PETEALTHAM: FYLDE’S DEAF RU
time to go. Ten years ago I struggled because the rules were different but I benefit more with the news rules and still carry out the roles that a prop forward needs to do.” Born in Skipton, his dad John was a farmer and moved the family to France for work when Pete was only one. It was there they realised an issue with his hearing. “We were in the countryside so I was pretty much free to roam anywhere and that’s just what I did,” Pete said. “My dad would be calling me, trying to shout me to come back but he never got a response so he said to mum something wasn’t right. We came back to England for tests and it was there we found out I had been profoundly deaf since birth.” Pete and his family returned to Yorkshire which is where at an early age he first picked up a rugby ball. Surrounded by the sport through his dad’s links as a player with Skipton, Pete began his career aged four with nearby club Northallerton – as he took his first step in not letting deafness define him. Pete had already made his mind up about which code he was going to play as well. “It’s always been union for me,” Pete said with a wide smile when asked if he ever considered playing rugby league. “My first memory of rugby was when I went to watch Newcastle Falcons in the 1990’s and New Zealand loose forward Pat Lam was running riot all over the pitch. I was only 14 when Johnny Wilkinson slotted that drop goal over to win England the Rugby World Cup and I thought I want do something like that.” After moving through the junior ranks, Pete started his senior career at Wharfedale – North Yorkshire – where his two brothers George and Joe currently play. Mum Amanda was not particularly keen on the trio playing at first, however, those worries were soon erased.
Meet Pete Altham, a deaf PE teacher who is not letting his condition stop him from playing the sport he loves here at Fylde Rugby Club. Diagnosed with deafness aged 18-months- old, Pete wears hearing aids to help but his condition has never stopped him from playing the game he loves – rugby union. You may be wondering then just how does he manage to do it? “I just play what’s in front of me,” Pete said. “It’s all about the visual aspects of the game and that’s why I always say to the players to look at what is in front of you and play with your eyes open.” Pete, who is a PE teacher at Myerscough College, has never seen it as a negative though. Instead he believes it is more of an advantage. His prop position means he is involved in scrums – a way of restarting play that involves players packing closely together
with their heads down and attempting to gain possession of the ball all on the instructions of the referee – something Pete cannot hear. The 33-year-old said: “I get the people behind me in the scrum to hold my shorts and then slap my leg when it’s
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