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NORMAN Hodkinson, the
former Oldham winger, has died at the age of 59. His funeral service
will take place at St Thomas's Church, Moorside, Oldham next
Wednesday, March 26 at 1pm, followed by a short service at Oldham
Crematorium at 2pm. He died at the Royal Oldham Hospital on March 5 after collapsing in a shop near his home in Ripponden Road, Moorside. Norman will be remembered as a pacy and exciting left-winger with a knack of doing the unorthodox and, as a consequence, scoring a lot of tries by catching opposing defences on the hop. He scored 32 tries in a total of 64 first-team appearances in his two seasons with the club -- 1971-72 and 1972-73 Graham Starkey was Oldham coach at the time and the men who were his generals on the field were tough-guy prop Frank Foster and that clever and cultured stand-off half Cliff Hill. Among others who were regulars in the team during that period were Martin Murphy, Mike Elliott, Geoff Munro, Ken Wilson, Bob Irving, Mick McCone, Phil Larder, Kevin Taylor and Joe Collins. Norman arrived at Oldham for trials from the south of England and immediately made a big impression, with his long-stride and gangly running style. He was only at Watersheddings for two seasons, but in that time he built a reputation as an excellent finisher, who could score from long range. He had made a name for himself in rugby union before arriving on the Oldham scene. As a pupil at King's Grammar School, Macclesfield he represented England RU schoolboys and later, while playing for Wilmslow RU club, he was picked to play on the wing for Cheshire county. He then moved south and was playing rugby union in the London area when Oldham were tipped off about this quick and elusive winger who might fancy a move north. Starkey invited him up for trials, and he became a firm favourite of the Watersheddings crowd over the next two seasons. He made such a good impression that he was picked for Lancashire, playing in the same county side as his Oldham team mate Martin Murphy. With the two Oldham players in their ranks, Lancashire beat Cumberland at Warrington, but lost to Yorkshire at Castleford despite a tradmark try by the Oldham winger. |
