Travelling through the somewhat uninspiring streets of the town en route to the club it's hard to imagine that Oldham at it's zenith, was the most productive cotton mill spinning town in the world - yes, greater that France and Germany combined. Alas, the demise of this industry caused a local economic depression and it seems, apart from the striking architectural signatures, this is the only remaining legacy.

Undeterred, and over a period of about 45 minutes the team arrived at the ground. Consistent with the typical waste not want not attitude of this team our number only just grew to 15 with minutes to spare before KO - and with seconds to spare we'd managed to convert one of the spectators into a sub. Some of us felt positively spoilt.

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly by the time we'd got changed, had a chat on the pitch and the forwards had practised their drop kicks we didn't have time for a warm up and so it was straight into battle against what Mr Bill McLaren would have described as a forward pack of "well - nourished citizens". The biggest of the lot was known affectionately as 'Tiny', which was a nice touch.

After what felt like roughly 2.5 seconds and a gentle scrape of Sedgley studs along the rump of one of aforementioned "citizens" the ref blew for a penalty in favour of the home side which they duly slotted home for a quick 3-0 lead.

“RIGHT BACK AT ‘EM!!” – was the war cry and the all stars didn’t disappoint as from the restart they launched wave after wave of attack, dutifully defended by the Oldham lads who competed very strongly up front. A number of knock-ons and some discretionary application of the ruck laws led to a fairly stuttering second 15min although thanks to some good set piece ball from scrum and no.2 lineout jumper a number of phases were strung together and somebody went over somewhere near the corner to score a try. At this point I can’t remember whether the kick went over or not but on the basis that it wasn’t directly in front of the posts and there was at least a 5mph gale blowing it’s a fair shout to say the tigers took the lead by 2 rather than 4.

On a firm pitch Reggies all stars played some sparkling rugby, forwards running hard into contact with some slick passing from the girls in the backs. Some good tactical kicking (with a bit of help from the wind) from Rob Smith and Johnny “love and marriage” Walters put the Claret and Golds in prime position to attack the Oldham line and as the ref blew for a defensive infringement a quick witted and fleet of foot Scott Cunliffe tapped and went, ghosting past the retiring Oldham defence for try number 2.

Half time oranges arrived and after a thoroughly uninspiring speech from our illustrious leader we got back to it. It took a few minutes for the team to recover from Reggies hair dryer treatment but we quickly got back into the game and started to shift the larger Oldham pack around the park. Gaps began to emerge and the tigers made some good ground only to have there work undone by some poor retention and passing.

Special note here goes to our loose head prop whose name shall remain known only to those present. Needless to say some of us were left wondering whether it was actually anatomically possible to throw such a skew whiff pass.

Ironically, after a stern word from our number 8 at half time for lack of discipline and back chat to the referee mid way through the second half our number 8 got sin binned for lack of discipline and back chat to the referee. It wasn’t to prove decisive however and with tries from Chris Hayes and Scott Evans (and I think some other people) the Park Lane boys cut loose and secured a fine although far from flawless win.