1951–52 Northern Rugby Football League season

1951–52 Northern Rugby Football League season
League Northern Rugby League
1951–52 Season
Champions Wigan
League Leaders Bradford Northern
Top point-scorer(s) Willie Horne (Barrow) 313
Top try-scorer(s) Lionel Cooper (Huddersfield) 71
< 1950–51 Seasons 1952–53 >

The 1951–52 Rugby Football League season was the fifty-seventh season of rugby league football.

Contents

Season summary

Wigan won their eighth Championship when they beat Bradford Northern 13-6 in the play-off final. Bradford had ended the regular season as the league leaders.

The Challenge Cup Winners were Workington Town who beat Featherstone Rovers 18-10 in the final.

Liverpool Stanley was renamed Liverpool City, and Cardiff, and Doncaster joined the league.[1]

Wigan won the Lancashire League, and Huddersfield won the Yorkshire League. Wigan beat Leigh 14–6 to win the Lancashire Cup, and Wakefield Trinity beat Keighley 17–3 to win the Yorkshire Cup.

Championship

Final standings

Team Pld W D L Pts
1 Bradford Northern 36 28 1 7 57
2 Wigan 36 27 1 8 55
3 Hull 36 26 1 9 53
4 Huddersfield 36 26 0 10 52
5 Oldham 36 25 1 10 51
6 Warrington 36 24 1 11 49
7 Leigh 36 23 2 11 48
8 Workington Town 36 23 0 13 46
9 Hunslet 36 22 1 13 45
10 Barrow 36 21 2 13 44
11 Doncaster 36 21 1 14 43
12 Widnes 36 20 2 14 42
13 Leeds 36 19 2 15 40
14 Swinton 36 18 3 15 39
15 Salford 36 18 2 16 38
16 Wakefield Trinity 36 19 0 17 38
17 Batley 36 18 1 17 37
18 Dewsbury 36 18 0 18 36
19 Whitehaven 36 16 4 16 36
20 St. Helens 36 16 2 18 34
21 Halifax 36 16 2 18 34
22 Featherstone Rovers 36 14 2 20 30
23 Belle Vue Rangers 36 12 3 21 27
24 York 36 12 3 21 27
25 Hull Kingston Rovers 36 10 1 25 21
26 Rochdale Hornets 36 10 1 25 21
27 Bramley 36 10 1 25 21
28 Castleford 36 8 1 27 17
29 Keighley 36 8 1 27 17
30 Cardiff 36 5 0 31 10
31 Liverpool City 36 4 0 32 8
  Play-offs

Source: wigan.rlfans.com.
League points: for win = 2; for draw = 1; for loss = 0.
Pld = Games played; W = Wins; D = Draws; L = Losses; Pts = League points.

Play-offs

  Semi-finals Championship Final
                 
1  Bradford Northern 18  
4  Huddersfield 15  
     Bradford Northern 6
   Wigan 13
2  Wigan 13
3  Hull 9  

Challenge Cup

Workington Town beat Featherstone Rovers 18-10 in the final played at Wembley in front of a crowd of 72,093. Workington full-back and captain-coach Gus Risman became the oldest player to appear in a Cup final at age 41.[2] Three Australians, Tony Paskins, John Mudge and Bevan Wilson came up with decisive plays to help relative newcomers Workington to victory.[3] It was the club's first Cup Final win in their first Final appearance.[4] Billy Ivison, Workington Town's loose forward, was awarded the Lance Todd Trophy for man-of-the-match.

European Championship

This was the twelfth competition and was won for the fourth time by France on points difference.[5][6]

Results

19 September
 England  35–11  Wales St Helens
3 November
 Other nationalities   17–14  France Hull
25 November
 France  42–13  England Marseilles
1 December
 Other nationalities   22–11  Wales Abertillery
6 April
 France  20–12  Wales Bordeaux
23 April
 England  31–18   Other nationalities Wigan

Final standings

Team Played Won Drew Lost For Against Diff Points
 France 3 2 0 1 76 42 +34 4
 England 3 2 0 1 79 71 +8 4
  Other nationalities 3 2 0 1 57 56 +1 4
 Wales 3 0 0 3 34 77 −43 0

References

  1. ^ "1951-52 Season summary". Archived from the original on 2009-09-10. http://wigan.rlfans.com/fusion_pages/index.php?page_id=371. Retrieved 2009-08-08. 
  2. ^ news.bbc.co.uk (11 May 2004). "Cup final facts". BBC Sport (UK: BBC). http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_league/challenge_cup/3705131.stm. Retrieved 6 March 2011. 
  3. ^ AAP (London) (1952-04-21). "Australians star in Cup Final". The Sydney Morning Herald. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=kacUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=5rADAAAAIBAJ&pg=7206,6511911. Retrieved 2009-10-07. 
  4. ^ "RFL Challenge Cup Roll of Honour". Archived from the original on 2010-01-06. http://www.webcitation.org/5maY85jiT. Retrieved 2009-08-07. 
  5. ^ European Championship 1951-52 at rugbyleagueproject.org
  6. ^ Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1995-1996. London: Headline Book Publishing. 1995. p. 424. ISBN 0747278172. 

Sources

Rugby Football League era
(1895–1996)
1895–96 1896–97 1897–98 1898–99 1899–00
1900–01 1901–02 1902–03 1903–04 1904–05 1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10
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Super League era
(1996–present)