1972–73 League Cup (rugby league)

1972–73 League Cup
Structure National knockout championship
Teams 32
Winners Leeds
Runners-up Salford

This was the second season of the League Cup, which was known as the Players No.6 Trophy for sponsorship reasons.

Leeds won the trophy by beating Salford 12-7 in the final. The match was played at Fartown, Huddersfield. The attendance was 10,102 and receipts were £4563.

Background

This season saw no changes in the entrants, no new members and no withdrawals, the number remaining at thirty-two.

Competition and Results[1][2][3]

Round 1 - First Round

Involved 16 matches and 32 Clubs


Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
1Fri 22 Sep 1972Hull Kingston Rovers20-10CastlefordCraven Park (1)
2Sat 23 Sep 1972Batley26-3HunsletMount Pleasant
3Sat 23 Sep 1972Bramley26-5Pilkington RecsMcLaren Field6161, 2
4Sat 23 Sep 1972Halifax20-22St. HelensThrum Hall2446[4]
5Sat 23 Sep 1972Leigh10-9Workington TownHilton Park
6Sat 23 Sep 1972Whitehaven11-16Featherstone RoversRecreation Ground
7Sun 24 Sep 1972Barrow2-17SalfordCraven Park
8Sun 24 Sep 1972Blackpool Borough9-51LeedsBorough Park3
9Sun 24 Sep 1972Bradford Northern32-6Rochdale HornetsOdsal
10Sun 24 Sep 1972Dewsbury22-4Dewsbury CelticCrown Flatt18974
11Sun 24 Sep 1972Doncaster7-22WidnesBentley Road Stadium/Tattersfield[5]
12Sun 24 Sep 1972Huddersfield23-15WarringtonFartown[6][7]
13Sun 24 Sep 1972Hull F.C.17-10OldhamBoulevard[8]
14Sun 24 Sep 1972Swinton29-10HuytonStation Road
15Sun 24 Sep 1972Wigan10-34Wakefield TrinityCentral Park5[9][10][11]
16Sun 24 Sep 1972York21-13KeighleyClarence Street

Round 2 - Second Round

Involved 8 matches and 16 Clubs


Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
1Fri 24 Nov 1972Hull F.C.9-4Wakefield TrinityBoulevard[8][9][10]
2Fri 24 Nov 1972St. Helens24-8Featherstone RoversKnowsley Road48006[4]
3Fri 24 Nov 1972Salford19-3DewsburyThe Willows
4Sat 25 Nov 1972Leeds21-3LeighHeadingley
5Sun 26 Nov 1972Bradford Northern35-17YorkOdsal
6Sun 26 Nov 1972Hull Kingston Rovers25-5BramleyCraven Park (1)
7Sun 26 Nov 1972Swinton19-11HuddersfieldStation Road[6]
8Sun 26 Nov 1972Widnes21-8BatleyNaughton Park[5]

Round 3 -Quarter Finals

Involved 4 matches with 8 clubs


Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
1Fri 8 Dec 1972Hull Kingston RoversASwintonCraven Park (1)7
2Sat 9 Dec 1972St. Helens10-3WidnesKnowsley Road[4][5]
3Sun 10 Dec 1972Hull F.C.18-18LeedsBoulevard8[8]
4Sun 10 Dec 1972Salford39-2Bradford NorthernThe Willows9

Round 3 -Quarter Finals - Replays

Involved 2 matches with 4 clubs


Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
1Wed 13 Dec 1972Hull Kingston Rovers30-6SwintonCraven Park (1)
2Tue 12 Dec 1972Leeds37-5Hull F.C.Headingley

Round 4 – Semi-Finals

Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs


Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
1Sat 30 Dec 1972Hull Kingston Rovers13-15SalfordCraven Park (1)
2Sat 13 Jan 1973Leeds19-0St. HelensHeadingley5854[4]

Final


Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
Saturday 24 March 1973Leeds12-7SalfordFartown10102456310[12][13]

Teams and Scorers[12][13]

Leeds № Salford
teams
John Holmes1Paul Charlton
Alan Smith2Anthony "Tony" Colloby
Syd Hynes3David Watkins
Les Dyl4Chris Hesketh
John Atkinson5Maurice Richards
Alan Hardisty6Ken Gill
Keith Hepworth7Peter Banner
Terry Clawson8John Ward
Tony Fisher9Terry Ramshaw
David Jeanes10G. Mackay
Bob Haigh11A. Grice
Phil Cookson12William Kirkbride
Graham Eccles13Colin Dixon
David Ward (for Terry Clawson)14P. Ward (for Ken Gill)
P. Pickup (for Tony Fisher)15D. Davies (for A. Grice)
Coach
12score7
10HT5
Scorers
Tries
John Atkinson (2)TColin Dixon (1)
Goals
John Holmes (1)GDavid Watkins (2)
Terry Clawson (2)G
Referee William "Billy" H. Thompson (Huddersfield)
Man of the matchKeith Hepworth - Leeds - Scrum-half/Halfback
Competition SponsorPlayer'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?
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

First Round Second Round Third Round Semi Finals Final
               
Hull F.C. 17
Oldham 10
Hull F.C. 9
Wakefield Trinity 4
Wigan 10
Wakefield Trinity 34
Hull F.C. 18 (5)
Leeds 18 (37)
Blackpool Borough 9
Leeds 51
Leeds 21
Leigh 3
Leigh 10
Workington Town 9
Leeds 19
St. Helens 0
Halifax 20
St. Helens 22
St. Helens 24
Featherstone Rovers 8
Whitehaven 11
Featherstone Rovers 16
St. Helens 10
Widnes 3
Doncaster 7
Widnes 22
Widnes 21
Batley 8
Batley 26
Hunslet 3
Leeds 12
Salford 7
Hull Kingston Rovers 20
Castleford 10
Hull Kingston Rovers 25
Bramley 5
Bramley 26
Pilkington Recs 5
Hull Kingston Rovers 30
Swinton 6
Swinton 29
Huyton 10
Swinton 19
Huddersfield 11
Huddersfield 23
Warrington 15
Hull Kingston Rovers 13
Salford 15
Barrow 2
Salford 17
Salford 19
Dewsbury 3
Dewsbury 22
Dewsbury Celtic 4
Salford 39
Bradford Northern 2
Bradford Northern 32
Rochdale Hornets 6
Bradford Northern 35
York 17
York 21
Keighley 13

Notes and comments

1 * Pilkington Recs are a Junior (amateur) club from St Helens, home ground was City Road until they moved to Ruskin Drive from 2011-12 [12][13]
2 * Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1990-1991,[12] Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991-1992,[13] and RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] give the score as 26-5 but News of the World Football Annual 1973-74[2] gives the score as 28-5
3 * highest score to date
4 * Dewsbury Celtic are a Junior (amateur) club from Dewsbury, home ground is Crow Nest Park
5 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] gives score as 10-28 but the Wigan official archives[3] and 100 Years of Rugby. The History of Wakefield Trinity 1873-1973[9] and Wakefield until I die[10] all give the score as 10-34
6 * News of the World Football Annual 1973-74[2] gives score as 24-3 but both RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] and Wigan official archives[3] give it as 24-8
7 * Abandoned after 22 Minutes due to Fog with the score at 4-2 - Result declared void[3]
8 * NO mention on Hull official website[8] of any replay
9 * News of the World Football Annual 1973-74[2] gives the score as 30-2 but both RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] and Wigan official archives[3] give it as 39-2
10 * Fartown was the home ground of Huddersfield from 1878 to the end of the 1991-92 season to Huddersfield Town FC's Leeds Road stadium, and then to the McAlpine Stadium in 1994. Fartown remained as a sports/Rugby League ground but is now rather dilapidated, and is only used for staging amateur rugby league games.
Due to lack of maintenance, terrace closures and finally major storm damage closing one of the stands in 1986, the final ground capacity had been reduced to just a few thousands although the record attendance was set in a Challenge cup semi-final on 19 April 1947 when a crowd of 35,136 saw Leeds beat Wakefield Trinity 21-0

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. 1 2 3 4 5 "Rugby League Project".
  2. 1 2 3 4 Frank Butler and Patrick Collins (1973). News of the World Football Annual 1973-74 - 87th year. News of the World Ltd.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Wigan "Cherry and White" Players Trophy results".
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Saints Heritage Society - History - Season 1896-97".
  5. 1 2 3 "Widnes Vikings - History - Season In Review - 1896-97".
  6. 1 2 "Huddersfield Rugby League Heritage" (PDF).
  7. ↑ "Warrington Wolves - Results Archive - 1897". Archived from the original on 2014-02-02.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "HULL&PROUD - Stats - Fixtures & Results".
  9. 1 2 3 J C Lindley and D W Armitage (1973). 100 Years of Rugby. The History of Wakefield Trinity 1873-1973. Wakefield Trinity Centenary Committee. ISBN 0 35617852 8.
  10. 1 2 3 "Wakefield until I die".
  11. ↑ "Wigan "Cherry and White" archived results".
  12. 1 2 3 4 Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1990). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1990-1991. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617851 X.
  13. 1 2 3 4 Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1991). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991-1992. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617852 8.
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