1980–81 League Cup (rugby league)

This was the tenth season for rugby league's League Cup competition. It was again known as the John Player Trophy for sponsorship purposes.

1980–81 League Cup
Structure	National knockout championship
Teams	32
Winners	Warrington
Runners-up	Barrow

Warrington won the final, beating Barrow by the score of 12-5 at Central Park, Wigan in front of a crowd of 12,802. The gate receipts were £21020.

Background

This season saw only one change in the entrants, with the admittance of Fulham to the league and to this competition, resulted in only one junior club being invited, the total number remaining at thirty-two.

Competition and Results

[1]

Round 1 - First Round

[2] Involved 16 matches and 32 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Sat 22 Nov 1980	Hull F.C.		12-0		Bradford Northern	Boulevard	10854			[3]
2	Sat 22 Nov 1980	Hunslet		15-5		Workington Town	Mount Pleasant	700
3	Sun 23 Nov 1980	Batley		4-20		Huddersfield	Mount Pleasant	1781			[4]
4	Sun 23 Nov 1980	Blackpool Borough		21-7		Huyton	Borough Park	450
5	Sun 23 Nov 1980	Bramley		10-11		Halifax	McLaren Field	2338
6	Sun 23 Nov 1980	Castleford		30-17		St Helens Recs	Wheldon Road	2823		1
7	Sun 23 Nov 1980	Dewsbury		12-37		Featherstone Rovers	Crown Flatt	2700
8	Sun 23 Nov 1980	Doncaster		10-18		Whitehaven	Bentley Road Stadium/Tattersfield	432
9	Sun 23 Nov 1980	Fulham		9-3		Leeds	Craven Cottage	12583
10	Sun 23 Nov 1980	Keighley		16-34		Hull Kingston Rovers	Lawkholme Lane	3895		2
11	Sun 23 Nov 1980	Leigh		38-5		Rochdale Hornets	Hilton Park	3167
12	Sun 23 Nov 1980	St. Helens		12-14		Warrington	Knowsley Road	7946			[5][6]
13	Sun 23 Nov 1980	Salford		17-9		Wigan	The Willows	3715			[7]
14	Sun 23 Nov 1980	Swinton		10-12		Barrow	Station Road	2470
15	Sun 23 Nov 1980	Widnes		20-17		Wakefield Trinity	Naughton Park	5956			[8][9]
16	Sun 23 Nov 1980	York		11-9		Oldham	Clarence Street	5154

Round 2 - Second Round

[2] Involved 8 matches and 16 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Sat 6 Dec 1980	Warrington		11-7		Hull Kingston Rovers	Wilderspool	4325			[5]
2	Sun 7 Dec 1980	Barrow		26-13		Hunslet	Craven Park	4185
3	Sun 7 Dec 1980	Blackpool Borough		5-11		Halifax	Borough Park	1724
4	Sun 7 Dec 1980	Hull F.C.		11-10		York	Boulevard	11129			[3]
5	Sun 7 Dec 1980	Leigh		17-9		Fulham	Hilton Park	7606
6	Sun 7 Dec 1980	Salford		8-15		Castleford	The Willows	3452
7	Sun 7 Dec 1980	Whitehaven		22-3		Featherstone Rovers	Recreation Ground	3922
8	Tue 9 Dec 1980	Widnes		25-9		Huddersfield	Naughton Park	3571			[4][9]

Round 3 -Quarter Finals

[2] Involved 4 matches with 8 clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Sat 13 Dec 1980	Castleford		18-10		Widnes	Wheldon Road	3571		3	[9]
2	Sun 14 Dec 1980	Hull F.C.		13-0		Whitehaven	Boulevard	11228			[3]
3	Sun 14 Dec 1980	Leigh		13-15		Barrow	Hilton Park	5521		4
4	Sun 14 Dec 1980	Warrington		16-10		Halifax	Wilderspool	5532			[5]

Round 4 – Semi-Finals

[2] Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Sat 20 Dec 1980	Warrington		5-5		Castleford	Central Park	3877			[5]
2	Sat 10 Jan 1981	Barrow		13-10		Hull F.C.	Headingley	11202			[3]

Round 3 – Semi-Finals - Replays

Involved 1 match and 2 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Sun 28 Dec 1980	Warrington		22-10		Castleford	Headingley	9279			[5]

Final

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
	Saturday 24 January 1981	Warrington		12-5		Barrow	Central Park	12802	21020	5, 6, 7	[5][10][11]

Teams and Scorers

[10][11]

Warrington	№	Barrow
	teams
Steve Hesford	1	Dave Elliott
Rick Thackray	2	Ralph McConnell
Ronnie Duane	3	Nigel French
John Bevan	4	Ian Ball
Michael "Mike"/"Mick" Kelly	5	Tony Wainwright
Ken Kelly	6	Mel Mason
Alan Gwilliam	7	David Cairns
Neil Courtney	8	David Chisnall
Anthony Waller "Tony" Waller	9	Howard Allen
Brian Case	10	Malcolm Flynn
Tommy Martyn	11	Kevin James
Ian Potter	12	Steve Kirkby
Edwin "Eddie" Hunter	13	Derek Hadley
? not used	14	? not used
Bob Eccles (for Edwin Hunter)	15	Eddie Szymala (for Howard Allen)
	Coach	Frank Foster
12	score	5
11	HT	0
	Scorers
	Tries
John Bevan (2)	T	Mel Mason (1)
	Goals
Steve Hesford (2)	G	Ian Ball (1)
	Drop Goals
Steve Hesford (2)	DG
Referee		William "Billy" H. Thompson (Huddersfield)
Man of the match		Tommy Martyn - Warrington - Second-row
Competition Sponsor		John Player

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	?
Grand Total

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

	First Round					Second Round					Third Round					Semi Finals					Final
	St. Helens		12
	Warrington		14
						Warrington		11
						Hull Kingston Rovers		7
	Keighley		16
	Hull Kingston Rovers		34
											Warrington		16
											Halifax		10
	Blackpool Borough		21
	Huyton		7
						Blackpool Borough		5
						Halifax		11
	Bramley		10
	Halifax		11
																Warrington		5 (22)
																Castleford		5 (10)
	Salford		17
	Wigan		9
						Salford		8
						Castleford		15
	Castleford		30
	St Helens Recs		17
											Castleford		18
											Widnes		10
	Widnes		20
	Wakefield Trinity		17
						Widnes		25
						Huddersfield		9
	Batley		4
	Huddersfield		20
																					Warrington		12
																					Barrow		5
	Leigh		38
	Rochdale Hornets		5
						Leigh		17
						Fulham		9
	Fulham		9
	Leeds		3
											Leigh		13
											Barrow		15
	Swinton		10
	Barrow		12
						Barrow		26
						Hunslet		13
	Hunslet		15
	Workington Town		5
																Barrow		13
																Hull F.C.		10
	Hull F.C.		12
	Bradford Northern		0
						Hull F.C.		11
						York		10
	York		11
	Oldham		9
											Hull F.C.		13
											Whitehaven		0
	Doncaster		10
	Whitehaven		18
						Whitehaven		22
						Featherstone Rovers		3
	Dewsbury		12
	Featherstone Rovers		37

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
2 * Wigan official archives[2] gives the score as 15-34 but RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] gives it as 16-34
3 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] gives the attendance as 3,571, the same as the previously listed match (which was Widnes v Huddersfield in round 2), but the Widnes official website[9] omits to give the attendance for this match, one of only a few matches for that season without an attendance noted
4 * Wigan official archives[2] give the score as 13-10 but RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] gives it as 13-15. As Barrow progressed into the semi-final, the score given in the Wigan archives was obviously in error
5 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] gives the attendance as 12,820 but Rothman's Yearbooks 1990-91[10] and 1992-93[11] give it as 12,802
6 * The attendance was a record for the final of this tournament (but would be broken next season)
7 * 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

• 1980–81 Rugby Football League season
• 1980 Lancashire Cup
• 1980 Yorkshire Cup
• Player's No.6 Trophy
• Rugby league county cups

References

1. "Rugby League Project".
2. "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Round 1 onwards archived results".
3. "HULL&PROUD - Stats - Fixtures & Results".
4. "Huddersfield Rugby League Heritage" (PDF).
5. "Warrington Wolves - Results Archive - 1897". Archived from the original on 2014-02-02.
6. "Saints Heritage Society - History - Season 1896-97".
7. "Wigan "Cherry and White" archived results".
8. "Wakefield until I die".
9. "Widnes Vikings - History - Season In Review - 1896-97".
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 League Yearbook 1991-100. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617852 8.

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