1974–75 League Cup (rugby league)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1974–75 League Cup
StructureNational knockout championship
Teams32
WinnersBradford Northern
Runners-upWidnes

This was the fourth season for the League Cup, which was again known as the Players No.6 Trophy for sponsorship reasons.

Bradford Northern won the trophy by beating Widnes by the score of 3-2. The final was played at Wilderspool, Warrington. The attendance was 5,935 and receipts were £3305.

Background[]

This season saw no changes in the entrants, no new members and no withdrawals, the number remaining at eighteen.
For the first time in the competition, there were no drawn matches.

Competition and results[]

[1][2][3]

Round 1 - First round[]

[4] Involved 16 matches and 32 clubs

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
1 Fri 27 Sep 1974 Salford 36-5 Castleford The Willows
2 Sat 28 Sep 1974 Barrow 5-14 York Craven Park
3 Sat 28 Sep 1974 Bramley 15-6 Hull F.C. McLaren Field 1 [5]
4 Sat 28 Sep 1974 Leeds 49-10 New Hunslet Headingley
5 Sat 28 Sep 1974 Wakefield Trinity 44-10 Leigh Belle Vue [6]
6 Sat 28 Sep 1974 Whitehaven 32-6 Lock Lane Recreation Ground 537 2, 3
7 Sun 29 Sep 1974 Blackpool Borough 17-20 Wigan Borough Park [7]
8 Sun 29 Sep 1974 Bradford Northern 12-8 Dewsbury Odsal 4
9 Sun 29 Sep 1974 Doncaster 15-6 Kippax White Swan Bentley Road Stadium/Tattersfield 453 5, 6
10 Sun 29 Sep 1974 Halifax 11-13 Keighley Thrum Hall
11 Sun 29 Sep 1974 Huyton 14-12 Huddersfield Alt Park, Huyton [8]
12 Sun 29 Sep 1974 Oldham 21-14 Workington Town Watersheddings 7
13 Sun 29 Sep 1974 Rochdale Hornets 12-16 Hull Kingston Rovers Athletic Grounds
14 Sun 29 Sep 1974 Swinton 7-6 St. Helens Station Road [9]
15 Sun 29 Sep 1974 Warrington 36-3 Batley Wilderspool [10]
16 Sun 29 Sep 1974 Widnes 10-5 Featherstone Rovers Naughton Park [11]

Round 2 - Second round[]

[12] Involved 8 matches and 16 clubs

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
1 Fri 8 Nov 1974 Salford 14-9 Bramley The Willows
2 Sat 9 Nov 1974 Oldham 3-12 Bradford Northern Watersheddings
3 Sun 10 Nov 1974 Keighley 4-39 Leeds Lawkholme Lane 8 [5]
4 Sun 10 Nov 1974 Swinton 18-2 Wigan Station Road 4420 9 [7]
5 Sun 10 Nov 1974 Warrington 33-6 Huyton Wilderspool 10 [10]
6 Sun 10 Nov 1974 Whitehaven 14-4 Doncaster Recreation Ground
7 Sun 10 Nov 1974 Widnes 35-13 Wakefield Trinity Naughton Park [6][11]
8 Sun 10 Nov 1974 York 12-26 Hull Kingston Rovers Clarence Street

Round 3 -Quarterfinals[]

[12] Involved 4 matches with 8 clubs

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
1 Fri 6 Dec 1974 Whitehaven 5-0 Warrington Recreation Ground [10]
2 Sat 7 Dec 1974 Hull Kingston Rovers 25-17 Salford Craven Park (1)
3 Sun 8 Dec 1974 Bradford Northern 17-7 Leeds Odsal
4 Sun 8 Dec 1974 Widnes 15-5 Swinton Naughton Park [11]

Round 4 – Semifinals[]

[12] Involved 2 matches and 4 clubs

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
1 Sat 4 Jan 1975 Widnes 16-14 Hull Kingston Rovers Naughton Park [11]
2 Sat 11 Jan 1975 Whitehaven 6-18 Bradford Northern Recreation Ground 11

Final[]

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
Saturday 25 January 1975 Bradford Northern 3-2 Widnes Wilderspool 5935 3305 3-2 [11][13][14]

Teams and scorers[]

[3][13][14][15]

Bradford Northern № Widnes
teams
1 Ray Dutton
2 [1]
Phil Ward 3 Dennis O'Neill
4 Mal Aspey
David Redfearn 5 Chris Anderson
6 Eric Hughes
Barry Seabourne 7 Reg Bowden[2]
Kelvin "Kel" Earl 8 Jim Mills
Francis Jarvis 9 Keith Elwell
Phil Jackson 10 [3]
11 Mick Adams
Dennis Trotter 12 [4]
Stanley "Stan" Fearnley 13 Doug Laughton
Ken Kelly 14 [5]
Pattinson 15 John Peek[6]
Coach
3 score 2
3 HT 2
Scorers
Tries
Stuart Carlton - after 20 mins T
Goals
G Ray Dutton (1)
Referee G. Frederick "Fred" Lindop (Wakefield)
Man of the match Barry Seabourne - Bradford Northern - scrum-half
Competition Sponsor Player's №6

Scoring - Try = three (3) points - Goal = two (2) points - Drop goal = one (1) point

Timeline in the final[]

Time Incident Score
20 min Try: Stuart Carlton 3-0
? Penalty Goal: Ray Dutton 3-2
Half Time 3-2
Full Time 3-2

Prize money[]

As part of the sponsorship deal and funds, the prize money awarded to the competing teams for this season is as follows :-

Finish Position Cash Prize No. receiving prize Total Cash
Winner £5000 1 £5000
Runner-up £2500 1 £2500
semi-finalist £1000 2 £2000
loser in Rd 3 ? 4 ?
loser in Rd 2 ? 8 ?
Loser in Rd 1 ? 16 ?
Loser in Prelim Round ? ? ?
Grand Total

Note - the author is unable to trace the rest of the award amounts. Can anyone help ?

Notes and comments[]

1 * The News of The World/Empire News annual 1975–76[2] gives the score as 15-10 but others including The John Player Yearbook 1975–76[3] give it as 15-6
2 * Lock Lane are a Junior (amateur) club from Castleford
3 * The John Player Yearbook 1975–76[3] gives the attendance as 1,000 but the Rothmans Rugby League Yearbooks 1990-91[13] and 1991-92,[14] and RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] and Wigan official archives[7] give it as 537
4 * Wigan official archives[7] gives the score as 12-6 but The News of The World/Empire News annual 1975–76,[2] RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] and The John Player Yearbook 1975–76 gives it as 12-8
5 * Kippax White Swan are a Junior (amateur) club from Castleford
6 * The John Player Yearbook 1975–76[3] gives the attendance as 513 but Rothmans Rugby League Yearbooks 1990-91[13] and 1991-92[14] and RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] give it as 453
7 * The News of The World/Empire News annual 1975–76,[2] Wigan official archives[7] and RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] give the score as 21-14 but The John Player Yearbook 1975–76[3] give it as 22-14
8 * Hull F.C. official website[5] shows Hull playing away at Leeds in December in the JPT, an obvious error
9 * Swinton No 8 Brian Butler was sent off in the 36th minute for "interfering in a tackle by Green on David Hill" and Wigan hooker Colin Clarke was sent off in the 6th minute for dissent.
10 * The News of The World/Empire News annual 1975–76[2] gives the score as 13-6 but Wigan official archives,[7] RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] and The John Player Yearbook 1975–76[3] give it as 33-6
11 * The News of The World/Empire News annual 1975–76[2] gives the score as 13-6 but Wigan official archives,[7] RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] and The John Player Yearbook 1975–76[3] give it as 33-6
13 * Wilderspool was the home ground of Warrington from 1883 to the end of the 2003 Summer season when they moved into the new purpose built Halliwell Jones Stadium. Wilderspool remained as a sports/Ruugby League ground and is/was used by Woolston Rovers/Warrington Wizards junior club.
The ground had a final capacity of 9,000 although the record attendance was set in a Challenge cup third round match on 13 March 1948 when 34,304 spectators saw Warrington lose to Wigan 10-13.

General information for those unfamiliar[]

The council of the Rugby Football League voted to introduce a new competition, to be similar to The Football Association and Scottish Football Association's "League Cup". It was to be a similar knock-out structure to, and to be secondary to, the Challenge Cup. As this was being formulated, sports sponsorship was becoming more prevalent and as a result John Player and Sons, a division of Imperial Tobacco Company, became sponsors, and the competition never became widely known as the "League Cup"
The competition ran from 1971–72 until 1995-96 and was initially intended for the professional clubs plus the two amateur BARLA National Cup finalists. In later seasons the entries were expanded to take in other amateur and French teams. The competition was dropped due to "fixture congestion" when Rugby League became a summer sport The Rugby League season always (until the onset of "Summer Rugby" in 1996) ran from around August-time through to around May-time and this competition always took place early in the season, in the Autumn, with the final usually taking place in late January
The competition was variably known, by its sponsorship name, as the Player's No.6 Trophy (1971–1977), the John Player Trophy (1977–1983), the John Player Special Trophy (1983–1989), and the Regal Trophy in 1989.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Rugby League Project".
  2. ^ a b c d e f Frank Butler and Patrick Collins (1975). News of the World Football Annual 1975–76 - 89th year. News of the World Ltd.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Jack Winstanley & Malcolm Ryding (1991). John Player Yearbook 1975–76. Queen Anne Press.
  4. ^ "Wigan "Cherry and White" John Player Round 1 archived results".
  5. ^ a b c "HULL&PROUD - Stats - Fixtures & Results".
  6. ^ a b "I'm Wakefield 'til I die..."
  7. ^ a b c d e f g "Wigan "Cherry and White" archived results".
  8. ^ "Huddersfield Rugby League Heritage" (PDF).
  9. ^ "Saints Heritage Society - History - Season 1896-97".
  10. ^ a b c "Warrington Wolves - Results Archive - 1897". Archived from the original on 2014-02-02.
  11. ^ a b c d e "Widnes Vikings - History - Season In Review - 1896-97".
  12. ^ a b c "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player round 2 onwards".
  13. ^ a b c d Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1990). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1990-1991. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617851 X.
  14. ^ a b c d Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1991). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991-1992. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617852 8.
  15. ^ "Widnes Stat Attack archived results".

External links[]

Retrieved from ""