Kerr cleared to face Hunslet

WAYNE KERR, Oldham RL Club’s Irish international prop, is free to play in the Roughyeds’ Co-operative Championship 1 game at Hunslet Hawks on Friday night (8pm) after escaping suspension at a meeting of the RFL disciplinary committee in Leeds.

But Mark Brocklehurst will miss the game after receiving a one-match ban for his part in a free-for-all near the end of the recent league clash against Swinton, at Sedgley Park.

Kerr was sent off, along with Swinton’s Welsh-capped half-back and former Oldham player Ian Watson, after a late skirmish in the match which the Roughyeds won 38-20.

Watson got a one-match, but the disciplinary panel ruled that there would be no further action against Kerr, who was represented at the hearing by his club chairman Chris Hamilton.

Oldham pleaded guilty to the charge against Kerr of punching, but submitted in mitigation that he was not the aggressor.

Three other players - Brocklehurst and Swinton’s Aaron Smith and Neil Rigby - were also charged with similar punching offences.

Brocklehurst got a one-match ban which rules him out of Oldham’s game at the South Leeds Stadium on Friday, but the verdicts on Smith and Rigby were to be announced later.

Meanwhile, the Roughyeds have announced a new sponsorship deal with Premier Kia Motors of Dukinfield and Rochdale.

As part of the sponsorship package, in which the Premier Kia logo is featured on the collars of the Roughyeds’ newly-designed 2010 jerseys, the club will be supplied with a customised, special-edition Kia car.

Said club chairman Chris Hamilton: “Premier Kia is a newcomer to the club’s commercial portfolio - one of several new backers - and we trust that the partnership will prove of mutual benefit.”

Nigel Bird, a Premier Kia director who has family ties with Sheffield Eagles, said he hoped the link-up would help to drive the Roughyeds forward in their pursuit of promotion to the Championship.

“A deal of this nature is a two-way thing,” he added, “and the more successful the Roughyeds are the greater will be the projection for Premier Kia.”