Super Saints rack up the accolades on awards night

Mayor of Oldham, Councillor Jim McArdle (third from left) presents Oldham St Anne’s coach Mick Cashin with the Rugby Oldham Challenge trophy. Also pictured are St Anne’s captain Danny Kay (left), winner of the £500 cheque as Man of Steel, Iain Taylor (Rugby Oldham chairman), Geoff Cooke (Rugby Oldham membership secretary) and Spen Allison (BARLA chairman).

RUGBY LEAGUE: THE RUGBY Oldham Challenge Trophy provided the icing on the cake for Oldham St Anne’s in their promotion year — with captain Danny Kay having even more to celebrate after being named as the Joseph Parr (Alco) Ltd Man of Steel for 2009-10.

Saints’ ascension to division one gave them enough points to narrowly see off a strong effort by Rochdale Cobras.

The North-West Counties division five side can perhaps count themselves unlucky not to have pipped St Anne’s, with the league’s system of awarding 18-0 victories for walkovers not helping their chances.

Last year’s winners Saddleworth Rangers led the competition on a couple of occasions and there was also a good challenge by Higginshaw in the middle section of the season.

Kay picked up his prize, a cheque for £500, at the Oldham Amateur Rugby League dinner at The White Hart at Lydgate, following a run of four consecutive man-of-the-match nominations at the end of the campaign which gave him nine in total.

Also recognised at the dinner was the League’s young player of the year, 18-year-old St Anne’s centre Greg Worrall.

Worrall was presented with a cheque to go towards tour costs for the upcoming BARLA under-19s trip to South Africa, as was Tom Hurdus of Saddleworth Rangers, while David Cookson of St Anne’s was handed help towards his place on the under-23s tour to Ukraine.

Alan Dunne of Higginshaw, who intends to carry on playing next season at 54 years of age, was given the sports person of the year award, Waterhead stalwart Alan Booth was the year’s unsung hero, while Waterhead were voted as the most sporting team.