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jroyales

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I've noticed like others that we often go off at a tangent, so I thought let's have a chat page.

My chat is, on Sunday at the game  I was talking to Sean Whitehead about Blackpool Borough and we couldn't remember the name of their ground.

And last night at about 5am I started to think about all of the great Rugby grounds, with memories, that have now gone. Beginning with Watersheddings.

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Gone grounds (at least those I can remember having been to them) include Station Road, Central Park, Knowsley Road, Tattersfield, Wilderspool, Fartown, Hilton Park, Athletic Grounds, Boulevard, Craven Park (HKR). There's probably more but one of the results is that most of the clubs concerned now share a soccer ground where they have to play second fiddle.

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Being an away fan at Naughton Park in the 80s felt like a christian being thrown to the lions, with armed gladiators and the crowd baying for your blood. Grimacing, swearing, scowling faces leering at you through the wire. And that was just the cheerleaders, On the other hand, I stood with a load of Widnes fans when Castleford's  Danny Brough kicked them to death in the match following one of our five annual play off final humiliations, and they were a great bunch. I think that was at Warrington. Best atmosphere I can remember - in a Castleford pub after we'd unaccountably beaten them: a middle aged Oldham fan dancing, p*ss*d as a fart, on the tables, singing French songs in a thick Oldham accent just after Oldham had returned from ill-fated Paris St Germain. High culture!

I can't resist drawing attention to Oldham's worst ever (imo) away kit, mind. White with thin dark green stripes enclosing a yellow one. From the Martin Crompton/Ian Sherratt era. Looked like it had been designed by primary school kids who'd almost run out of felt tips in the very early 1970s. Disastrous.

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17 hours ago, shrewsbury roughyed said:

On the other hand, I stood with a load of Widnes fans when Castleford's  Danny Brough kicked them to death in the match following one of our five annual play off final humiliations, and they were a great bunch. I think that was at Warrington.

Wasn't it at Headingley?  We lost to Fev...

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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!

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1 hour ago, shrewsbury roughyed said:

You’re right. I was mixing it up with one of the other countless play off final losses.

Warrington was losing to York I think.  

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!

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Rowan mentioned Tattersfield - Doncaster's old ground, I remember going there the first time in the early 60s.

One stand on the side, a canal running down the other side and nothing else. There weren't any turnstiles just a bloke with a bus-conductor's ticket machine taking the money.

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3 hours ago, jroyales said:

Rowan mentioned Tattersfield - Doncaster's old ground, I remember going there the first time in the early 60s.

One stand on the side, a canal running down the other side and nothing else. There weren't any turnstiles just a bloke with a bus-conductor's ticket machine taking the money.

I watched an amateur game there once, between Bentley and Rossington, two rival coal mining communities. I first came across the brother of the woman I was with, blood- covered on the pitch, after about 15 minutes. He was a spectator! Been chased onto the pitch by the opposing ‘fans’ and belted. The match was x-rated. No prisoners taken. Not sure what the final score was, but if it had been a draw the team with the greater number of teeth, ears and unbroken limbs left was to be declared the winner. I imagine that your bus conductor friend also had the job of sweeping up the chunks of bitten off flesh left on the field after the game. Or maybe they just left them there, compost for what remained of the grass.

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The reason I remember Tattersfield in particular was that I played one of my very few games for Corby Pioneers which I helped set up in 1969. Pioneers played in the Southern League but fixed up a friendly with Rossington Hornets.  Memory can play tricks but I vaguely recall that our match was a curtain raiser to a Yorkshire Cup-tie - Doncaster v. Wakefield Trinity - and we got a good hammering (about 80-15 as I seem to remember) and as we kicked off late it looked as though the game would have to be cut short to accommodate the 3-15 kick-off for the Cup-tie. But Trinity's Neil Fox stepped in to suggest that, as we had travlled a long way the main match could kick off at 3-30 instead.

Oh, and I almost forgot - I did my shoulder in when I tackled the Rossington winger and as he got up he accidentally trod on my shoulder. My own fault. I was full back and we were already losing by about sixty I didn't even have to make the tackle.  It was my last game so I took up refereeing instead.

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1 hour ago, Rowan said:

The reason I remember Tattersfield in particular was that I played one of my very few games for Corby Pioneers which I helped set up in 1969. Pioneers played in the Southern League but fixed up a friendly with Rossington Hornets.  Memory can play tricks but I vaguely recall that our match was a curtain raiser to a Yorkshire Cup-tie - Doncaster v. Wakefield Trinity - and we got a good hammering (about 80-15 as I seem to remember) and as we kicked off late it looked as though the game would have to be cut short to accommodate the 3-15 kick-off for the Cup-tie. But Trinity's Neil Fox stepped in to suggest that, as we had travlled a long way the main match could kick off at 3-30 instead.

Oh, and I almost forgot - I did my shoulder in when I tackled the Rossington winger and as he got up he accidentally trod on my shoulder. My own fault. I was full back and we were already losing by about sixty I didn't even have to make the tackle.  It was my last game so I took up refereeing instead.

Refereeing sounds like a wise decision!! Good choice.

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7 hours ago, shrewsbury roughyed said:

Who would be your choice as the best rugby league player, past or current, born and/or brought up in Oldham? In terms of skill, leadership, ability to read and change a game, and sheer toughness, anyone better than Paul Sculthorpe?

anyone better than Paul Sculthorpe ?

Yes.

Kevin Sinfield.

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in my opinion a better player than paul was his brother danny,

a brilliant ball player in the brian mctighe mold

when ever he played against oldham he slaughtered us.

but sadly he was very injury prone and a diabetic but a class act.

                                                                                                                                                                                           

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1 hour ago, tandle said:

in my opinion a better player than paul was his brother danny,

a brilliant ball player in the brian mctighe mold

when ever he played against oldham he slaughtered us.

but sadly he was very injury prone and a diabetic but a class act.

                                                                                                                                                                                           

As good as Danny was he clearly wasn't a patch on his brother.

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