1977–78 League Cup (rugby league)

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1977–78 League Cup
StructureNational knockout championship
Teams32
WinnersWarrington
Runners-upWidnes

This was the seventh season for the competition, from this season the League Cup was known as the John Player Trophy for sponsorship reasons.

Warrington won the trophy, beating Widnes in the final by the score of 9-4. The match was played at Knowsley Road, St Helens, Merseyside. The attendance was 10,258 and receipts were £8429.

Background[]

This season saw no changes in the entrants, no new members and no withdrawals, the number remaining at eighteen.
This was the second successive season in which there were no drawn matches. The title of the competition was changed from the previous "Players No 6 Trophy" to the "John Player Trophy"

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 21 Oct 1977 (NDLB) National Dock Labour Board 4-18 New Hunslet ??? 3845 1, 2
2 Fri 21 Oct 1977 Salford 27-8 Rochdale Hornets The Willows
3 Sat 22 Oct 1977 Leeds 22-25 Wigan Headingley [4]
4 Sun 23 Oct 1977 Featherstone Rovers 25-24 Hull Kingston Rovers Post Office Road
5 Sun 23 Oct 1977 Keighley 18-16 Hull F.C. Lawkholme Lane [5]
6 Sun 23 Oct 1977 Leigh 31-15 Doncaster Hilton Park
7 Sun 23 Oct 1977 Wakefield Trinity 24-5 Batley Belle Vue 3 [6]
8 Sun 23 Oct 1977 Blackpool Borough 10-31 Warrington Borough Park [7]
9 Sun 23 Oct 1977 Bradford Northern 19-12 Bramley Odsal
10 Sun 23 Oct 1977 Dewsbury 0-13 Castleford Crown Flatt
11 Sun 23 Oct 1977 Halifax 8-9 Cawoods Thrum Hall 1168 4, 5
12 Sun 23 Oct 1977 Huddersfield 33-13 Whitehaven Fartown [8]
13 Sun 23 Oct 1977 Oldham 16-8 Barrow Watersheddings
14 Sun 23 Oct 1977 Swinton 11-28 St. Helens Station Road 3000 [9]
15 Sun 23 Oct 1977 Widnes 22-6 Huyton Naughton Park 6 [10]
16 Sun 23 Oct 1977 York 12-20 Workington Town Clarence Street

Round 2 - Second Round[]

[11] Involved 8 matches and 16 Clubs

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
1 Sat 5 Nov 1977 Widnes 26-19 Castleford Naughton Park [10]
2 Sun 6 Nov 1977 Bradford Northern 22-18 Workington Town Odsal
3 Sun 6 Nov 1977 Featherstone Rovers 17-10 St. Helens Post Office Road 5481 [9]
4 Sun 6 Nov 1977 Huddersfield 21-11 Oldham Fartown [8]
5 Sun 6 Nov 1977 Keighley 5-14 Leigh Lawkholme Lane
6 Sun 6 Nov 1977 Wakefield Trinity 31-7 Cawoods Belle Vue 4 [6]
7 Sun 6 Nov 1977 Warrington 19-10 Salford Wilderspool [7]
8 Sun 6 Nov 1977 Wigan 9-7 New Hunslet Central Park 5447 [11]

Round 3 -Quarter Finals[]

[12] Involved 4 matches with 8 clubs

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
1 Sat 19 Nov 1977 Huddersfield 0-11 Bradford Northern Fartown [8]
2 Sun 20 Nov 1977 Featherstone Rovers 11-14 Warrington Post Office Road [7]
3 Sun 20 Nov 1977 Wakefield Trinity 12-9 Leigh Belle Vue [6]
4 Sun 20 Nov 1977 Widnes 25-0 Wigan Naughton Park [10][12]

Round 4 – Semi-Finals[]

[12] Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
1 Sat 26 Nov 1977 Wakefield Trinity 5-15 Warrington Belle Vue 7 [6][7]
2 Sat 3 Dec 1977 Widnes 14-10 Bradford Northern Naughton Park [10]

Final[]

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
Saturday 28 January 1978 Warrington 9-4 Widnes Knowsley Road 10258 8429 8 [7][10][13][14]

Teams and scorers[]

[13][14][15]

Warrington № Widnes
teams
/[1] 1 David Eckersley
Steve Hesford 2 Stuart Wright
Billy Benyon 3 Mal Aspey
Frank Wilson 4 [2]
John Bevan 5 Paul Woods
Ken Kelly 6 Eric Hughes
Parry Gordon 7 Reg Bowden[3]
Roy Lester[4] 8 Bill Ramsey
John Dalgreen 9 Keith Elwell
Mike Nicholas 10 Glyndwr "Glyn" Shaw
Tommy Martyn 11 Mick Adams
Barry Philbin 12 David Hull
Ian Potter 13 Doug Laughton
? Not used 14 ? Not used
? Not used 15 [5] (for Glyndwr "Glyn" Shaw)
Coach
9 score 4
4 HT 0
Scorers
Tries
John Bevan (1) T
Goals
Steve Hesford (3) G
Drop Goals
DG Paul Woods (2)
Referee (Huddersfield)
Man of the match Steve Hesford - Warrington - Wing
Competition Sponsor Player's №6

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

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 ? 1 ?
Runner-up ? 1 ?
semi-finalist ? 2 ?
loser in Rd 3 ? 4 ?
loser in Rd 2 ? 8 ?
Loser in Rd 1 ? 16 ?
Grand Total

Note - the author is unable to trace the award amounts for this season. Can anyone help ?

The road to success[]

This tree excludes any preliminary round fixtures

First round Second round Third round Semifinals Final
               
Wakefield Trinity 24
Batley 5
Wakefield Trinity 31
Cawoods 7
Halifax 8
Cawoods 9
Wakefield Trinity 12
Leigh 9
Keighley 18
Hull F.C. 16
Keighley 5
Leigh 14
Leigh 31
Doncaster 15
Wakefield Trinity 5
Warrington 15
Featherstone Rovers 25
Hull Kingston Rovers 24
Featherstone Rovers 17
St. Helens 10
Swinton 11
St. Helens 28
Featherstone Rovers 11
Warrington 14
Blackpool Borough 10
Warrington 31
Warrington 19
Salford 10
Salford 27
Rochdale Hornets 8
Warrington 9
Widnes 4
Widnes 21
Huyton 6
Widnes 26
Castleford 19
Dewsbury 0
Castleford 13
Widnes 25
Wigan 0
Leeds 22
Wigan 25
Wigan 9
New Hunslet 7
(NDLB) National Dock Labour Board 4
New Hunslet 18
Widnes 14
Bradford Northern 10
Huddersfield 33
Whitehaven 13
Huddersfield 21
Oldham 11
Oldham 16
Barrow 8
Huddersfield 0
Bradford Northern 11
Bradford Northern 19
Bramley 12
Bradford Northern 22
Workington Town 18
York 12
Workington Town 20

Notes and comments[]

1 * (NDLB) National Dock Labour Board are a Junior (amateur) club from Hull
2 * Wigan official archives[4] gives the score as 3-18 but RugbyleaguePROJECTS,[1] Rothmans Yearbook 1991-92[14] and the News of the World/Empire News ANNUAL OF 1978–79[3] give it as 4-18
3 * Wigan official archives[4] gives the score as 24-3 but RugbyleaguePROJECTS,[1] Wakefield until I die[6] and the News of the World/Empire News Annual 1978–79[3] give it as 24-5
4 * Cawoods were a Junior (amateur) club from Hull
5 * Cawoods became the first amateur team to beat a professional team in a Rugby League cup tie since 1909
6 * Wigan official archives[4] gives the score as 23-6 but RugbyleaguePROJECTS,[1] Widnes official archives[10] and the News of the World/Empire News annual 1978–79[3] give it as 22-6
7 * Wigan First Team Players continued with their strike over a bonus payment for the JP second round win over New Hunslet. Wigan chairman Ken Broome issued a statement[12] saying "The situation is bordering on ridiculous. It's beyond money now, it's become a question of whether the players are going to run the club or we are." The actual dispute was over just £5 a man, the club having increased the bonus offer from £55 to £70 but the players wanted £75.
8 * Knowsley Road was the home of St Helens R.F.C. from 1890 until its closure in 2010. The final capacity was 17,500 although the record attendance was 35,695 set on 26 December 1949 for a league game between St Helens and Wigan.

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 "Rugby League Project".
  2. ^ "Wigan "Cherry and White" archived results".
  3. ^ a b c d Frank Butler & Harold Mayes (1979). News Of The World Football Annual 1978-9. News of the World Ltd. ISBN 0 855 43 011 7.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Rd 1 archived results".
  5. ^ "HULL&PROUD - Stats - Fixtures & Results".
  6. ^ a b c d e "Wakefield until I die".
  7. ^ a b c d e "Warrington Wolves - Results Archive - 1897".
  8. ^ a b c "Huddersfield Rugby League Heritage" (PDF).
  9. ^ a b "Saints Heritage Society - History - Season 1896-97".
  10. ^ a b c d e f "Widnes Vikings - History - Season In Review - 1896-97".
  11. ^ a b "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Rd 2 archived results".
  12. ^ a b c d "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Rd 3 onwards results".
  13. ^ a b Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1990). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1990-1991. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617851 X.
  14. ^ a b c Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1991). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991-100. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617852 8.
  15. ^ "Widnes Stat Attack archived results".

External links[]

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