Hell Bent on winning promotion

Liam Bent, Oldham RL Club's youngest player, made more than 50 tackles in the Roughyeds' win at Workington - a phenomenal effort.

He also scored the first of Oldham's six tries and was sin-binned for punching Town skipper Oliver Wilkes.

The RFL later ruled a yellow card was adequate punishment for 20-year-old Bent, once of Wigan St Jude's and Salford Red Devils.

A back-row forward, he played 17 games for Roughyeds on loan last year and he didn't hesitate to sign permanently when the chance arose.

Astonishingly for a player just out of his teens who tips the scales at less than 14 and a half stone, 'Benty' regularly tops the tackle count.

"It's the most important part of rugby league," he said.

"I don't know how many tackles I did at Workington, but it was probably quite a few because that's what I do.

"Defending is the biggest part of my job. We defend well, but we have the odd blip.

"If we get rid of those we won't be far off where we want to be - and I'm sure we can win promotion."

Meanwhile, the local branch of Gideons International (Oldham and North Manchester) has presented the Roughyeds with a Bible (above) and has offered players and backroom staff a copy of ‘New Testament and Psalms’ which has the club name and crest on its front cover.

It’s part of a Gideons initiative to reach out to sporting, business and other organisations across the country and to spread the Gospel’s good news, in Oldham's case via club chaplain, the Rev Tony Ford.

Tony, a regular at Roughyeds’ training nights, was joined recently by two Gideons representatives, Ian Whitehead and Eric Johnson, who presented our chairman Chris Hamilton with a club Bible.

Their visit followed similar representations to Greater Manchester Police and the North-West Ambulance Service.

Said Tony: "Gideons Bibles are available to sports clubs across the country where they have a chaplain. It’s a great move.

“Most of our players and some of the backroom staff have taken them home.

“We’ve also adopted a club prayer, which is printed in the back of the book, under the club crest.”

Ian and Eric are heavily involved at separate local churches, but both are proud to be also working for Gideons, who are best known for placing Bibles in hotel rooms around the world.

Said Ian: "We aim to get the scriptures to as many people as we can.

"This is a tiny part of a global initiative.”