STILL MAKING WAVES, AT 73!

STRANDED in the Atlantic Ocean 400 miles off the Antigua coast isn’t exactly where you would expect to find a football club chairman – but then there’s noone quite like Oldham Athletic’s Frank Rothwell.

- Matthew Luddington

The 73-year-old Latics owner made history as the oldest man to row across the Atlantic unassisted three years ago, covering a remarkable 3,000 miles from the Canary Islands to Antigua and raising an impressive £1.1 million for Alzheimer Research. And now he’s doing it again.

Aboard his boat, named For A Cure, Rothwell set off on his latest voyage in December and can finally see the finishing line on the horizon. Indeed, come Wednesday or Thursday, the veteran circum-navigator will hope to finally complete his pain-staking mission.

But, unsurprisingly, the expedition has not gone without the odd hiccup along the way and just last Friday, his craft was left para-anchored and waiting for a change in wind direction in order to proceed.

So, sat in the middle of the ocean with just a satellite phone for company, Rothwell did what any intrepid football club owner would do in the same circumstances – call The NLP for a catchup, of course!

“We’ve had terrible conditions for ocean rowing,” Rothwell reported back.

“Three years ago, I completed this journey in 56 days. This time I expected to finish in 49 days but we’re now on day 51 and I’ve still got 400 miles to go!