Double delight as Saints and Waterhead both seal league title glory

St Anne’s and Waterhead are both celebrating league title success

Local community rugby league clubs St Anne’s and Waterhead are both moving up in the world, having won their respective divisions in the Impact Performance National Conference League.

St Anne’s finished top of division three following a neck-and-neck race with Ellenborough Rangers.

Each won 14 of their 18 games for 28 points, but the green-and-golds edged the title with an advantage of THREE on for-and-against points differential.

Over the course of the season, Saints amassed 616 points against Ellenborough’s 620, but the local side conceded 268 against 275, thus giving them an advantage of THREE on for-and-against points differential.

As if that wasn’t enough, only two league points separated the top four, but Saints got there - just - and then went out and beat Saddleworth Rangers 24-4 in the Oldham Amateur League’s Championship Final at Manor Park.

“League officials were delighted by both the standard of play and by the large crowd,” said former Oldham forward Ray Hicks, a leading figure in the increasingly active and progressive Oldham Players’ Association.

Their success in the local league’s Championship is another reason for offering the Roughyeds’ congratulations to Saints, who will be in division two next season with Saddleworth Rangers, providing Rangers can shake off the threat of relegation.

As St Anne’s move up to division two, Waterhead leave that division as 2023 champions and look forward to life in division one as a stepping stone to taking on the really big boys of the Premier Division at some time in the near future.

“It would be nice to think we could hit the Premier Division at the first time of asking, " said experienced playmaker Gareth Owen, a former Oldham captain.

“That might prove a bit ambitious, but I’m confident we’ll get there soon because we have some great kids and some very experienced players who have returned to their roots from the pro game to put something back. We are not here just for the ride.

“We are totally committed, up for it and determined to take Waterhead forward.”

Coach Keith Brennan and young chairman Jonathan Perks endorsed Owen’s comments in a packed clubhouse after the comprehensive win against third-placed Shawcross of Dewsbury which clinched Waterhead’s latest promotion.

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