1991–92 League Cup (rugby league)

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^[3]

Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs

Round 1 - First Round^[6]

Involved 16 matches and 32 Clubs

Round 1 - First Round Replays

Involved 1 match and 2 Clubs

Round 2 - Second Round^[11]

Involved 8 matches and 16 Clubs

Round 3 -Quarter Finals^[12]

Involved 4 matches with 8 clubs

Round 4 – Semi-Finals^[12]

Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs

Final

Teams and Scorers^[13]

Scoring - Try = four (4) 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 :-

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

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^[4] 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^[4] 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.

See also

• 1991-92 Rugby Football League season
• 1991 Lancashire Cup
• 1991 Yorkshire Cup
• Regal Trophy
• Rugby league county cups

References

External links

• Saints Heritage Society
• 1896–97 Northern Rugby Football Union season at wigan.rlfans.com
• Hull&Proud Fixtures & Results 1896/1897
• Widnes Vikings - One team, one passion Season In Review - 1896-97
• The Northern Union at warringtonwolves.org
• Huddersfield R L Heritage
• Wakefield until I die