Ballard sticks boot to club records

Andy Ballard

RECORD-BREAKER Andy Ballard has already managed to surge past the 100-point mark for the season — even without the use of a kicking tee.

The 22-year-old former Salford winger picked up 30 points all on his own against Workington Town last week, a haul which eclipsed the highest-ever total for the post-1997 club as well as drawing level with Abe Johnson's all-time Oldham RL best.

Running over for a hat-trick and kicking nine goals from 12 attempts, Ballard would have claimed the overall high mark as his own had one of his conversion efforts during the second half in the 66-14 victory at Boundary Park not struck a post and bounced out.

Still, it was a remarkable effort from a player who has already made a huge impression during his time with the Roughyeds.

Coach Tony Benson made the point that Ballard was the beneficiary of the good work done by others in Oldham shirts, before revealing a fact about his kicking set-up which will have escaped the notice of many supporters.

"I am really happy for Andy, but he wouldn't have been able to get any of his tries if the boys had not played well inside of him," Benson said.

"I see it really as a team accolade.

"The funny thing is with his kicks, he is just using two marker cones on top of one another as a makeshift kicking tee.

"But his kicking is great and he also gets terrific variety and height on his kick-offs. Having said that, I would be more than happy for him to only perform those particular duties once or twice a game!"

No player in an Oldham shirt had previously picked up 30 points in a match since Johnson did it with two tries (then worth three points) and 12 goals against Widnes on Easter Monday, April 9, 1928.

Like Ballard, Johnson was on the right wing for the club that day, helping defeat Widnes 60-5. He finished as Oldham's top try scorer and kicker of goals in that year, totalling 19 and 70 respectively.

BROKEN

As far the new club goes, it is the second time in less than two seasons that the points-in-a-game record has been broken. After Mick Nanyn had drawn level with Gareth Barber's 26-point total of 2002, Danny Halliwell topped that mark with 28 — from four tries and six goals — also against Workington in the 40-16 win on August 24 of last year.

Even the great Bernard Ganley, who kicked nine goals in a game several times in the legendary sides of the 1950s and claimed over 2,700 points in total for the club, couldn't match Johnson's record, which further illustrates Ballard's achievement.

Only five players — Reg Farrar (1922), Johnson (1928), Tommy Martyn (1992) and Mick Nanyn (2008) — have finished top of both the club's try and goal scoring charts, though in Nanyn's case he was joint top in terms of tries with James Coyle, both players crossing 21 times.

Now with Super League club Harlequins, Nanyn last year kicked 139 goals and added 21 tries for a total of 362 points, a record for the new club which Ballard hopes to top.

He is currently on course to do so, heading the Roughyeds' try scoring charts with eight and kicking 37 goals for a 106-point haul from only seven competitive appearances.

Only free-scoring Whitehaven scrum-half Gregg McNally — on loan back at the Cumbrian club following his close-season move to Huddersfield Giants — has more points to his name in the professional game in 2009.

The dazzling 18-year-old has run in 14 tries and kicked 30 goals for a personal haul of 116 so far this season.