Roughyeds chiefs plan more talks

Bill Quinn

ROUGHYEDS chief executive Chris Hamilton and majority shareholder Bill Quinn will hold another meeting on Monday in a bid to resolve the ownership of the club.

The two held talks yesterday, which were described as “constructive” by Mr Hamilton, in an attempt to end the impasse so Oldham can move forward.

Mr Quinn has 75-per-cent of the shares in Oldham Rugby League Club (1997) Ltd and Mr Hamilton, one of the original founders of the club 12 years ago, holds the remaining 25-per-cent.

Mr Hamilton, who has made an offer for Mr Quinn’s share holding, said: “We are making some progress and we’ll get together again on Monday. I’m hopeful it will be resolved sooner rather than later. It has to be because we need to get ourselves organised.

“We can’t do nothing in terms of planning for next season, because training starts at the end of November. I’ve already spoken to Tony (Benson) about training venues, but we can’t approach any players until we know where we are.

“I made an offer for Bill’s shares some time ago. I spoke to him on Tuesday and we met yesterday. It’s not just about me and him, it’s about the club. If there’s something else that’s in the better interests of the club so be it.

“We can’t afford to have things dragging on. It’s been going on for long enough.”

Benson wants to remain as the Roughyeds coach but, like the players that are left, he is waiting to see if he has a future at the club.

The much-respected Kiwi is already making plans for the future and ideally would like to keep 80-per-cent of last season’s squad which came so close to winning promotion from Co-op Championship One.

But he has already lost Thomas Coyle to Widnes and Tommy Goulden to Leigh, and the fear is more players will get fixed up elsewhere if the ownership of the club is not sorted out soon.