1966 BBC2 Floodlit Trophy

1966 was the second occasion on which the BBC2 Floodlit Trophy competition had been held.

1966 BBC2 Floodlit Trophy

1966–67 BBC2 Floodlit Trophy
Structure	Floodlit knockout championship
Teams	11
Winners	Castleford
Runners-up	Swinton

Castleford won the trophy by beating Swinton by the score of 7-2
The match was played at Wheldon Road , Castleford, now in West Yorkshire. The attendance was 8,986 and receipts were £1,692
This was to be the second of Castleford's three victories in successive seasons in the first three Floodlit competitions

Background

This season the original eight invitees were joined by Barrow, Rochdale Hornets and Salford bringing the total of entrants up to eleven, an increase of three.
This involved the introduction of a preliminary knock-out round on a two legged home and away basis, to reduce the numbers to eight, followed by a mini-league and with the semi-finals and final stages again being on a knock out basis.

Competition and Results

[1]

Preliminary Round - First Leg

Involved 3 matches and 6 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Agg	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Mon 15 Aug 1966	Leigh		11-16		Castleford	Hilton Park
2	Tue 6 Sep 1966	Swinton		21-5		Rochdale Hornets	Station Road				1
3	Wed 7 Sep 1966	Salford		10-19		St. Helens	The Willows		5000		2	[2]

Preliminary Round - Second Leg

Involved 3 matches and 6 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Agg	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Wed 7 Sep 1966	Castleford		39-18		Leigh	Wheldon Road	55-29			3
2	Wed 5 Oct 1966	Rochdale Hornets		14-14		Swinton	Athletic Grounds	19-35			4
3	Mon 26 Sep 1966	St. Helens		40-5		Salford	Knowsley Road	59-15	8500		5	[2]

Round 1 - First Qualifying Round

Involved 4 matches and 8 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Tue 4 Oct 1966	Oldham		7-10		Barrow	Watersheddings			6
2	Tue 11 Oct 1966	Leeds		11-11		Castleford	Headingley
3	Tue 18 Oct 1966	St. Helens		11-9		Swinton	Knowsley Road	8500			[2]
4	Tue 25 Oct 1966	Warrington		4-14		Widnes	Wilderspool				[3][4]

Round 2 - Second Qualifying Round

Involved 4 matches with the same 8 clubs - but NOT reverse fixtures

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Tue 1 Nov 1966	Barrow		11-11		St. Helens	Craven Park	6657		7	[2]
2	Tue 8 Nov 1966	Castleford		31-10		Warrington	Wheldon Road				[4]
3	Tue 22 Nov 1966	Widnes		11-14		Oldham	Naughton Park				[3]
4	Tue 29 Nov 1966	Swinton		10-4		Leeds	Station Road

Qualifying League Table

Pos	Club	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Pts	PD	Notes	Ref
1	Castleford	2	1	1		42	21	21	3
2	Widnes	2	1		1	25	18	7	2
3	Swinton	2	1		1	19	15	4	2
4	Barrow	2	1	1		21	18	3	3
5	St. Helens	2	1	1		22	20	2	3
6	Oldham	2	1		1	21	21	0	2
7	Leeds	2		1	1	15	21	-6	1
8	Warrington	2			2	14	45	-31	0

Pos = Finishing position P = Games played W = Wins D = Drqw L = Lose
PF = Points scored PA = Points against Pts = League points PD = Points scored difference

To Progress to the next stage

The rules stated that the four clubs with the greatest total winning margins were to qualify, and proceed, to the semi-final.
The four clubs in this case were Castleford, Widnes, Swinton and Barrow

Round 3 – Semi-Finals

Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Tue 6 Dec 1966	Castleford		21-5		Barrow	Wheldon Road
2	Tue 13 Dec 1966	Widnes		6-19		Swinton	Naughton Park				[3]

Final

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
	Tuesday 20 December 1966	Castleford		7-2		Swinton	Wheldon Road	8,986	1,692	8	[5][6]

Teams and Scorers

Castleford	№	Swinton
	teams
Derek Edwards	1	Ken Gowers (Capt.)
Keith Howe	2	Derek Whitehead
Ian Stenton	3	John Gomersall
Ron Willett	4	Alan Buckley
Jack Austin	5	Reg Williams
Alan "Chuck" Hardisty (capt.)	6	Bob Fleet
Keith Hepworth	7	Graham Williams
Denis Hartley	8	Ken Halliwell
Clive Dickinson	9	Derek Clarke
Harold McCartney	10	Bernard Scott
Wiliam "Bill" Bryant	11	Graham Rees
Peter Small	12	Malcolm Cummings
John Walker	13	David Robinson
Glyn Jones (unused)	14	William Davies
Tony Miller (unused)	15	Barry Simpson
George Clinton	Coach	Cliff Evans
7	score	2
7	HT	2
	Scorers
	Tries
Jack Austin (1)	T
	Goals
Ron Willett (1)	G	Derek Whitehead (1)
Keith Hepworth (1)	G
Referee		J Manley (Warrington)

Scoring - Try = three (3) points - Goal = two (2) points - Drop goal = two (2) points

[6]

The Play-offs

	Semi-Finals					Final
	2	St. Helens	9
	3	Swinton	5
						St. Helens		0
						Castleford		4
	1	Widnes	9
	4	Castleford	12

Notes and comments

1 * Rochdale Hornets join the competition and play first game in the competition
2 * Salford join the competition and play first game in the competition, and first at home in the competition
3 * At the time this was the highest score, highest aggregate score and greatest winning margin, but to be broken three weeks later
4 * Rochdale Hornets play their first game at home in the competition
5 * At the time this was the highest score, highest aggregate score and greatest winning margin
6 * Barrow join the competition and play first game in the competition
7 * Barrow play their first game at home in the competition
8 * Wheldon Road is the home ground of Castleford. The first match was played there in 1927 and the current capacity in the region of 13,000 although the record attendance was 25,449 set in 1935 in a Challenge Cup match against Hunslet.

General information for those unfamiliar

The Rugby League BBC2 Floodlit Trophy was a knock-out competition sponsored by the BBC and between rugby league clubs, entrance to which was conditional upon the club having floodlights. Most matches were played on an evening, and those of which the second half was televised, were played on a Tuesday evening.
Despite the competition being named as 'Floodlit', many matches took place during the afternoons and not under floodlights, and several of the entrants, including Barrow and Bramley did not have adequate lighting. And, when in 1973, due to the world oil crisis, the government restricted the use of floodlights in sport, all the matches, including the Trophy final, had to be played in the afternoon rather than at night.
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 taking place in December (The only exception to this was when disruption of the fixture list was caused by inclement weather)

See also

• 1966–67 Northern Rugby Football League season
• 1966 Lancashire Cup
• 1966 Yorkshire Cup
• BBC2 Floodlit Trophy
• Rugby league county cups

References

1. "Rugby League Project".
2. "Saints Heritage Society - History - Season 1896-97".
3. "Widnes Vikings - History - Season In Review - 1896-97".
4. "Warrington Wolves - Results Archive - 1897". Archived from the original on 6 July 2010.
5. Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1991). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991-1992. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617852 8.
6. Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1990). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1990-1991. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617851 X.

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