OUR guest on the current edition of the League Express Podcast is Terry Flanagan, the Chairman of Oldham, who was a great player who became a hugely successful businessman in the mobile phones industry.
I don’t know whether he is the only former Rugby League player to have attended Harvard Business School, but if there are any others I would love to know who they are.
It’s great to see Terry involved in Oldham, with the club playing back at Boundary Park. The Roughyeds were one of the original Super League clubs in 1996 but unfortunately they only last two seasons in the top flight, before suffering the indignity of relegation combined with liquidation.
Their old Watersheddings home was closed down in 1997 and so there was no club, no home, no money and no players.
The club still owes a lot to its former Chairman Chris Hamilton, who resurrected it with limited resources and kept it going at a very modest level for 25 years before selling it to a consortium led by Mike Ford in 2023.
But the problems didn’t end there. Ford resigned when he had a disagreement with his then Chairman Bill Quinn, who took the club out of Boundary Park when he had a major fallout with Oldham Athletic FC.
Then Quinn revealed that he wanted to get out of the cub himself and for a short time its future looked decisively dodgy.
But now the club is back at Boundary Park, it is arguably the biggest threat to London Broncos’ domination of the Championship and, under its new Chairman, it can begin to plan ahead.
If you watch the Podcast as an Oldham fan, I think you would be reassured by Flanagan’s clear determination to put Oldham’s finances on an even keel and to build up the club’s support in the town.
A few weeks ago they had a wonderful night celebrating their 150 years of the club’s existence. I wrote a piece for the brochure they produced for the event. The next piece of this article is largely what I wrote.
Rugby League has a proud history and within that history Oldham is a Rugby League town par excellence, having produced great teams, great players and wonderful memories (as well as some disappointing ones) throughout its history.
Their greatest team within living memory is the one that won the Rugby League Championship in 1957 when they defeated Hull FC 15-14 in front of 62,233 spectators at Odsal Stadium on May 18 with stars such as Bernard Ganley, Dick Cracknell, Alan Davies, Frank Pitchford, Charlie Winslade, Sid Little and Derek Turner.
That season they had finished six points ahead of all their rivals in the league and they also won the Lancashire Cup and the Lancashire League.
The only trophy they failed to collect was the Challenge Cup, after they went out of the competition unexpectedly, losing 5-0 at Leigh in the second round.
In that same season they also defeated the Australian tourists 21-2 at The Watersheddings.
In all, Oldham won the Challenge Cup and the Championship three times each.
Unfortunately one of the club’s claims to fame is that it has never played at Wembley.
The nearest it came was in 1964, when they drew 5-5 with Hull KR at Headingley before leading the Robins 17-14 in the replay at Swinton’s Station Road ground as the game went into extra time, with the scores having been 14-14 after 80 minutes. Unfortunately Station Road didn’t have floodlights and as the night darkened the referee Dennis Davies abandoned the match, which went to a second replay with Hull KR winning 12-2. If golden-point had existed in those days, Oldham’s extra-time try would have got them to Wembley.
And let’s not forget the role of Joseph Platt, an Oldham man who was the founding secretary of the Northern Union (as it then was).
Platt was the main organiser of the meeting at Huddersfield’s George Hotel, on August 29, 1895, at which the Northern Rugby Football Union was born.
Originally from Royton, he became the treasurer of the Oldham club in his early twenties, and became the secretary of the Northern Union in an honorary role, while also working as managing director for Oldham’s three music-hall theatres until he stepped down in 1920.
Almost exactly 100 years later, in 2020, he was inducted into the RFL Roll of Honour for his services to the game.
I would love to see the Roughyeds back in Super League one day.
Derby overkill
WHY did the fixture planners give us the same fixtures only three weeks apart?
That’s what will happen this week when the games will replicate those played at the Magic Weekend.
It will be the third time these fixtures have been played this season, having first featured in Round 7 on the Easter weekend.
Apart from anything else, it means that some big games will feature only on Sky’s red button. That includes Saturday’s clash between Leigh and Warrington, although thankfully that game will also be shown on BBC 2.
It’s a shame the French clash between Toulouse and Catalans will be on the red button.
A win for Toulouse will put them level on points with the Dragons with a better points difference.
The two French clubs are having their own private battle to see which of them will finish in the highest position in Super League.
Toulouse still seem to play well largely in one half, as their performance against York on Saturday night demonstrated once again, as they led 28-0 at half-time but lost the second half 2-22.
It must be a puzzle for their coach Sylvain Houles.
Having said that, Catalans led St Helens 12-6 at half-time before finally yielding 34-18.
Both French teams play an exciting brand of rugby but they both give their coaches plenty to worry about.