1908–09 Northern Rugby Football Union season

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1908–09 Northern Rugby Football Union season
LeagueNorthern Rugby League
1908–09 Season
ChampionsWigancolours.svg Wigan
League LeadersWigancolours.svg Wigan
Top point-scorer(s)Redscolours.svg James Lomas 272
Top try-scorer(s)Wigancolours.svg Joe Miller 44
Faxcolours.svg Frank Williams 44

The 1908–09 Northern Rugby Football Union season was the 14th season of rugby league football.

Season summary[]

Wigan won their first Championship this season beating Oldham 7-3 in the play-off final. They had also ended the regular season as the league leaders . It was the first time that a team from outside the top two in the league had reached the Championship final.

Wakefield Trinity beat Hull F.C. 17-0 to win their first Challenge Cup in their first final.

Aberdare, Barry, Mid-Rhondda and Treherbert joined, taking the competition to 31 teams.

Bradford disbanded and became Bradford Northern.[1] They also moved for the second time in as many seasons to their new ground at Birch Lane.[2]

Wigan won the Lancashire League, and Halifax won the Yorkshire League. Wigan beat Oldham 10–9 to win the Lancashire Cup, and Halifax beat Hunslet 9–5 to win the Yorkshire County Cup.

Australia toured England this season. On 17 October 1908, they drew 9-9 at Salford.[3]

Championship[]

Team Pld W D L PF PA Pts Pct
1 Wigan 32 28 0 4 706 207 56 87.50
2 Halifax 34 28 1 5 526 174 57 83.82
3 Oldham 32 26 0 6 488 176 52 81.25
4 Batley 32 23 3 6 412 176 49 76.56
5 Huddersfield 34 21 3 10 504 292 45 66.17
6 Wakefield Trinity 31 20 1 10 471 318 41 66.12
7 Salford 32 20 1 11 455 309 41 64.06
8 Merthyr Tydfil 18 11 1 6 184 156 23 63.88
9 Broughton Rangers 32 19 1 12 420 330 39 60.93
10 Warrington 32 18 2 12 473 266 38 59.37
11 Runcorn 28 16 1 11 271 191 33 58.92
12 Hunslet 32 18 1 13 361 299 37 57.81
13 Hull 34 19 1 14 487 366 39 57.35
14 Ebbw Vale 24 12 1 11 249 269 25 52.08
15 Leeds 32 15 1 16 398 355 31 48.43
16 Hull Kingston Rovers 32 14 1 17 429 423 29 45.31
17 St. Helens 28 11 3 14 312 421 25 44.64
18 York 32 13 1 18 394 510 27 42.18
19 Dewsbury 30 12 1 17 350 324 25 41.66
20 Keighley 30 12 1 17 338 355 25 41.66
21 Leigh 28 11 0 17 214 308 22 39.28
22 Swinton 32 11 1 20 258 440 23 35.93
23 Bradford Northern 32 11 0 21 324 451 22 34.37
24 Mid-Rhondda 18 5 1 12 111 214 11 30.55
25 Rochdale Hornets 30 8 2 20 195 384 18 30.00
26 Barrow 32 9 1 22 245 507 19 29.69
27 Widnes 28 6 3 19 197 359 15 26.78
28 Treherbert 18 4 1 13 81 212 9 25.00
29 Barry 18 3 0 15 76 445 6 16.66
30 Bramley 26 3 0 23 162 582 6 11.53
31 Aberdare 17 1 0 16 134 406 2 5.88
 

Play-offs

Play-Offs[]

Semi-finals Championship Final
      
1 Wigan 18
4 Batley 2
Wigan 7
Oldham 3
2 Halifax 3-2
3 Oldham 3-8

Final[]

The Championship final was played on a rainy afternoon of 1 May 1909 before a crowd of around 12,000 at The Willows in Salford.

Wigan:
1 Jim Sharrock, 2 Jim Leytham, 3 Bert Jenkins, 4 Lance Todd, 5 Joe Miller, 6 Johnny Thomas, 7 Ned Jones
8 Jack Barton, 9 , 10 Howell de Francis, 11 Dick Ramsdale, 12 Dick Silcock, 13 Tom Whittaker

Oldham:
1 Alf Wood, 2 George Tyson, 3 Sid Deane, 4 Tom Llewellyn, 5 George Smith, 6 , 7 Arthur Anlezark
8 Bert Avery, 9 Joe Ferguson, 10 , 11 , 12 Arthur Smith, 13

In the third minute, Wigan took the lead through a penalty goal by Jim Leytham. Oldham however scored the first try when Bill Jardine crossed in the fifteenth minute. Wigan's Dick Ramsdale took his side back into the lead with a try in the thirtieth minute. Leytham converted to give Wigan a 7-3 lead at half time. No further points were scored during the match.[4]

Challenge Cup[]

Main article: 1909 Challenge Cup

Wakefield Trinity beat Hull F.C. 17-0 in the final to win their first Cup in their first final. This was Hull's second successive defeat in a Challenge Cup final, having failed to score a point in either final.[5][6]

Wakefield Trinity Tries: Thomas "Tommy" 'Trapper' Newbould, Ezra Sidwell, Arthur Kenealy "Nealy" Crosland, Ernest W. Bennett, William 'Billie ' G. Simpson

Wakefield Trinity Goals: James "Jimmy" D. Metcalfe

Half-time: 6-0

Attendance: 23,587 (at Headingley Rugby Stadium, Leeds)

Teams:

Wakefield Trinity: James "Jimmy" D. Metcalfe, Ernest W. Bennett, William "Billy" Lynch, Ezra Sidwell, William 'Billie ' G. Simpson, Harry Slater, Thomas "Tommy" 'Trapper' Newbould, Arthur Kenealy "Nealy" Crosland, James Auton, Joseph Taylor, John "Jack" Walton, Herbert Kershaw, Harry 'Dickie' Beaumont

Hull FC: Harry Taylor, J. Dechan, G. Connell, G. T. Cottrell, (E. or Ned) Rogers, Harry Wallace, , Tom Herridge, William Holder, Frank Boylen, F. Britton, H. Havelock, W. J. Carroll

Sources[]

References[]

  1. ^ "1908-09 Season summary". Archived from the original on 2009-08-11. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
  2. ^ "Bradford Bulls History". Archived from the original on 2009-04-25. Retrieved 2009-10-24.
  3. ^ "Salford first game". Salford City Reds Official Web Site, History page. Archived from the original on 7 March 2011. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
  4. ^ "1908-1909 Championship Final". wigan.rlfans.com. Cherryandwhite.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2 December 2013. Retrieved 3 January 2012.
  5. ^ "RFL Challenge Cup Roll of Honour". Archived from the original on 2009-08-11. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
  6. ^ "A complete history of Hull FC's Challenge Cup finals". Hull Daily Mail. 22 August 2013. Archived from the original on 3 February 2014. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
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