Guide to the 2008-09 Local Amateur Rugby League season

A GROUND breaking new competition brought about a resurgence of interest in the amateur game within the town last season . . . and this year, it is bigger and more ambitious than before.

The unusual situation of having three Oldham amateur sides — Oldham St Anne’s, Saddleworth Rangers and Waterhead — in the same first division of the National Conference League provided the inspiration for the Rugby Oldham Tri-Team Challenge.

The idea: to use the results of all six schedules local derbies through the season to form a mini-league of those three clubs, with the one gaining the most points ultimately being crowned the amateur rugby kings of the area.

When the coaches, officials and players of the respective teams were brought together at the Peach Road home of Waterhead ARLFC for for the official launch, hopes were high that the profile of the amateur clubs involved was about to be given a big boost.

That is exactly how it turned out.

The national trade press took a big interest, promoting the idea as a great way to stimulate local rivalries, and large crowds flocked to watch the blood-and-thunder clashes at the clubs’ respective Higginshaw Road, Greenfield and Waterhead Park homes.

Few were disappointed with the quality or intensity of rugby they witnessed.

The league-within-a-league provided plenty of thrills and spills, eventually culminating in Saddleworth Rangers lifting the Rugby Oldham Cup as winners of the first-ever Tri-Team Challenge.

A Man of Steel trophy, sponsored by Joseph Parr (Alco) Ltd, added the carrot of a £500 cheque for the highest-performing player within the series and helped throw in an extra level of intrigue for the players themselves.

Overall, it was a major success.

However, the relegation of Waterhead to NCL division two meant that a repeat for this coming season was impossible.

To simply give up the ghost wasn’t ever an option. But it was time to think ‘outside the box’, to come up with a fitting alternative that built on last year’s successes.

Hence, a formula was created whereby ALL local clubs, be they of the NCL, the North-West Counties League or the Pennine League, could take part.

In this season’s Rugby Oldham Challenge, a mythical table is created using all the league results of the six sides involved: St Anne’s, Saddleworth, Waterhead are now joined by Higginshaw, Hollinwood and the brand-new Rochdale Cobras.

Every game will count. A table will be constructed based on the league results of the six sides involved, before the points are averaged out to take into account the vagaries of certain teams playing more matches than others.

Updates will appear in the Chronicle every Thursday in the amateur rugby league section, providing a regular opportunity to keep people informed with how each contender is faring.

In addition, there will once again be a Man of Steel award on offer. Another £500 cheque is up for grabs and this season, it will be awarded on the basis of man-of-the-match decisions made by opposition coaches rather than neutral observers.

It is all set to be a tense and exciting season for every one of the town’s amateur rugby league clubs.




How it works



WITH six local teams involved, the Rugby Oldham Challenge uses the result of every league fixture from the clubs to form a mini-league table.



Whether it be National Conference League division one or North-West Counties League division six, each game is valued as being of equal worth.

Clubs get three points for a win, two points for a draw and a bonus point for a loss by a margin of 12 points or less.

There are also incentives designed to reward both defensive and attacking prowess irrespective of the end result.

An extra point is available for each multiple of 10 points scored in a single game; one point is on offer for conceding 30 or below, two for 20 or below, and three for 10 or below.

In the event of clubs playing out an uneven amount of fixtures, points totals will be calculated on a percentage basis.




Work in progress

‘We’re hoping to get promotion and that is the ideal goal, but things don’t always work to ideals. We have trained really well, though’ — Brennan



SADDLEWORTH Rangers duo Keith Brennan and Wes Rogers are hoping to reap the rewards of a lengthy and well-attended pre-season programme.



Brennan, the former Roughyeds half-back and assistant coach at both Oldham and Rochdale, has taken over as head coach at the Greenfield club with Rogers as his right-hand man.

That is after previous coaching duo Paddy Kirwan and Mick Swift elected to step down — or up, given that they are both now actively involved on the committee — at the end of a campaign which almost led to promotion to the National Conference League premier division last time out.

Such a solid season was an outward sign of the resurgent progress that Saddleworth have made as a club in recent years.

Brennan and Rogers remain grounded, though, about the team’s prospects following last season’s sixth-placed finish, only two points behind Thatto Heath in third.

“We’re hoping to get promotion and that is the ideal goal, but things don’t always work to ideals so we will take each game as it comes,” said a guarded Brennan.

“We have trained really well, though. There is still a lot of work to do but it is looking good.”

The preparations for the coming season, which kicks off for Saddleworth with an away game at Shaw Cross on Saturday are said to have gone well and little has been left to chance.

“As soon as we found out we were taking over we tried to find out what we needed to do, what the goals were of the club and what we were aiming to achieve and we have been working on it since May,” said 30-year-old Rogers.

The ex-Swinton and Oldham prop forward may make a playing comeback in the front row depending on how the knee injury which forced him to quit the professional game bears up.

Half-back pair Lee Charlesworth and Liam Coates have both signed up and Adam Clayton, formerly of the Roughyeds academy and brother of Castleford Tigers man Ryan, is also on board.

The 2008-09 season is set to be a poignant one for Rangers, with it being the first in decades that won’t feature the input of the ‘three musketeers’ Ronnie Hardaker, Colin Clare and Ken Fisher.

All three have now passed on, following the death of Fisher in early August.




‘I’ve got the buzz again now, because I’ve brought some of these young kids through’ — Deakin



CHRIS Deakin can’t wait to get back in the thick of it at Oldham St Anne’s.



After taking a sabbatical from first-team coaching duties, Deakin simply couldn’t keep away after watching a highly promising group of youngsters progress through the ranks at the Higginshaw Road club and will now work alongside Mick Cashin once again.

“I’m looking forward to it immensely,” Deakin said.

“I’ve been with the under-18s for the last two years, due to work commitments.

“But I’ve got the buzz again now, because I’ve brought some of these young kids through — people like Phil Jagger, Chris Clarke and a couple of others like John Sweeney, who has been playing at Rochdale with David Cookson and Eric Johnson.

“The lads who have been playing at Oldham and Rochdale have been getting good reviews, so hopefully they can bring the good habits across.”

As for the prospects for the coming season, Deakin admits he would be happy with finishing outside the promotion places in National Conference League division one.

Last season Saints suffered terribly from players disappearing to the professional game.

A total of five players linked up with former Higginshaw Road man Martin Crompton at National League Two outfit Blackpool.

John Gillam, Casey Mayberry, Paul Ashton, Andy Wallace — who ended up switching to Rochdale Hornets — and Michael Wallace all left for the coast. A talented line-up, the like of which would put a major dent in the chances of any Conference club you care to name.

Michael Wallace has since returned to the club and the hope is that some, if perhaps not all, of the others who went down the professional route will follow suit.

Saints will also maintain their links with Australia by receiving two new young players in the coming weeks.

After finishing the season in ninth place in division one, the club is aiming for a further year of consolidation, schooling yet more youngsters in the process.

“Halfway up the table and I’ll be happy with, then we will build on that,” said Deakin.

One competition Saints will be particularly focusing on this season is the Standard Cup.

A snowy Boundary Park final on Easter Sunday saw Saddleworth wrest the cup away from St Anne’s for the first time in four years.




Waterhead remain positive



WATERHEAD are crossing their fingers that star men who went off to the reserve ranks at Oldham and Rochdale will come back to boost their prospects of bouncing back from relegation.



Now in National Conference League division two after not quite managing to transfer cup form to the league last term, coach Mick Slicker has the task of overseeing an important transitional period.

Despite reaching the quarter-finals of the National Cup, the loss of free-scoring winger Carl Sneyd, among others, to the professional game at Rochdale last season, meant that the Peach Road club could never quite find a way to climb away from relegation trouble.

The retirement of Tommy Howe, Martin Bunce and Chris McAndrew has given further cause for concern, but club officials are remaining optimistic that the team can position itself near the top of the table.

“We are a little bit short on players at the moment but at the end of the day, you can’t force players to come back to us,” said assistant coach Terry Smith.

The hope is that youngsters such as such as Jordan Pye can come through and help plug the gaps, while Chris Hepworth and Andrew Cheetham, both of whom have returned to the club after completing university studies, has also provided a welcome boost.

The onus will now be on experienced, key men like Steve Standring and Terry Fitzgerald to again come to the fore if a promotion bid is to be achieved.

Long-standing problems with the drainage at Waterhead Park remain, with the club forced to switch fixtures to North Chadderton School last season following a sustained period in which the pitch was unfit for action.

But despite this, and worries which have cast doubt over whether the second team will be able to enter the North-West Counties League due to a shortage of players, club chairman Kevin Hobson is hopeful for the future.

“As a committee, we are very forward thinking,” he said. “The clubhouse has been smartened up again and the lads have fixed up the sponsors room.

“All in all, we are getting there.”




Fresh format for £500 prize



SADDLEWORTH Rangers duo Michael Coates and Chris Garforth will set out to defend the Man of Steel prize they shared last year.



The experienced duo both stood out consistently in the inter-town clashes with Waterhead and Oldham St Anne’s. They split the £500 winning cheque between them after heading the points table.

The award’s format has changed for this season. Rather than a designated observer selecting the top three performers from each team within local derby matches, a single player from each of the six competing sides will be selected as man-of-the-match by the opposing coach after every league game.

The player to pick up the most votes, on an average-per-game basis, will clinch the prize come the season’s end.




Top two is Higgy aim



New coaching duo Michael Thornton and Craig Dickinson will seek to get the very best out of go-forward Higginshaw this coming season.



Former Oldham St Anne’s and Higgy player Thornton has joined forces with Dickinson at the helm of the club, who kicked off their pre-season programme with an encouraging display in losing 16-8 at Folly Lane.

The goal is to try and move up a level from North-West Counties division four come the season’s end.

“We have a few new players up there and a couple of going young ones coming through,” explained secretary John Mellor, who also said that the club are in the process of purchasing the facilities at their St Stephen’s Street base in order to facilitate development.

“We want to get a top two place. It is a good, strong side this year. The players have a lot of belief in each other and Mick has given us a bit of extra impetus.

“Maybe we were a bit weak on the coaching side of things last year, but Dave Hewson, our captain said you can just feel the difference — in training, nobody is arguing between themselves or anything like that and the focus is on what we have to do as a team.

“That really showed in the game against Folly Lane.”

Higginshaw will also have an additional junior side in operation from this season.

Last year’s under-13s, coached by Paul Deakin, gained promotion to the premier division and a new batch in the same age group will be coached by a team comprising Lorraine White and open-age player Alan Dunn.Upbeat HollinwoodWITH a new coach on board in Lee Bayliss, Hollinwood are hopeful of putting together a positive campaign from Pennine League division four.

“Last year we were struggling up until the last few matches and nearly went down,” said Fred Halliwell, a long-standing official at the Fields New Road outfit.

“We pulled away then, but we expect to improve on that. We are still short of one or two players but we are hopeful that we will get them.

“The facilities we have got are certainly as good as anybody else’s.”

Those players who have come under the guidance of Bayliss can look forward to the intrigue of the Rugby Oldham Challenge, the structure of which gives Hollinwood more than a fighting chance against the bigger local clubs.

“It gives something different to play for and hopefully will add extra interest,” said captain Paul Brooks.

The relegation of Littleborough to division four also gives the club a pair of regular-season matches with a distinct local flavour.

A full set of fixtures has not been issued by the Pennine League, but after the home game with Littleborough on Saturday (2.30pm kick off), Hollinwood play host to Dudley Hill ‘A’ a week later.



Hopes high for Miller’s Cobras



ROCHDALE Cobras will add an intriguing inter-town element to this season’s Rugby Oldham Challenge.



The newly-formed side, which is being financially backed by the Flying Horse in Rochdale town centre, starts life in the sixth division of the North-West Counties League. Home matches will be played at Balderstone Park.

Coached by the familiar face of Sid Miller, the team brings back together the Milnrow Cobras under-16s team of a few years ago. With Milnrow and Newhey also involved in the same division this season, the stage is set for a couple of tough battles to be fought out.

“We can’t wait for that one,” said club captain Steve Chadwick.

The prospects for a good season for the Cobras appear to be good. After just three weeks of training, the Cobras entered two sides into a seven-a-side event at Keighley to test the water in July.

They exceeded expectations to bring home the trophy after defeating Keighley Cougars in the final.

“We’re hoping for promotion and a good run in the cups,” said Miller, who has brought on board under-18s pair Liam Hughes and Tom Morris from the Hopwood Hall academy ranks.