John Orford | |||||||
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OVERALL STATISTICS | |||||||
| BIRTH | AGE | SIGNED ON | FROM | ||||
| DEBUT | LAST MATCH | LEFT | |||||
| CAREER | APPEARANCES (SUBS) | ||||||
| TRIES | GOALS | DGOALS | PTS | ||||
Biography of John Orford | ||||
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 HERITAGE NO : 64 John Orford by Alex Service One of the first sightings of this player is from a special game to raise funds for Joseph Gerrard, who died playing for the Saints. This was, actually, a combined Saints-Recs team that took on Runcorn. In the team line ups, he is given the initial `J` which gives us something to go on in the search for a first name. Suffice to say, we believe that his name was John and, like so many of his contemporaries at the time, he was a coal miner [hewer] who worked at one of the collieries owned by Pilkington Brothers. The 1911 census tells us he lived in Lord Street. In 1921 John was living in Helena Road, St. Helens with his wife, Jane who hailed from Sutton Oak, St Helens, a son Sidney and a daughter Bertha. He was an Engine fitter with Pilkington Bros their Cowley Hill works. John joined the Saints from St. Helens Recs, essentially the Pilkington works team. It is interesting to note that he joined the Saints as a result of the Recs disbanding as a rugby league outfit. They had joined the Northern Union too late and found themselves in the second tier. Interest waned and the Recs turned to football for the next fourteen years! A stand-off, John played in four friendlies for the club and only two first class competitive fixtures. He made his senior debut against Morecambe on 16th April 1898, in a rather mundane 5-5 draw at Knowsley Road. His final game for the club was at Widnes, early in the 1898-99 campaign, when Saints lost 0-6. He died in St Helens in September 1952 at the age of 78. If anyone has any further information about this player and an image, please contact us. | ||||
PLAYER HONOURS | ||||
SEASON STATISTICS | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season (Official Matches) | Tries | Goals | DGoals | Matches |
| 1897~98 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 1898~99 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| TOTALS: | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Season (Other Matches) | Tries | Goals | DGoals | Matches |
| 1897~98 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 1898~99 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| TOTALS: | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
ALL MATCHES | ||||
| Date | Match | Pos | Opponents | Comp | Venue | FT | FTO | T | G | DG | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8th Mar 1898 | -- | W |
6 | Birkenhead* | Fr | H | 8 | 0 | VIEW | |||
| 11th Mar 1898 | -- | W |
6 | Barrow* | Fr | A | 5 | 3 | VIEW | |||
| 24th Mar 1898 | -- | L |
6 | Swinton* | Fr | A | 3 | 5 | 1 | VIEW | ||
| 16th Apr 1898 | 1 | D |
6 | Morecambe | L | H | 5 | 5 | VIEW | |||
| 1st Sep 1898 | -- | W |
6 | Salford * | Fr | A | 6 | 0 | VIEW | |||
| 3rd Sep 1898 | 2 | L |
6 | Widnes | L | A | 0 | 6 | VIEW |
| *Unofficial Match. **Non Playing Sub. |
| WINS : 3 | LOSSES : 2 | DRAWS : 1 |
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GALLERY |
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