Hometown boy’s new-deal delight

ROUGHYEDS rookie Chris Clarke, who enjoyed a superb first season at senior level, is banking on more of the same in an Oldham jersey next year.

His initial two-year contract expired at the end of last season, but the highly-rated 21-year-old has delighted club officials by putting pen to paper on a new one-year deal.

He becomes the third product of the club’s youth policy, following Ben Heaton and Scott Mansfield, to remain loyal to the club which discovered him by signing a second contract.

Roughyeds now have six Oldhamers signed on for next year in Clarke, Danny Whitmore, Mansfield, John Gillam, Michael Ward and Ben Marsden.

“To play for Oldham means a lot to me,” said Clarke, who lives in Lees and who has been a close friend of Danny Whitmore’s since the days when they were in the same class at Hey-with-Zion primary school.

True to his roots, Clarke still uses a gum shield coloured green and gold - the colours of amateurs Oldham St Anne’s where he played from the age of seven.

“I never go into a game without that gum shield. I take a little bit of St Anne’s with me into battle,” he said.

Both clubs are important to me. After all, my mum and dad have been supporting Oldham since I was a small boy and the team played at Watersheddings.”

Clarke was given his first-team debut at Leigh on the opening day of last season. He never looked back, playing in 22 of the 28 games and establishing himself as a firm favourite of the Whitebank crowd.

Over the course of the season he was asked to play prop, second-row and loose-forward and he applied himself successfully to all three roles.

“It was a brilliant season for me,” he added. “The other players were always nice, even if I made a mistake, and I learned a lot from them. I enjoyed playing at that level. It was a great feeling to be playing for my town.

“Having signed on for another year, my personal goal is to be the best I can be.”