“Everyone’s saying that they bet we’ll be pleased to get away, but I feel it has always given us an advantage.”You feel it starting to get colder as soon as you get to Junction 20 on the M62 – although it is a bit warmer down at Boundary Park.”It is in those temperate lowlands that the rugby club’s future lies, at least until dreams of a new stadium of their own turn into reality. Oldham Athletic do not seem wildly enthusiastic about the prospect, but McCurrie can see advantages for the Bears, as we must call them. “The facilities are much better and we will be far better placed to market and develop the club. I don’t think we’ll get too sentimental about leaving the ’sheddings.”The delapidated state of the ground now belies the fact that it was once considered something close to the state of the art.As Trevor Delaney noted in The Grounds of Rugby League it was the first – and, for many years, the only – rugby league ground to have cover on all four sides.

Eventually, it became the only one to have leaking roofs on all four sides.Swinton’s visit is a reminder that there are neighbouring clubs hovering to take advantage if Oldham lose their way as well as their home. There is room for only one really successful Manchester area club, and Swinton, with a successful, well established ground-sharing arrangement of their own at Bury, aspire to be it.. AFTER the famine, the feast. Racegoers, for so long starved of high-class action by the freeze, had some magnificent fare laid before them yesterday. Here, Ask Tom smashed the course record for two miles with a roof-raising victory in the Victor Chandler Handicap Chase and the well-backed favourite Make A Stand romped home in the big betting heat, the Lanzarote Handicap Hurdle. And up at Haydock that much-loved old warrior Jodami warmed hearts with his first win for more than a year after a pulsating finish to the Peter Marsh Limited Handicap Chase.

Ask Tom, the rising star, had it all to prove against his battle-hardened rivals in the feature race after an unexpected reverse on his previous appearance, and on the turn in he looked booked for third place at best as Viking Flagship loomed upsides trailblazing Clay County. But the eight- year-old’s adrenaline – and that of Russ Garrity in the saddle – was running on full bore and, as the concession of a stone began to tell on Viking Flagship and Clay County’s stamina ebbed, he hurled himself back into the fight.
At the line he was three-quarters of a length in front and no horse, not even Desert Orchid, has crossed Kempton’s fences faster “This was proper racing”, said Garrity “We were flat out all the way. I gave him a slap down the far side and it took him half a mile to respond. But, once we were in the straight and he started motoring, I knew we’d got them.”It was more than the winner’s shellshocked trainer Tom Tate did. The Yorkshireman had been monitoring the race on a TV screen which cut out three from home. “I thought we were beat”, he said, “They went so fast he was guessing at some fences, but his sheer ability got him there.”You wouldn’t believe how laid back he is at home, a real pipe-and-slippers man But on the racecourse he puts it all in, and more.

It drains him, and we can’t go to the well too often with him.”Ask Tom will meet Viking Flagship, who faded to fourth place but lost little in defeat, at level weights in Cheltenham’s Queen Mother Champion Chase. “That will be judgement day, ” added Garrity.Martin Pipe’s ploy of leaving top-weight Pridwell, who ran at Haydock, in the Lanzarote Hurdle overnight to keep the weights down worked to perfection as his stablemate Make A Stand made all with his customary enthusiasm. The 2-1 favourite came home to a rousing reception from all bar a few, and his trainer cannot be blamed for exploiting a loophole in the rules. Make A Stand is now 7-1 with William Hill for the Tote Gold Trophy Handicap Hurdle at Newbury on Saturday, 8 February.Jodami, winner of the Gold Cup four years ago, is now 14-1 with Hills for the Grand National after showing some of his old class to beat Unguided Missile and the novice Avro Anson in a finish of necks to the Peter Marsh Chase. Carrying top-weight, the game 12-year-old simply refused to be beaten as Norman Williamson, riding him for the first time, brought him with a challenge between his two rivals after the last fence.On fast ground he was another to lower a course record, but Williamson’s efforts landed him with a four-day ban (27-30 January) after vets found he had marked Jodami with his whip.