which games I can attend and which of those long distance away games I can convince my other half to (let me) attend. All I need now is a replica top to fit my lad and one a bit bigger to fit me. I'm also thinking of how I can do something, anything to help keep the club alive and ultimately successful. Hell, I'll stick another line on the lottery in the hope I can build a new ground and name the main stand after my lifelong supporting Grandad (long since pushing up the daisies)! I'll be at the game on Sunday, without my boy though. He's off watching Tour De Yorkshire with his Mum but will be coming to other games throughout the summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Mac Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 Hi DanOverlay Thoroughly enjoyed reading your post and hope the enthusiasm you have reignited remains with you. I also hope that your return to the fold brings us some much needed luck in getting Oldham into the Championship - it has to be done through a Grand Final!! Hope you, your son and any of the family that you get to come along enjoy the season. Tony Mac If you’re going through hell, keep going – Winston Churchill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DanOverlay Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 Thanks, I'm really looking forward to it. Incidentally, had a look through a load of old photos and came across this one. On holiday in 1990 I think. Me wearing an Oldham top with my eldest daughter. She's now 25 and manages a leisure centre. I've got a lot less hair and (cough) probably don't look as slender. I suppose I look like the Dad of that bloke in the picture. It's amazing what 25 years of beer, fags and skittles can do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Mac Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 You look a bit like Duncan Platt our goal-kicking Full Back of yesteryear!! Tony Mac If you’re going through hell, keep going – Winston Churchill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DanOverlay Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 Do you know what, I thought exactly the same when I looked at that pic. For the record, I don't look like him. I think it was the post 80s bouffant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Art of Hand and Foot Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 We should run a look a like comp. I've got a feeling that the bruiser Clarke entries might be over subscribed . Heh heh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedford Roughyed Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 You look a bit like Duncan Platt our goal-kicking Full Back of yesteryear!! Not sure he's as slow... :-) With the best, thats a good bit of PR, though I would say the Bedford team, theres, like, you know, 13 blokes who can get together at the weekend to have a game together, which doesnt point to expansion of the game. Point, yeah go on! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Art of Hand and Foot Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 Not sure he's as slow... :-) He was deceptively slow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DanOverlay Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 I bumped into him once, right outside the old Wembley stadium. I think it was for a GB v Aus game. As soon as I saw him I started talking to him like he was an old friend forgetting that in reality I didn't know actually him. Then there was that uncomfortable period where I didn't quite know what to say and that was that. Awkward! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moorside roughyed Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 Hi welcome back.I myself left the world of ORLFC for a time.Now I am back and loving it as its the best sport in the world.I do hope that you continue to come and enjoy the games.Try and talk the family to come they may even enjoy it.Its not our fault their yorkies.:-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutsiderLookingIn Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 danoverlay....we try to be as child friendly as we can at Whitebank. I work in the control room, and have often given my chair to vertically and agely challenged guests to Whitebank, so that they may see over the perimeter ad hoardings, rather than give dad/gramps/mum a dead arm or dead shoulders, as they take turns in holding them up to see. Have also offered my desk as a changing station before now and always have a stock of wipes, nappies, nappy sacks etc available for those caught short, but not wanting to miss the game by going to the club to change the baby. I also have factor 50 in my room, again for when the great British weather catches you on the hop and proves to be a tad hotter and sunnier than first anticipated. Both myself and my hubby, the Ground Safety Officer at Whitebank, know the challenges of coming out with a small child of any age (the 5 of ours are aged between 21 and 5) and forgetting that one vital item that you needed to keep your wee one safe and or entertained during the match....so we try our very best to anticipate any problems that might arise, and provide stuff (at our own personal cost) to enable your, and your childrens visit to Whitebank be as stress free and enjoyable as possible! (occasional biccys can be available from my own personal stash too, but you DO have to be under the age of 10 to get one of these!!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiftiesremembered Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Great thread and brilliant last post. What we are all about at ORLFC !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DanOverlay Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Hi welcome back.I myself left the world of ORLFC for a time.Now I am back and loving it as its the best sport in the world.I do hope that you continue to come and enjoy the games.Try and talk the family to come they may even enjoy it.Its not our fault their yorkies.:-) It's only my little lad that's half-yorkie. Everyone reckons he looks like me so I think the Lancastrian gene is stronger! When my eldest daughter was born (the one in the pic above) it was Xmas time and she was kept in hospital with her Mum for several days. In an effort to cheer up Mum I went to Watersheddings and spoke with the commercial manager at the time, Ray somebody or other? That same evening Mum was sat in the ward and in walked John Cogger and Charlie McAlister. I just wish someone could have taken a picture. Apparently my tiny daughter was able to fit inside one of Charlie's hands! danoverlay....we try to be as child friendly as we can at Whitebank. Cool. I'm definitely bringing the lad to the next home game after today's. I might be able to get a posse together for some of the bigger games. I'm quite persuasive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moorside roughyed Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Having the crack aside welcome back to the club.May your lads lancastrian gene go from strength to strength.Hope you enjoy ORLFC once again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Naylor Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 So that's a bit weird. The forum was down for a while and it seems that during that time my account was nuked? Was it something I said? Anyway, I've re-joined. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Art of Hand and Foot Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Think it was ray hill who was commercial manager at the time!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Naylor Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Think it was ray hill who was commercial manager at the time!? Yeah that was him. I could picture his face but not recall his surname Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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