FREE RIDES TO BOOST NUMBERS

ROUGHYEDS officials are hopeful that hordes of fans will take up the free travel offer for the Northern Rail Cup quarter-final against Featherstone.

The knockout tie is a designated ‘home’ fixture, but it being played out at the Sports Village Stadium in Leigh on the evening of Thursday, June 4 (7.30pm kick off) and will be televised live by Sky Sports.

A set of coaches are set to descend on the ground and Oldham chief executive Chris Hamilton believes a good show of support in front of the cameras would substantially help give the club's profile a boost.

“The free travel for all our fans is a fantastic gesture by Atlantic Executive Travel, and we are very grateful to them for that,” said Mr Hamilton.

“We are keen to get as many fans over to Leigh as we can for what should be a terrific quarter-final tie.

“It will be a big night for the club and we want to put on a good show in front of the television cameras, both on and off the field.

“The more fans we get over there the better it will be on a night when the club will be screened across the country.”

A ‘quid-a-kid’ scheme is in place for accompanied under-16s who purchase a match ticket, with other prices set at £14 (adults) and £10 (concessions).

Seats on the free coaches have to be pre-booked and that can be done by buying a match ticket in advance and reserving a seat on the coach at the same time.

Coaches leave at 6pm from five pickup points: the Mecca Bingo car park on King Street; the Black Horse on Ripponden Road; outside the former Woolworth’s premises in High Street, Shaw; from the lay-by round the corner from the Railway Hotel in Royton; and from the VIP car park at Boundary Park, next to where the Clayton Arms used to be.

Oldham have also introduced a scheme in which anyone buying a ticket for the Featherstone tie will be able to claim a £3 discount off tickets for the Northern Rail Nines at Blackpool on the weekend of July 11 and 12, reducing admission across the board from £9 to £6.

The game pits Oldham against one of its most famous rugby league sons, Rovers stand-off Iestyn Harris.


OLDHAM are to play a vital cup-tie in the Leigh Sports Village Stadium two weeks to the day after it has been officially opened by Her Majesty The Queen.

Accompanied by Prince Philip, The Queen will unveil a plaque, tour the facilities and take part in a meet-and-greet session tomorrow morning before watching local youngsters take part in sports demonstrations.

The Roughyeds play out their ‘home’ Northern Rail Cup quarter-final against Featherstone at the venue on Thursday, June 4, due to the unavailability of Boundary Park which is closed for two months due to the annual pitch repair work and reseeding.