1979 BBC2 Floodlit Trophy

1979 was the fifteenth occasion on which the BBC2 Floodlit Trophy competition had been held.
This year, for the last time, a new name appeared on the trophy when Hull F.C. won the trophy by beating Hull Kingston Rovers by the score of 13-3
The match was played at Boulevard, in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire. The attendance was 18,500, and the receipts were £16,605
The attendance was a record for a BBC2 Floodlit Trophy, never to be beaten

1979–80 BBC2 Floodlit Trophy
Structure	Floodlit knockout championship
Teams	22
Winners	Hull F.C.
Runners-up	Hull Kingston Rovers

Background

This season saw no changes in the entrants, no new members and no withdrawals, the number remaining at twenty-two.
The format remained as a knock-out competition from the preliminary round through to the final.
The preliminary round involved twelve clubs, to reduce the numbers taking part in the competition proper to just sixteen.

Competition and Results

[1][2]

Preliminary Round

Involved 6 matches and 12 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
P	Tue 4 Sep 1979	Bramley		5-21		Hunslet	McLaren Field
P	Tue 4 Sep 1979	Hull F.C.		8-1		Halifax	Boulevard			1	[3]
P	Wed 5 Sep 1979	Castleford		22-12		Wakefield Trinity	Wheldon Road				[4]
P	Tue 11 Sep 1979	Whitehaven		5-29		Barrow	Recreation Ground
P	Wed 19 Sep 1979	Oldham		9-20		St. Helens	Watersheddings	1,355			[5]
P	Wed 26 Sep 1979	Warrington		4-12		Leigh	Wilderspool				[6]

Round 1 - First Round

Involved 8 matches and 16 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Tue 25 Sep 1979	Keighley		9-2		Dewsbury	Lawkholme Lane
2	Sun 30 Sep 1979	Hull F.C.		34-2		Huddersfield	Boulevard			2	[2][3][7]
3	Tue 2 Oct 1979	Widnes		27-13		Swinton	Naughton Park			3	[8]
4	Tue 9 Oct 1979	St. Helens		45-17		Rochdale Hornets	Knowsley Road	3,000		3 4	[5]
5	Tue 9 Oct 1979	Salford		24-6		Wigan	The Willows				[9]
6	Tue 16 Oct 1979	Hull Kingston Rovers		25-12		Castleford	Craven Park (1)			3
7	Tue 23 Oct 1979	Hunslet		10-12		Leeds	Mount Pleasant			3
8	Tue 30 Oct 1979	Leigh		20-4		Barrow	Hilton Park			3

Round 2 -Quarter Finals

Involved 4 matches with 8 clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Tue 6 Nov 1979	Hull Kingston Rovers		41-15		Keighley	Craven Park (1)			3
2	Tue 13 Nov 1979	Leigh		14-5		Widnes	Hilton Park			3	[8]
3	Tue 27 Nov 1979	Hull F.C.		16-9		Leeds	Boulevard			3	[3]
4	Tue 20 Nov 1979	St. Helens		P		Salford	Knowsley Road			5	[5]

Round 2 -Quarter Finals - Replay

Involved 1 matches and 2 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
R	Fri 30 Nov 1979	St. Helens		15-10		Salford	Knowsley Road	4,500			[5]

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 4 Dec 1979	Hull F.C.		9-6		Leigh	Boulevard			3	[3]
2	Tue 11 Dec 1979	Hull Kingston Rovers		10-7		St. Helens	Knowsley Road	7,766		3	[5]

Final

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
F	Tuesday 18 December 1979	Hull F.C.		13-3		Hull Kingston Rovers	Boulevard	18,500	16,605	3 6 7	[3][10][11]

Teams and Scorers

[3][10]

Hull F.C.	No.	Hull Kingston Rovers
	teams
Paul Woods	1	Ian Robinson
Graham Bray	2	Steve Hubbard
Graham Evans	3	Mike Smith
Phillip "Phil" Coupland	4	Watson
Steve Dennison	5	Clive Sullivan
John Newlove	6	Dave Hall
Keith Hepworth	7	Allan Agar
Keith Tindall	8	Roy Holdstock
Ron Wileman	9	G. Tyreman
Vince Farrar	10	Brian Lockwood
Richard 'Charlie' Stone	11	Geoffrey "Geoff" Clarkson
Keith Boxhall	12	Phil Lowe
Steve "Knocker" Norton	13	Phil Hogan
Arthur Bunting	Coach	Roger Millward
13	score	3
5	HT	0
	Scorers
	Tries
Graham Evans (1)	T	Steve Hubbard (1)
Steve Dennison (1)	T
Charlie Birdsall (1)	T
	Goals
Steve Dennison (2)	G
Referee		Michael J. "Mick" Naughton (Widnes)

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

The road to success

This tree excludes any preliminary round fixtures

	First Round					Second Round					Semi Finals					Final
	Hull FC		34
	Huddersfield		2
						Hull FC		16
						Leeds		9
	Hunslet		10
	Leeds		12
											Hull FC		9
											Leigh		6
	Leigh		20
	Barrow		4
						Leigh		14
						Widnes		5
	Widnes		27
	Swinton		13
																Hull FC		13
																Hull Kingston Rovers		3
	Hull Kingston Rovers		25
	Castleford		12
						Hull Kingston Rovers		41
						Keighley		15
	Keighley		9
	Dewsbury		2
											Hull Kingston Rovers		10
											St. Helens		7
	St. Helens		45
	Rochdale Hornets		17
						St. Helens		15
						Salford		10
	Salford		24
	Wigan		6

Notes and comments

1 * the first BBC2 Floodlit Trophy match to end with a team scoring 1 point
2 * Played in daylight
3 * This match was televised
4 * At the time this was the third highest score
5 * Postponed
6 * The attendance was a record for a BBC2 Floodlit Trophy, never to be beaten
7 * Boulevard was the home ground of Hull F.C. from 1895 until January 2003. The final capacity was 10,500 although the record attendance was 28,798 set on 7 March 1936 in the third round of the Challenge Cup v Leeds

Postscript

To date, this was the last season for the BBC2 Floodlit Trophy Competition, which had taken place annually only since its inauguration in the 1965-66 season.
Despite several minor disagreements between the BBC and the RFL, including over shirt sponsorship in the early 1970s, overall the competition had been a great success.
However financial cutbacks at the BBC lead to its cancellation after the 1979–80 competition.
Therefore, this season (1969–70) was to be the last. It was greatly missed by many, including those living in a non-Rugby League area

Records from the BBC2 Floodlit Trophy Competition

[12][13]

	Record		Holder
In Final
Team
	Most appearances	7	St. Helens
	Most wins	4	Castleford
	Highest Score	26-11	Hull Kingston Rovers	St. Helens 1977
	Widest margin	22-2	St. Helens 1977	Dewsbury 1975
	Biggest Attendance		18500	Hull F.C. v Hull Kingston Rovers 1979
	Highest receipts		16605	Hull F.C. v Hull Kingston Rovers 1979
Individual
	Most tries	2	Roy Mathias	St. Helens v Dewsbury 1975
		2	Peter Glynn	St. Helens v Hull Kingston Rovers 1977
		2	Gerald "Ged" Dunn	Hull Kingston Rovers v St. Helens 1977
		2	Stuart Wright	Widnes v St. Helens 1978
	Most goals	4	Ron Willett	Castleford v Leigh 1967
		4	Kel Coslett	St. Helens v Rochdale Hornets 1971
		4	Dave Hall	Hull Kingston Rovers v St. Helens 1977
	Most points	8		The last 3 goal lickers
In Competition
	Highest Score	51-0	St. Helens	Dewsbury (1977)
	Greatest winning margin	51-0	St. Helens	Dewsbury (1977)
	Highest Aggregate score	54-16	Leeds	Hull F.C. (1973)
	Other high scores	47-5	St. Helens	Castleford (1978)
		47-11	Leeds	Bramley (1978
		'45-17	St. Helens	Rochdale Hornets (1979)

Entrants and number of cup wins

This table list all the semi-professional clubs which have entered the competition and the number (and dates) of their cup final wins, cup final runner-up spots, and losing semi-final appearances.

		No.	cup winner		No,	runner-up		No	losing Semi-Final appearances
Barrow		0			0			2	1966 & 1975
Batley		0			0			0
Bramley		1	1973		0			0
Castleford		4	1965, 1966, 1967 & 1976		0			2	1969 & 1977
Dewsbury		0			1	1975		0
Halifax		0			0			0
Huddersfield		0			0			1	1976
Hull F.C.		1	1979		0			3	1971, 1976 & 1978
Hull Kingston Rovers		1	1977		1	1979		3	1980, 1973 & 1974
Keighley		0			0			0
Leeds		1	1970		0			2	1971 & 1975
Leigh		2	1969 & 1972		2	1967 & 1976		3	1968, 1974 & 1979
New Hunslet		0			0			0
Oldham		0			0			1	1972
Rochdale Hornets		0			1	1971		1	1978
Salford		1	1974		0			1	1977
St. Helens		2	1971 & 1975		5	1965, 1968, 1970, 1977 & 1978		3	1969, 1973 & 1979
Swinton		0			1	1966		1	1965
Wakefield Trinity		0			0			1	1972
Warrington		0			1	1974		2	1967 & 1968
Whitehaven		0			0			0
Widnes		1	1978		2	1972 & 1973		2	1965 & 1966
Wigan		1	1968		1	1969		2	1967 & 1970

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

• 1979–80 Northern Rugby Football League season
• 1979 Lancashire Cup
• 1979 Yorkshire Cup
• BBC2 Floodlit Trophy
• Rugby league county cups

References

1. "Rugby League Project".
2. "Wigan "Cherry and White" matches".
3. "HULL&PROUD - Stats - Fixtures & Results".
4. "I'm Wakefield 'til I die..."
5. "Saints Heritage Society - History - Season 1896-97".
6. "Warrington Wolves - Results Archive - 1897". Archived from the original on 2 February 2014.
7. "Huddersfield Rugby League Heritage" (PDF).
8. "Widnes Vikings - History - Season In Review - 1896-97".
9. "Wigan "Cherry and White" archived results".
10. Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1990). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1990-1991. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617851 X.
11. Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1991). Rothmans Rugby Lague Yearbook 1991-100. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617852 8.
12. Robert Gate (1991). Guinness Rugby League Fact Book. Guinness Publishing. ISBN 978-085112949 5.
13. Spotter Series. Spotter book of Rugby League Facts. Dorset Publ.

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