Baines matches up again

CHRIS BAINES

OLDHAM forward Chris Baines wasn’t aware that he narrowly missed out on setting a new all-time club record against Hunslet.

The 24-year-old built on his brilliant recent form by clocking up a staggering 34 points in a match, comprising four tries and nine goals, in the Co-operative Championship One elimination play-off at Boundary Park.

The tally equalled Andy Ballard’s mark, which he claimed by kicking 13 goals and scoring two tries away at London Skolars back in May of this year.

Remarkably, the Oldham RL record prior to 2009 was held by Abe Johnson for more than 80 years, who picked up a 30-point haul — two tries and 12 goals — against Widnes in 1928.

Baines also joins seven other players — Mark Sibson (twice), David Gibbons, James Bunyan, Simon Haughton, Adam Hughes, Tommy Goulden and Danny Halliwell — who have scored four tries in a match for the new club.

But in taking the second-half penalty which took him to the brink, Baines revealed he believed he had edged ahead of Ballard.

“I thought I had broken the record with the last of my nine goals, only to discover later that I had only equalled it,” said the former Warrington academy man.

“Still, it’s pretty amazing that a record that stood the test of time for 81 years should be smashed twice in the same season.”

The only member of Oldham’s squad named in the official RFL Co-operative Championship One All-Star team, made up of the best talent from within the division, Baines’s recent achievement show just what a hot streak he is in.

Having bagged the club’s player-of-the-month award for June, July and August, he was also named by the press as the official man-of-the-match in Oldham’s two play-off clashes against Swinton and Hunslet.

Taking over the goal kicking mantle from Ballard, Baines now boasts 24 from 32 attempts with a 75-per-cent success ratio, a record boosted by regular practise visits to local club Chorley Panthers.


TRANSPORT for Roughyeds fans to the big play-off final eliminator at York on Sunday will leave the Mecca Bingo car park at 1pm and the Black Horse on Ripponden Road at 1.15pm.

The cost per person is £15 and bookings must be made in advance and as soon as possible at the Roughyeds office in Lansdowne Road, Chadderton (tel: 0161 628 3677) so that staff can get an early idea of demand.

Admission prices at York are £12 adults, £8 concessions, £4 under-16s.

Fans wanting seats in the stand can transfer for an additional £2 across all categories.