No word on bid to enter youth team

CHRIS Hamilton has revealed that Oldham RL club have had no official confirmation that the attempt to enter a new amateur side into the under-18s Gillette National Youth League has been rejected.

It was reported that the application of Oldham Limehurst to take part in the 2011 competition was turned down by the NYL management

committee, due to fears that other local amateur sides — including Saddleworth Rangers, also members of the NYL — could have folded as a result.

But Hamilton said the club has had no contact from the management committee to that effect as yet.

And in a statement, he attacked “scare-mongering” surrounding the club’s joining of the Championship Scholarship Scheme.

“The RFL have made it clear from the outset that players who join this scheme must be allowed to finish any commitments they have to their amateur clubs,” Hamilton said.

“We have no problem with that, nor will we have any problem in future.

“Teams in the National Youth League are amateur teams and the application was made by Oldham Limehurst, not by ORLFC.

“Oldham Limehurst is the name of a new amateur team we have been working upon creating as a result of several months of discussions with one of our partners, REGENDA, in the area around our ground at Whitebank.

“The creation of a junior section had been agreed as a way forward to develop community links in that area and to provide another sporting option for Limehurst children.

“Since that was agreed the Championship Scholarship has been introduced and Oldham were looking to run a team in the same way that Gateshead, Keighley, Workington and Whitehaven have done in previous years via an amateur club.”

Hamilton, who stressed that local clubs were written to about the Scholarship plan, was also unhappy that Oldham and District Amateur League secretary Phil Bradbury wrote to the Gillette National Youth League Committee without first speaking to the club.

He branded as a “misconception” Bradbury’s assertion that the club is courting Saddleworth Rangers players, claiming that only one of the 50 potential Scholarship youngsters is from Oldham.