1965–66 Northern Rugby Football League season

1965–66 Rugby Football League season

League

Northern Rugby Football League

Champions

St. Helens

League Leaders

St. Helens

Top point-scorer(s)

Len Killeen 336

Top try-scorer(s)

Len Killeen 32

Trevor Lake 32

< 1964–65	Seasons	1966–67 >

The 1965–66 Rugby Football League season was the 71st season of rugby league football. A three-way county championship was also held, with comparative minnows Cumberland against Yorkshire and Lancashire.

Rule change

The substitutes rule introduced in the previous season changed so that substitutions could be used for any reason, including tactical reasons, although they were still only allowed up to and including half-time.^[1]

Season summary

The BBC2 Floodlit Trophy competition was launched in this season with the BBC televising matches on Tuesday nights. The competition was used to trial the four-tackle rule, an experiment in ending the unlimited tackles that had been a by-product from the introduction of the play-the-ball in 1906.^[1]^[2]

St.Helens finished the regular season as league leaders before winning their fourth Championship when they beat Halifax 35-12 in the play-off final.

The Challenge Cup winners were St.Helens who beat Wigan 21-2 in the final.

The BBC2 Floodlit Trophy winners were Castleford who beat St.Helens 4-0 in the final.^[3]

St.Helens won the Lancashire League, and Leeds won the Yorkshire League. Warrington beat Rochdale Hornets 16–5 to win the Lancashire Cup, and Bradford Northern beat Hunslet 17–8 to win the Yorkshire Cup.

At the end of the season, Eric Ashton became the first Rugby League player to receive an award from Her Majesty, the Queen. He was awarded the MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.^[4]

Championship

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	Pts
1	St. Helens	34	28	1	5	57
2	Swinton	34	27	1	6	55
3	Wigan	34	27	0	7	54
4	Wakefield Trinity	34	25	2	7	52
5	Castleford	34	23	3	8	49
6	Leeds	34	24	0	10	48
7	Bradford Northern	34	21	1	12	43
8	Workington Town	34	21	1	12	43
9	Oldham	34	20	3	11	43
10	Halifax	34	21	0	13	42
11	Huddersfield	34	20	0	14	40
12	Hull Kingston Rovers	34	20	0	14	40
13	Hull	34	20	0	14	40
14	Widnes	34	17	0	17	34
15	Featherstone Rovers	34	17	0	17	34
16	Warrington	34	16	1	17	33
17	Hunslet	34	15	2	17	32
18	Salford	34	15	1	18	31
19	Keighley	34	15	0	19	30
20	Leigh	34	14	1	19	29
21	Barrow	34	13	1	20	27
22	Bramley	34	12	2	20	26
23	York	34	11	0	23	22
24	Dewsbury	34	10	1	23	21
25	Rochdale Hornets	34	10	0	24	20
26	Liverpool City	34	9	2	23	20
27	Blackpool Borough	34	9	1	24	19
28	Batley	34	6	2	26	14
29	Doncaster	34	6	0	28	12
30	Whitehaven	34	4	2	28	10

Play-offs

Round of 16		Quarter-finals		Semi-finals		Final



St Helens	35

Warrington	7
		St Helens	15

		Oldham	10
Workington Town	6

Oldham	7
				St Helens	14

				Hull Kingston Rovers	6
Castleford	10

Hull Kingston Rovers	13
		Hull Kingston Rovers	10

		Wakefield Trinity	9
Wakefield Trinity	36

Hull	6
						St Helens	35

						Halifax	12
Wigan	27

Widnes	10
		Wigan	22

		Leeds	5
Leeds	19

Huddersfield	7
				Wigan	12

				Halifax	25	Third Place
Bradford Northern	7

Halifax	21
		Halifax	33

		Swinton	2
Swinton	43

Featherstone Rovers	2

Final

The 1966 Championship Final was played between Halifax and St Helens on Saturday, 28 May 1966 at Station Road Ground before a crowd of 30,634.^[5] St Helens won 35-12 with their hat trick-scoring prop forward, Albert Halsall being awarded the Harry Sunderland Trophy as man-of-the-match.

Challenge Cup

St Helens had reached the final by beating Wakefield Trinity 10-0 away on 26 Feb in Round One; Swinton 16-4 at home on 19 Mar in Round Two; Hull Kingston Rovers 12-10 at home on 2 Apr in Round Three and Dewsbury 12-5 on neutral ground on 16 Apr in the semi-final.^[6]

Wigan had reached the final by beating Halifax 9-4 at home on 26 Feb in Round One; Whitehaven 40-6 at home on 19 Mar in Round Two; Bradford Northern 15-6 away on 6 Apr in Round Three and Leeds 7-2 in the semi-final at Huddersfield on 23 Apr.

The Challenge Cup final was played at London's Wembley Stadium before a crowd of 98,536 on 21 May. Prime Minister Harold Wilson was introduced to the players before kick-off.^[7] St Helens led 9-2 at half time and went on to defeat Wigan 21-2. Saints' scorers were John Mantle (1 try), Tommy Bishop (1 try), Len Killeen (1 try, 5 goals) and Alex Murphy (1 goal). Wigan's scorer was Gilfedder (1 goal). This was St Helens' third Cup Final win in seven Final appearances.^[8]

References

In-line

1 2 Top ten: Rugby league rules, Rugby League World, Aug 2009: 61
↑ Bottom ten: Rugby league rules, Rugby League World, Aug 2009: 62
↑ "1965-66 Season summary". Archived from the original on 2009-09-16. Retrieved 2009-08-08.
↑ Fletcher, Raymond; David Howes (1995). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1995-1996. London: Headline Book Publishing. p. 468. ISBN 0-7472-7817-2.
↑ "St Helens 35 def. Halifax RLFC 12". rugbyleagueproject.org. Shawn Dollin, Andrew Ferguson and Bill Bates. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
↑ "Saints Heritage Site Season records.". Archived from the original on 2009-09-16. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
↑ "Rugby League - Challenge Cup Final - Wigan v St. Helens - Wembley Stadium". friendsreunited.com. Friends Reunited Limited. Retrieved 13 October 2013.
↑ "RFL Challenge Cup Roll of Honour". Archived from the original on 2009-09-16. Retrieved 2009-08-07.

General

de la Riviere, Richard, ed. (2009), Rugby League World (Brighouse, UK: League Publications, published August 2009) (340), ISSN 1466-0105 Missing or empty |title= (help)

Sources

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St Helens

Est. 1873 in St Helens, England

The Club	History Records Honours Players International representatives Coaches Hall of Fame

Home grounds	City Ground Knowsley Road (1890-2010) Halton Stadium (2011) Langtree Park (2012-Present)

Hall of Fame	Alex Murphy Vince Karalius Tom van Vollenhoven

League	Super League

World Club Challenge (2)	2001 2007

Championships (13)	1931–32 1952–53 1958–59 1965–66 1969–70 1970–71 1974–75 1996 1999 2000 2002 2006 2014

Challenge Cup (12)	1955–56 1960–61 1965–66 1971–72 1975–76 1996 1997 2001 2004 2006 2007 2008

Other honours	4—time Premiership Champions 1—time Western Division Champions 1—time Regal Trophy Champions 2—time BBC2 Floodlit Trophy Champions 11—time Lancashire Cup Champions 11—time Lancashire League Champions 1—time Charity Shield Champions BBC Sports Personality Team of the Year Award (2006)

Seasons (120)	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 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16

Culture	NRFU Founder Super League Founding Member Rivalry with Wigan

Affiliation	Rugby Football League (1895)

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