Oldham wait on ground call

OLDHAM RL chairman Chris Hamilton says the club are working hard to solve the Roughyeds’ ground situation.

Tony Benson’s men open their 2010 campaign with a Northern Rail Cup game at Championship club Leigh Centurions on Sunday (see Page 32) and seven days later they are due to play Hornets RL in the same competition — at home.

Although the Roughyeds are not yet in a position to say where they will be playing, they are “extremely grateful” to loyal fans for their continued support and are especially appreciative of those supporters who have bought season tickets despite the unusual circumstances.

Said Mr Hamilton: “We are as frustrated as everyone else that we cannot confirm exactly what is happening regarding a ground for this season.

“We stress, however, that a lot of work is going on behind the scenes and that it has been going on since last year when it was confirmed that we would have to find a new home.

“Uppermost in all this is our desire to remain in the borough. It would have been easy to do what we have done previously and find a venue out of town, but if we had done that it would have compounded the financial issues that have hamstrung the club for the past 12 years.

“We are working very closely with Oldham Council and with a number of other parties.

“We hope to be in a position to update people further in the early part of next week — and if all this comes to fruition our supporters will fully appreciate the reasons why we have had to do things this way.”

Benson, meanwhile, has named a 20-man squad to go to Leigh. It will be cut to 18 at training tomorrow when hooker Martin Roden (calf strain) will face a fitness test.

Oldham (from): O’Connor, Onyango, Littler, Heaton, Fogerty, Brocklehurst, Gillam, N Roden, Whitmore, Ashe, Boults, Sykes, M Roden, Ellison, Kerr, Graves, Mellor, Chandler, Clarke, Bentley.