Double blow rocks Oldham

OLDHAM RL players Mark Brocklehurst and Jason Boults are out of the Roughyeds’ fourth-round Carnegie Challenge Cup tie at Hull on Saturday (1pm).

Both were suspended and fined £50 by the RFL disciplinary panel which met in Leeds last night — prop-forward Boults for one match and utility back Brocklehurst for two.

Brocklehurst, the club’s top try scorer so far this season with 10, will also miss the next league game against South Wales Scorpions at Caerphilly RUFC on Sunday, May 15 (3pm).

Both players, who were accompanied at the hearing by club chairman Chris Hamilton, were banned following incidents in Oldham’s 40-24 defeat at Whitehaven on Easter Monday.

The RFL’s media release indicated that Boults, who was sent off by referee Matthew Kidd, admitted using foul and abusive language to a match official.

It also reported that Brocklehurst, whose suspect tackle in the same game was placed on report, had subsequently pleaded guilty to making a dangerous throw of grade ‘B’ severity.

Boults (bottom, right) will be back before the RFL disciplinary committee next week following his dismissal — for the second time in two games — near the end of Oldham’s 46-24 win against Doncaster at the Whitebank Stadium last Sunday.

On this occasion referee Clint Sharrad sent off Doncaster’s Kyle Kesik for a high tackle on Boults, whom he also dismissed for retaliating.

Meanwhile, Roughyeds’ winger Lucas Onyango had an operation in the Royal Oldham Hospital yesterday to repair a ruptured Achilles tendon in his right leg. The leg is now in a plaster cast from his foot to just below the knee.

The Kenyan winger, in his fifth season at Oldham, is facing a lay-off of at least two months.

Roughyeds are to hold a mid-season three-course dinner at the Whitebank Stadium on Thursday, May 26. Tickets cost £30 per head or £300 plus vat for a corporate table of ten.

The guest speaker has still to be confirmed, but entertainment will be provided by Donna Elson, comedienne and vocalist. For tickets ring Janet at the Roughyeds office on 0161 628 3677.

Tickets for the cup tie at Hull on Saturday are also on sale from the Roughyeds office, which is open until 5pm this evening and from 9am to 5pm tomorrow.

Hull coach Richard Agar has been fined £6,000 by the RFL, half of it suspended until the end of the season, for his criticism of referee James Child after a recent Super League game against Castleford at the KC Stadium.