1955–56 Northern Rugby Football League season

1955–56 Rugby Football League season

League

Northern Rugby Football League

Champions

Hull

League Leaders

Warrington

Top point-scorer(s)

Harry Bath 344

Top try-scorer(s)

Jack McLean 61

< 1954–55	Seasons	1956–57 >

The 1955–56 Rugby Football League season was the 61st season of rugby league football.

Season summary

Belle Vue Rangers dropped out of the competition shortly before the start of the season. There was no time to reschedule and so percentages were used.^[1]

In 1955-56 Wigan took part in the Independent Television Association Trophy. This was a series of televised floodlit matches played in London and shown on the newly launched ITV. It only lasted one year but the idea would be picked up again by the BBC in 1965.

ITV Floodlit Competition winners were Warrington who beat Leigh 43-18 in the final.

Hull won their fourth Rugby Football League Championship when they beat Halifax 10-9 in the play-off final. Warrington had finished the regular season as league leaders.

The Challenge Cup winners were St. Helens who beat Halifax 13-2 in the final.

Warrington won the Lancashire League, and Halifax won the Yorkshire League. Leigh beat Widnes 26–9 to win the Lancashire Cup, and Halifax beat Hull 10–10 (replay 7–0) to win the Yorkshire Cup.

Championship

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	Pts	Pct
1	Warrington	34	27	1	6	55	80.88
2	Halifax	36	28	2	6	58	80.55
3	St. Helens	34	27	0	7	54	79.41
4	Hull	36	25	1	10	51	70.83
5	Wigan	34	22	2	10	46	67.64
6	Featherstone Rovers	36	23	2	11	48	66.66
7	Barrow	34	21	2	11	44	64.70
8	Bradford Northern	36	22	2	12	46	63.88
9	Oldham	34	20	0	14	40	58.82
10	Swinton	34	19	2	13	40	58.82
11	Leigh	34	19	2	13	40	58.82
12	Leeds	36	21	0	15	42	58.33
13	York	36	20	0	16	40	55.55
14	Huddersfield	36	18	1	17	37	51.37
15	Workington Town	34	17	0	17	34	50.00
16	Keighley	36	18	0	18	38	50.00
17	Wakefield Trinity	36	17	0	19	34	47.22
18	Hunslet	36	17	0	19	34	47.22
19	Bramley	34	16	0	18	32	47.05
20	Rochdale Hornets	34	15	0	19	30	44.11
21	Whitehaven	34	14	1	19	29	42.64
22	Salford	34	13	1	20	27	39.70
23	Widnes	34	11	0	23	22	32.35
24	Hull Kingston Rovers	36	11	1	24	23	31.94
25	Doncaster	34	7	5	22	19	27.94
26	Blackpool Borough	34	9	0	25	18	26.47
27	Castleford	36	9	0	27	18	25.00
28	Liverpool City	34	8	0	26	16	23.52
29	Dewsbury	34	8	0	26	16	23.52
30	Batley	34	7	1	26	15	22.05

	Play-offs

Play-offs

Semi-finals			Championship Final


1	Warrington	0

4	Hull	17
			Hull	10

			Halifax	9
2	Halifax	23

3	St Helens	8

Challenge Cup

A marching band provides entertainment at Wembley Stadium before the 1956 Challenge Cup final.

In the Challenge Cup tournament's final St Helens faced Halifax. Played on 28 April 1956 at Wembley Stadium in front of a crowd of 79,341, St Helens won 13-2.^[2] This was Saints' first Challenge Cup final win in five final appearances.^[3] Alan Prescott, their prop forward was awarded the Lance Todd Trophy for man-of-the-match.

The St Helens team was greeted enthusiastically upon their return to the North. After detraining at Liverpool the team's open-top coach ride to St Helens attracted an estimated 100,000 people despite pouring rain.^[4]

European Championship

This was the fifteenth European Championship and was won for the second time by the Other Nationalities.^[5]

Results

12 September

Other nationalities	33–16	England

Wigan

19 October

Other nationalities	32–19	France

Leigh

10 May

France	23–9	England

Lyon

Final standings

Team	Played	Won	Lost	For	Against	Diff	Points
Other nationalities	2	2	0	65	35	+30	4
France	2	1	1	42	41	+1	2
England	2	0	2	25	56	−31	0

References

↑ "1955-56 Season summary". Retrieved 2009-08-08.
↑ "1956 Challenge Cup final". rugbyleagueproject.org. Shawn Dollin, Andrew Ferguson and Bill Bates. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
↑ "RFL Challenge Cup Roll of Honour". Archived from the original on 2009-09-16. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
↑ Jeff Hill, Jack Williams (1996). Sport and Identity in the North of England. UK: Keele University Press. p. 98 & 99.
↑ Raymond Fletcher; David Howes (1995). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1995-1996. London: Headline Book Publishing. p. 425. ISBN 0-7472-7817-2.

Sources

1955-56 Rugby Football League season at Wigan.rlfans.com
The Challenge Cup at The Rugby Football League website

Rugby Football League seasons

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
1910–11	1911–12	1912–13	1913–14	1914–15	1915–16	1916–17	1917–18	1918–19	1919–20
1920–21	1921–22	1922–23	1923–24	1924–25	1925–26	1926–27	1927–28	1928–29	1929–30
1930–31	1931–32	1932–33	1933–34	1934–35	1935–36	1936–37	1937–38	1938–39	1939–40
1940–41	1941–42	1942–43	1943–44	1944–45	1945–46	1946–47	1947–48	1948–49	1949–50
1950–51	1951–52	1952–53	1953–54	1954–55	1955–56	1956–57	1957–58	1958–59	1959–60
1960–61	1961–62	1962–63	1963–64	1964–65	1965–66	1966–67	1967–68	1968–69	1969–70
1970–71	1971–72	1972–73	1973–74	1974–75	1975–76	1976–77	1977–78	1978–79	1979–80
1980–81	1981–82	1982–83	1983–84	1984–85	1985–86	1986–87	1987–88	1988–89	1989–90
1990–91	1991–92	1992–93	1993–94	1994–95	1995–96

Super League era
(1996–present)

					1996	1997	1998	1999	2000
2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016

Hull Football Club

Established 1865 in Kingston upon Hull, England

The Club	History Records Honours International representative players Players Coaches

Home grounds	The Boulevard KC Stadium

League	Super League

Championships (6)	1919–20 1920–21 1935–36 1955–56 1957–58 1982–83

Challenge Cup (3)	1913–14 1981–82 2005

Seasons (x)	2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Culture	NRFU Founder

Affiliation	Rugby Football League (1895)

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, January 20, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.