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1979–80 John Player Trophy

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1979–80 John Player Trophy
StructureNational knockout championship
Teams32
WinnersBradford Northern
Runners-upWidnes

This was the ninth season for the League Cup, known as the John Player Trophy for sponsorship reasons.

Bradford Northern won the trophy, beating Widnes 6–0 in the final. The match was played at Headingley, Leeds, West Yorkshire. The attendance was 9,909 and receipts were £11560.

Background

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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 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.

The 1979–80 season saw no changes in the entrants, no new members and no withdrawals, the number remaining at eighteen. There were no drawn matches in the competition.

Competition and results

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[1][2]

Round 1 – First Round

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[3] Involved 16 matches and 32 clubs

Game No Fixture date Home team Score Away team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
Fri 14 Sep 1979 Salford 47–5 Huddersfield The Willows [4]
Sat 15 Sep 1979 Wakefield Trinity 25–18 Hull F.C. Belle Vue [5][6]
Sun 16 Sep 1979 Barrow 13–18 St. Helens Craven Park 4818 [7]
Sun 16 Sep 1979 Batley 2–12 York Mount Pleasant
Sun 16 Sep 1979 Blackpool Borough 6–3 West Hull Borough Park 555 1 [7]
Sun 16 Sep 1979 Bramley 43–15 Whitehaven McLaren Field
Sun 16 Sep 1979 Castleford 15–12 Dewsbury Wheldon Road
Sun 16 Sep 1979 Doncaster 0–48 Bradford Northern Bentley Road Stadium/Tattersfield
Sun 16 Sep 1979 Featherstone Rovers 17–7 Halifax Post Office Road
Sun 16 Sep 1979 Warrington 25–9 Huyton Wilderspool 2 [8]
Sun 16 Sep 1979 Keighley 21–9 Rochdale Hornets Lawkholme Lane
Sun 16 Sep 1979 Leigh 16–0 Hull Kingston Rovers Hilton Park
Sun 16 Sep 1979 Oldham 7–31 Leeds Watersheddings
Sun 16 Sep 1979 Pilkington Recs 9–18 Wigan Knowsley Road 6707 3, 4 [2][9][10]
Sun 16 Sep 1979 Swinton 11-30 Workington Town Station Road
Sun 16 Sep 1979 Widnes 17-11 Hunslet Naughton Park [11]

Round 2 – Second Round

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[12] Involved 8 matches and 16 clubs

Game No Fixture date Home team Score Away team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
Sat 29 Sep 1979 Castleford 24–10 Wigan Wheldon Road 5 [2]
Sun 30 Sep 1979 Keighley 9–15 Bradford Northern Lawkholme Lane
Sun 30 Sep 1979 Leeds 7–14 Leigh Headingley
Sun 30 Sep 1979 Salford 23–9 Bramley The Willows
Sun 30 Sep 1979 Wakefield Trinity 21–12 Featherstone Rovers Belle Vue [5]
Sun 30 Sep 1979 Warrington 20–15 York Wilderspool [8]
Sun 30 Sep 1979 Widnes 31–20 St. Helens Naughton Park 9296 [7][11]
Sun 30 Sep 1979 Workington Town 43–7 Blackpool Borough Derwent Park

Round 3 -Quarter-finals

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[12] Involved 4 matches with 8 clubs

Game No Fixture date Home team Score Away team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
Sat 20 Oct 1979 Warrington 6–14 Widnes Wilderspool 6 [8][11]
Sun 21 Oct 1979 Bradford Northern 25–11 Leigh Odsal
Sun 21 Oct 1979 Castleford 6–13 Salford Wheldon Road
Sun 21 Oct 1979 Wakefield Trinity 26–5 Workington Town Belle Vue [5]

Round 4 – Semi-finals

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[12] Involved 2 matches and 4 clubs

Game No Fixture date Home team Score Away team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
Sat 3 Nov 1979 Widnes 19–3 Salford Wilderspool 6567 7 [11]
Sat 17 Nov 1979 Bradford Northern 16–3 Wakefield Trinity Headingley 8233 [5]

Final

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The final was originally scheduled to take place on 1 December 1979, but was postponed because of a BBC TV dispute.[13] The game was rescheduled, but due to a frozen pitch at the original venue, Station Road, Swinton, the fixture was moved to Headingley in Leeds.[14]

Fixture date Home team Score Away team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
Saturday 5 January 1980 Bradford Northern 6–0 Widnes Headingley 9909 11560 8 [9][10][11]

Teams and scorers

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[9][10][15]

Bradford Northern No. Widnes
teams
Keith Mumby 1 David Eckersley
"Dave" Barends 2 Stuart Wright
David Redfearn 3 Mal Aspey
Derek Parker 4 Derek "Mick" George[1]
Les Gant 5 Mick Burke
Nigel Stephenson 6 Eric Hughes
Alan Redfearn 7 Reg Bowden[2]
James "Jimmy" Thompson 8 Brian Hogan
"Keith" Bridges 9 Keith Elwell
Colin Forsyth 10 Glyndwr "Glyn" Shaw
Jeff Grayshon 11 Les Gorley
Gary Van Bellen 12 David Hull
Len Casey 13 Mick Adams
Steve Ferres (for Gary Van Bellen) 14 ? Not used
Ian Van Bellen (for Colin Forsyth) 15 Jim Mills (for Brian Hogan)
Coach
6 score 0
5 HT 0
Scorers
Tries
D. Parker (1) T
Goals
Keith Mumby (1) G
Drop Goals
Nigel Stephenson (1) DG
Referee William "Billy" H. Thompson (Huddersfield)
Man of the match Len Casey – Bradford Northern – loose forward
Competition Sponsor John Player

Scoring – Try = three points – Goal = two points – Drop goal = one point

Prize money

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As part of the sponsorship deal and funds, the prize money awarded to the competing teams for this season was as follows:[16]

Finish Position Cash Prize No. receiving prize Total Cash
Winner £8,500 1 £8,500
Runner-up £4,000 1 £4,000
Semi-finalist £2,000 2 £4,000
Loser in Rd 3 £1,000 4 £4,000
Loser in Rd 2 £800 8 £6,400
Loser in Rd 1 £600 16 £9,600
Grand Total £36,500

The road to success

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This tree excludes any preliminary round fixtures

First round Second round Third round Semi-finals Final
               
Keighley 21
Rochdale Hornets 9
Keighley 9
Bradford Northern 15
Doncaster 0
Bradford Northern 48
Bradford Northern 25
Leigh 11
Oldham 7
Leeds 31
Leeds 7
Leigh 14
Leigh 16
Hull Kingston Rovers 0
Bradford Northern 16
Wakefield Trinity 3
Wakefield Trinity 25
Hull F.C. 18
Wakefield Trinity 21
Featherstone Rovers 12
Featherstone Rovers 17
Halifax 7
Wakefield Trinity 26
Workington Town 5
Swinton 11
Workington Town 30
Workington Town 43
Blackpool Borough 7
Blackpool Borough 6
West Hull 3
Bradford Northern 6
Widnes 0
Warrington 25
Huyton 9
Warrington 21
York 15
Batley 2
York 12
Warrington 6
Widnes 14
Widnes 17
Hunslet 11
Widnes 31
St. Helens 20
Barrow 13
St. Helens 18
Widnes 19
Salford 3
Castleford 15
Dewsbury 12
Castleford 24
Wigan 10
Pilkington Recs 9
Wigan 18
Castleford 6
Salford 13
Salford 47
Huddersfield 5
Salford 23
Bramley 9
Bramley 43
Whitehaven 15

Notes and comments

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1 * West Hull are a Junior (amateur) club from Hull
2 * Warrington official website[8] and Wigan official archives[3] shows the match played at Wilderspool but RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] shows Huyton at home
3 * Pilkington Recs are a Junior (amateur) club from St Helens, home ground was City Road until they moved to Ruskin Drive from 2011–12
4 * Wigan official archives[3] give the attendance as 6,500 but RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] gives it as 6,707
5 * Wigan official archives[12] gives the score as 21–10, but RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] gives it as 24–10
6 * Warrington official website[8] shows the match played on 2 October but RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] and Wigan official archives[12] show it played on 20 October
7 * Wigan official archives[12] show Salford at home, but RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] show Widnes at home
8 * Headingley, Leeds, is the home ground of Leeds RLFC with a capacity of 21,000. The record attendance was 40,175 for a league match between Leeds and Bradford Northern on 21 May 1947.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f "Rugby League Project".
  2. ^ a b c "Wigan "Cherry and White" archived results". Archived from the original on 2014-02-21. Retrieved 2014-07-12.
  3. ^ a b c "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Rd 1 archived results".
  4. ^ "Huddersfield Rugby League Heritage" (PDF).
  5. ^ a b c d "Wakefield until I die".
  6. ^ "HULL&PROUD – Stats – Fixtures & Results".
  7. ^ a b c "Saints Heritage Society – History – Season 1896–97".
  8. ^ a b c d e "Warrington Wolves – Results Archive – 1897".
  9. ^ a b c Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1990). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1990–1991. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617851 X.
  10. ^ a b c Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1991). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991-1992. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617852 8.
  11. ^ a b c d e "Widnes Vikings – History – Season In Review – 1979–80".
  12. ^ a b c d e f "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Rd 2 onward archived results".
  13. ^ Kennedy, Edward (30 November 1979). "John Player final off". The Guardian. London. p. 24. ProQuest 186110695.
  14. ^ "O'Loughlin goes to Workington". The Guardian. London. 3 January 1980. p. 18. ProQuest 186114105.
  15. ^ "Widnes Stat Attack archived results".
  16. ^ Fletcher, Raymond; Howes, David, eds. (1992). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1992-93. London: Headline Publishing Group. p. 396. ISBN 978-0-7472-7906-8.
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