Ballard stars as records tumble

Lucas Onyengo hands off Graeme Spencer of London Skolars

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London Skolars 10, Oldham 78

THERE may have been as many gaps in the home side’s defensive line as there were in the main stand on a pleasant Saturday afternoon in the capital, but Oldham will be pleased with their work.

A points bonanza was always on the cards against enthusiastic but limited opposition who are only off the bottom of Co-operative Championship One by virtue of Hornets RL’s points deduction for breaking financial rules.

Still, the intensity Oldham brought to the table was impressive and what could have been a flat game was lifted by the smashing of no less than three all-time club records: individual points tally and two high marks for the new club - most points in a match and the biggest winning margin.

Andy Ballard was the undoubted star of the show. The free-scoring former Salford winger crossed for two of the Roughyeds’ 13 tries and didn’t fail on a single conversion attempt, despite many of them presenting him with difficult angles on a hard, bumpy playing surface.

It was a remarkable effort, topping by four the previous 30-point mark he clocked up earlier this season against Workington Town to share Abe Johnson’s all-time mark, set in 1928.

The prolific 22-year-old now has 198 points this season and the record haul of the great Bernard Ganley, who managed 412 in 1958, is not totally out of reach.

The visitors were dominant from start to finish and were it not for a quiet spell after half-time, could even have topped 100 points.

In front of a crowd of only 257, an early double from Thomas Coyle showcased the quick ball movement that was a feature of a productive afternoon.

Only one more Oldham score arrived in the period that Skolars home-grown winger Smokie Junor spent on the sidelines after he was sin-binned for holding down a clearly out-to-impress Luucas Onyango as he broke downfield.

James Coyle, side-stepping his way through, was the scorer of that one before Skolars responded with their first try of the game, Paul Thorman’s bomb causing confusion before Matt Thomas slid over in the left corner.

It was clear that there were plenty of opportunities available for Oldham to break the defensive line by running the right angles and five more tries came before half-time.

Lovely centre play from Danny Halliwell sent in Ballard for his first and James Coyle then profited from a move which was kick-started by a superb offload from Tommy Goulden, who spent most of the game excelling at left centre following a switch necessitated by an injury to Halliwell.

Stevie Gibbons was next to cross after some good offloading and Robert Roberts and Ballard added tries to make the score a whopping 48-4 in Oldham’s favour at the halfway mark.

A massive hit by Goulden on Skolars prop Dave Ellison two minutes after the restart indicated that putting on the pipe and slippers wasn’t an option for try-hungry Oldham.

A minute later and Paul O’Connor was set away down the centre of the field and James Coyle had broken the line, before Thomas doubled his personal tally for Callum Irving’s men after picking up Roberts’ offload to sprint home.

Neil Roden slipped through under the posts on 51 minutes and Ballard’s 10th conversion made it 60-10.

It stayed that way for another 18 minutes as Oldham began to push a few passes that weren’t quite on.

But Craig Robinson raced home to end the mini-drought and the next try for Roden near the posts gave Ballard the chance to reach the 32-point margin that gave him the individual record.

Lucas Onyango’s late try out wide was also converted without fuss to round off a job well done..


Defence delights Benson

TONY Benson was delighted with his side’s record-breaking efforts in the capital – but the Roughyeds coach was more interested in the way the defence stood up.

After shipping in 120 points in the last four games, Benson had concentrated on keeping the opposition out as much as possible in the build-up to the Skolars game and the 10 that Oldham did let through represents the club’s lowest mark conceded in this Co-operative Championship One season.

At the other end of the field, Oldham’s 13-try, 13-goal show brought with it three new club records and Benson was pleased with the way his side scored points freely despite picking up a number of injuries on an awful playing surface at the White Hart Lane Community Sports Centre.

“The thing I was really happy about was our defence,” said Benson, who took his side briefly to the top of the table before Dewsbury’s 35-22 win at Swinton yesterday.

“We worked hard on it all week. Under difficult circumstances – it is hard to lift yourself down here – we did it .

“We also scored more against them than any other team this year, and down here as well.

“There were patches where we got a bit giddy and excited, but that is going to happen sometimes and the opportunities were definitely there and we were creating them, which was the good thing.

“We knew that it was going to happen but it was the defence I wanted to look at and test. It isn’t as big a test as Dewsbury, but it is a test nonetheless and if we hadn’t defended well they would have scored a lot more tries.”