1991–92 League Cup (rugby league)

1991–92 League Cup
1991–92 League Cup
Structure	National knockout championship
Teams	38
Winners	Widnes
Runners-up	Leeds
	← 1990–91 1992–93 →

This was the twenty-first season of rugby league's League Cup competition, known as the Regal Trophy for sponsorship purposes.

Widnes won the final, beating Leeds by the score of 24–0. The match was played at Central Park, Wigan. The attendance was 15,070.

Background[]

This season saw two "name" changes and one of the three junior clubs being replaced by a new league club. The number of entrants remained the same at thirty-eight.
The changes were :-
1 Runcorn Highfield became Highfield and now played at Hoghton Road Stadium in Sutton, a suburb of St. Helens and home to St Helens Town A.F.C. (although signing a 99-year lease, the club moved on after 4½ years after a proposed rent increase made a stay unviable - Fulham became London Crusaders but were still nomadic, although playing many home matches at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre before settling at Barnet Copthall for season 1993-94
2 Scarborough Pirates joined the league and the competition (albeit for a very brief one season stay before going into administration), taking the place of one of the junior teams-
The preliminary round involved twelve clubs, to reduce the numbers to entrants to the first round proper to thirty-two.

Competition and results[]

^[1]^[2]

Preliminary round[]

Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Att	Notes	Ref

1	Tue 29 Oct 1991	Rochdale Hornets	14-24	Widnes	Spotland	2278		^[3]
2	Tue 29 Oct 1991	Wigan	34-14	Dewsbury	Central Park	5020		^[2]
3	Thu 31 Oct 1991	Hull F.C.	22-7	Leigh	Boulevard	2219		^[4]
4	Sun 3 Nov 1991	Saddleworth	0-30	Workington Town	Watersheddings	1650	1, 2
5	Sun 3 Nov 1991	Sheffield Eagles	36-8	Scarborough Pirates	Don Valley Stadium	1226
6	Mon 4 Nov 1991	Leigh East	20-10	Chorley Borough (2)	Hilton Park	1393	3, 4

^[5]

Round 1 - First Round[]

Involved 16 matches and 32 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Att	Notes	Ref

1	Sat 16 Nov 1991	Warrington	8-17	Leeds	Wilderspool	4353		^[6]
2	Sun 17 Nov 1991	Bradford Northern	76-0	Leigh East	Odsal	1613	3
3	Sun 17 Nov 1991	Doncaster	21-20	Whitehaven	Bentley Road Stadium/Tattersfield	693
4	Sun 17 Nov 1991	Halifax	46-4	Barrow	Thrum Hall	4791
5	Sun 17 Nov 1991	Highfield	10-28	Carlisle	Hoghton Road Stadium	180
6	Sun 17 Nov 1991	Huddersfield	10-32	St. Helens	Fartown	4239		^[7]^[8]
7	Sun 17 Nov 1991	Hull Kingston Rovers	10-22	Castleford	Craven Park (2)	3406
8	Sun 17 Nov 1991	Keighley Cougars	25-10	Hunslet	Cougar Park	1155
9	Sun 17 Nov 1991	Nottingham City	11-42	Wakefield Trinity	Harvey Hadden Stadium	916		^[9]
10	Sun 17 Nov 1991	Oldham	16-10	London Crusaders	Watersheddings	2182
11	Sun 17 Nov 1991	Ryedale-York	6-13	Sheffield Eagles	Ryedale Stadium	1138
12	Sun 17 Nov 1991	Salford	74-10	Trafford Borough	The Willows	1783
13	Sun 17 Nov 1991	Swinton	8-34	Wigan	Station Road	4676		^[2]
14	Sun 17 Nov 1991	Widnes	26-8	Workington Town	Naughton Park	4917		^[3]
15	Mon 18 Nov 1991	Hull F.C.	12-8	Batley	Boulevard	2149		^[4]
16	Tue 19 Nov 1991	Bramley	18-18	Featherstone Rovers	McLaren Field	1643

^[10]

Round 1 - First Round Replays[]

Involved 1 match and 2 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref

1	Thu 21 Nov 1991	Featherstone Rovers		44-8		Bramley	Post Office Road	1617

Round 2 - Second Round[]

Involved 8 matches and 16 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Att	Notes	Ref

1	Sat 23 Nov 1991	Hull F.C.	4-12	Leeds	Boulevard	4359		^[4]
2	Sun 24 Nov 1991	Bradford Northern	44-10	Sheffield Eagles	Odsal	3118
3	Sun 24 Nov 1991	Carlisle	16-30	Widnes	Gifford Park	1874	5	^[3]
4	Sun 24 Nov 1991	Featherstone Rovers	64-18	Halifax	Post Office Road	5462
5	Sun 24 Nov 1991	Oldham	18-24	St. Helens	Watersheddings	5814		^[8]
6	Sun 24 Nov 1991	Wakefield Trinity	10-30	Salford	Belle Vue	4577		^[9]
7	Sun 24 Nov 1991	Wigan	32-8	Keighley Cougars	Central Park	6052		^[2]
8	Mon 25 Nov 1991	Castleford	38-6	Doncaster	Wheldon Road	4145

^[11]

Round 3 -Quarter Finals[]

Involved 4 matches with 8 clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Att	Ref

1	Sat 30 Nov 1991	Salford	24-14	Wigan	The Willows	4608	^[2]
2	Sun 1 Dec 1991	Leeds	24-4	Castleford	Headingley	15409
3	Sun 1 Dec 1991	St. Helens	30-12	Bradford Northern	Knowsley Road	8641	^[8]
4	Sun 1 Dec 1991	Widnes	34-22	Featherstone Rovers	Naughton Park	6551	^[3]

^[12]

Round 4 – Semi-Finals[]

Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Att	Notes	Ref

1	Sat 7 Dec 1991	Leeds	22-15	Salford	Valley Parade	7275	6
2	Sat 21 Dec 1991	Widnes	18-10	St. Helens	Central Park	6376		^[3]^[8]

^[12]

Final[]

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref

	Saturday 11 January 1992	Widnes		24-0		Leeds	Central Park	15070		7, 8	^[3]^[12]

Teams and scorers[]

Widnes	No.	Leeds

	teams
Alan Tait	1	Morvin Edwards
John Devereux	2	Phil Ford
Andy Currier	3	David Creasser
Darren Wright	4	Simon Irving
[1]	5	John Bentley
Jonathan Davies	6	Garry Schofield
[2]	7	Bobbie Goulding
Kurt Sorensen	8	Shaun Wane
Paul Hulme	9
David Smith	10	Mike O'Neill
Harvey Howard	11	Roy Powell
"Richie" Eyres	12	Paul Dixon
Les Holliday	13	Gary Divorty
Paul Atcheson	14	Carl Gibson for Irving
Joe Grima	15	Steve Molloy for Wane
Frank Myler	Coach	Doug Laughton

24	score	0
7	HT	0

	Scorers
	Tries
Jonathan Davies (1)	T
Les Holliday (1)	T
Alan Tait (1)	T
Kurt Sorensen (1)	T
	Goals
Jonathan Davies {3)	G
	Drop Goals
Jonathan Davies (1)	DG
Les Holliday (1)	DG

Referee		(Bradford)
Man of the match		Les Holliday
Competition Sponsor		Regal

Scoring - Try = four (4) points - Goal = two (2) points - Drop goal = one (1) point

^[13]

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	?
Loser in Prelim Round	?	?	?

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

Highfield	10

Carlisle	28
		Carlisle	16

		Widnes	30
Widnes	26

Workington Town	8
				Widnes	34

				Featherstone Rovers	22
Bramley	18 (8)

Featherstone Rovers	18 (44)
		Featherstone Rovers	64

		Halifax	18
Halifax	46

Barrow	4
						Widnes	18

						St. Helens	10
Oldham	16

London Crusaders	10
		Oldham	18

		St. Helens	24
Huddersfield	10

St. Helens	32
				St. Helens	30

				Bradford Northern	12
Bradford Northern	76

Leigh East	0
		Bradford Northern	44

		Sheffield Eagles	10
Ryedale-York	6

Sheffield Eagles	13
								Widnes	24

								Leeds	0
Hull F.C.	12

Batley	8
		Hull F.C.	4

		Leeds	12
Warrington	8

Leeds	17
				Leeds	24

				Castleford	4
Hull Kingston Rovers	10

Castleford	22
		Castleford	38

		Doncaster	6
Doncaster	21

Whitehaven	20
						Leeds	22

						Salford	15
Nottingham City	11

Wakefield Trinity	42
		Wakefield Trinity	10

		Salford	30
Salford	74

Trafford Borough	10
				Salford	24

				Wigan	14
Swinton	8

Wigan	34
		Wigan	32

		Keighley Cougars	8
Keighley Cougars	25

Hunslet

Notes and comments[]

1 * Saddleworth Rangers are a Junior (amateur) club from Oldham
2 * Watersheddings was the home ground of Oldham
3 * Leigh East are a Junior (amateur) club from Leigh^[14]
4 * Hilton Park was the home ground of Leigh
5 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject^[1] gives the attendance as 1,874 but Widnes official archives^[3] gives it as 2,000
6 * Valley Parade was originally the home of Manningham Rugby League Football Club until 1903, when they changed name and codes and became Bradford City A.F.C.
7 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject^[1] gives the attendance as 15,070 but Widnes official archives^[3] gives it as 15,023
8 * Central Park was the home ground of Wigan with a final capacity of 18,000, although the record attendance was 47,747 for Wigan v St Helens 27 March 1959

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.

References[]

External links[]

[RLP.orgMisc-1] "Rugby League Project".

[CherryMisc-2] "Wigan "Cherry and White" archived results".

[ChemicsMisc-3] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h "Widnes Vikings - History - Season In Review - 1896-97".

[HullMisc-4] "HULL&PROUD - Stats - Fixtures & Results".

[CherryJPPMisc-5] "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Prelim Rd archived results".

[WiresMisc-6] "Warrington Wolves - Results Archive - 1897". Archived from the original on 2010-07-06.

[HuddHeritageMisc-7] "Huddersfield Rugby League Heritage" (PDF).

[SaintsMisc-8] "Saints Heritage Society - History - Season 1896-97".

[WakefieldTIDMisc-9] "Wakefield until I die".

[CherryJP1Misc-10] "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Rd 1 archived results".

[CherryJP2Misc-11] "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Rd 2 archived results".

[CherryJP3Misc-12] "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Rd 3 onward archived results".

[WidnesArchivesJPFMisc-13] "Widnes Stat Attack archived results".

[LeighEastMisc-14] "Leigh East ARLFC".

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