1983–84 League Cup

This was the thirteenth season of the rugby league League Cup, which was this season known as the John Player Special Trophy for sponsorship reasons.

1983–84 League Cup
Structure	National knockout championship
Teams	18
Winners	Leeds
Runners-up	Widnes

Leeds won the trophy, beating Widnes by the score of 18-10 in the final. The match was played at Central Park, Wigan and the attendance was 9,510. The gate receipts were £19824.

Background

This season saw one change in the entrants, Kent Invicta joined the league and also the competition, the number of entrants now rising to thirty-four
The preliminary round now increased to two matches and involved four clubs, to reduce the numbers of entrants to the first round proper to thirty-two
Unfortunately, early in the season Bramley went into administration, and although they survived, during this period of administration they withdrew from this competition, leaving Hull Kingston Rovers with a bye in the first round.

Competition and Results

[1][2]

Preliminary Round

[3] Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Sun 23 Oct 1983	Batley		11-12		Doncaster	Mount Pleasant	782
2	Sun 23 Oct 1983	Whitehaven		0-36		Widnes	Recreation Ground	1655			[4]

Round 1 - First Round

[3] Involved 15 matches with one bye and 31 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Sat 5 11 1983	Castleford		P		Hull F.C.				1
2	Sun 6 Nov 1983	Blackpool Borough		9-12		Leeds	Borough Park	1351
3	Sun 6 Nov 1983	Cardiff City		41-6		Rochdale Hornets	Ninian Park	645
4	Sun 6 Nov 1983	Carlisle		10-5		Workington Town	Brunton Park	1297
5	Sun 6 Nov 1983	Dewsbury		14-17		Keighley	Crown Flatt	814
6	Sun 6 Nov 1983	Featherstone Rovers		12-10		Fulham	Post Office Road	2011
7	Sun 6 Nov 1983	Halifax		12-29		Barrow	Thrum Hall	2699
8	Sun 6 Nov 1983	Kent Invicta		7-40		St. Helens	Athletic Ground, Maidstone	2107		2	[5]
9	Sun 6 Nov 1983	Oldham		12-20		Leigh	Watersheddings	6264
10	Sun 6 Nov 1983	Swinton		17-16		Hunslet	Station Road	1243
11	Sun 6 Nov 1983	Wakefield Trinity		18-32		Warrington	Belle Vue	2935			[6][7]
12	Sun 6 Nov 1983	Widnes		2-1		Bradford Northern	Naughton Park	5640		3	[4]
13	Sun 6 Nov 1983	Wigan		30-13		York	Central Park	6388			[2]
14	Sun 6 Nov 1983	Doncaster		11-22		Salford	Bentley Road Stadium/Tattersfield	458
15	Sun 6 Nov 1983	Huddersfield		8-21		Huyton	Fartown	582			[8]
16		Hull Kingston Rovers				bye				4

Round 1 - First Round Replays

Involved 1 match and 2 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Sun 6 Nov 1983	Castleford		4-8		Hull F.C.	Wheldon Road	7979			[9]

Round 2 - Second Round

[10] Involved 8 matches and 16 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Sat 19 Nov 1983	Warrington		10-18		St. Helens	Wilderspool	4171			[5][6]
2	Sun 20 Nov 1983	Cardiff City		38-12		Huyton	Ninian Park	1085
3	Sun 20 Nov 1983	Carlisle		17-68		Leigh	Brunton Park	2152		5
4	Sun 20 Nov 1983	Featherstone Rovers		20-14		Hull F.C.	Post Office Road	7833			[9]
5	Sun 20 Nov 1983	Keighley		8-23		Swinton	Lawkholme Lane	1577
6	Sun 20 Nov 1983	Leeds		12-6		Hull Kingston Rovers	Headingley	8623		6
7	Sun 20 Nov 1983	Widnes		18-6		Barrow	Naughton Park	7030			[4]
8	Sun 20 Nov 1983	Wigan		24-15		Salford	Central Park	7290			[2]

Round 3 -Quarter Finals

[11] Involved 4 matches with 8 clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Sat 26 Nov 1983	Widnes		20-15		Wigan	Naughton Park	6492			[2][4]
2	Sun 27 Nov 1983	Leigh		12-8		Cardiff City	Hilton Park	4134
3	Sun 27 Nov 1983	St. Helens		16-12		Featherstone Rovers	Knowsley Road	5196			[5]
4	Sun 27 Nov 1983	Swinton		12-16		Leeds	Station Road	3438

Round 4 – Semi-Finals

[11] Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Sat 10 Dec 1983	Leigh		11-18		Leeds	Fartown	5740
2	Sat 17 Dec 1983	Widnes		18-4		St. Helens	Wilderspool	5729			[4][5]

Final

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
	Saturday 14 January 1984	Leeds		18-10		Widnes	Central Park	9510	19824	7	[11][12][13]

Teams and Scorers

[12][13][14]

Leeds	№	Widnes
	teams
Ian Wilkinson	1	Mick Burke
Paul Prendiville	2	Stuart Wright
David Creasser	3	Keiron O'Loughlin
Dean Bell	4	Joe Lydon
Andy Smith	5	Ralph Linton
John Holmes	6	Eric Hughes
Kevin Dick	7	Andy Gregory
Keith Rayne	8	Mike O'Neill
David Ward	9	Keith Elwell
Kevin Rayne	10	Kevin Tamati
Gary Moorby	11	Les Gorley
Mark Laurie	12	Fred Whitfield
Terry Webb	13	Mick Adams
? Not used	14	? Not used
Kevin Squire (for David Ward)	15	? Not used
Maurice Bamford	Coach	Vince Karalius & Harry Dawson
18	score	10
14	HT	10
	Scorers
	Tries
John Holmes (1)	T	Joe Lydon (1)
Kevin Dick (1)	T	Ralph Linton (1)
	Goals
David Creasser (5)	G	Mick Burke (1)
Referee		William "Billy" H. Thompson (Huddersfield)
Man of the match		Mark Laurie - Leeds - Second-row
Competition Sponsor		John Player Special

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 :-

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	?
Loser in Prelim Round	?	?	?
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
	Carlisle		10
	Workington Town		5
						Carlisle		17
						Leigh		68
	Oldham		12
	Leigh		20
											Leigh		12
											Cardiff City		8
	Cardiff City		41
	Rochdale Hornets		6
						Cardiff City		38
						Huyton		12
	Huddersfield		8
	Huyton		21
																Leigh		11
																Leeds		18
	Dewsbury		14
	Keighley		17
						Keighley		8
						Swinton		23
	Swinton		17
	Hunslet		16
											Swinton		12
											Leeds		16
	Blackpool Borough		9
	Leeds		12
						Leeds		12
						Hull Kingston Rovers		6
	Hull Kingston Rovers
	bye
																					Leeds		18
																					Widnes		10
	Widnes		2
	Bradford Northern		1
						Widnes		18
						Barrow		6
	Halifax		12
	Barrow		29
											Widnes		20
											Wigan		15
	Wigan		30
	York		13
						Wigan		24
						Salford		15
	Doncaster		11
	Salford		22
																Widnes		18
																St. Helens		4
	Wakefield Trinity		18
	Warrington		32
						Warrington		10
						St. Helens		18
	Kent Invicta		7
	St. Helens		40
											St. Helens		16
											Featherstone Rovers		12
	Featherstone Rovers		12
	Fulham		10
						Featherstone Rovers		20
						Hull F.C.		14
	Castleford		4
	Hull F.C.		8

Notes and comments

1 * This match had been chosen for Saturday BBC coverage but was cancelled and moved to Sunday at two days notice due to Industrial Action at the BBC[2]
2 * Kent Invicta's record crowd
3 * 3 dropped goals
4 * Bramley withdrew from this competition while in liquidation[12][13]
5 * highest score (and highest away score) o date between two professional clubs
6 * Wigan official archives[10] state the home team are Leigh, an obvious printing error as earlier in the same fixture list Leigh are away at CarlisleCarlisle
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

• 1983–84 Rugby Football League season
• 1983 Lancashire Cup
• 1983 Yorkshire Cup
• John Player Special Trophy
• Rugby league county cups

References

1. "Rugby League Project".
2. "Wigan "Cherry and White" archived results".
3. "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Rd 1 archived results".
4. "Widnes Vikings - History - Season In Review - 1896-97".
5. "Saints Heritage Society - History - Season 1896-97".
6. "Warrington Wolves - Results Archive - 1897". Archived from the original on 2014-02-02.
7. "Wakefield until I die".
8. "Huddersfield Rugby League Heritage" (PDF).
9. "HULL&PROUD - Stats - Fixtures & Results".
10. "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Rd 2 archived results".
11. "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Rd 3 onwards archived results".
12. Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1990). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1990-1991. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617851 X.
13. Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1991). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991-100. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617852 8.
14. "Widnes Stat Attack archived results".

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