Captain Morgan Trophy

The Captain Morgan Trophy was a knock-out trophy introduced by the Rugby League for season 1973-74. It was scrapped after only one season.

Background

The Captain Morgan Trophy[1] was a knock-out trophy introduced by the Rugby League supposedly intended to fill an “Imaginary” void in the season's fixture list.
The competition was introduced for the season 1973-1974, but failed to catch the imagination of the public, or the clubs themselves and only took place for the one single season.
The competition was sponsored by the House of Seagram, makers at that time of Captain Morgan Rum. (Note - This product is now produced by Diageo plc.),

The Captain Morgan Trophy competition had slightly different qualification and draw rules, as follows :-
1) Qualification for the competition was open to:-
a) the eight winners of the first round of the Yorkshire County cup
b) The seven winners of the first round of the Lancashire county cup and because there were only fifteen teams in the Lancashire competition, the Lancashire team losing in the first round by the smallest margin.
c) The idea of this arrangement was to eliminate some of the “lesser” or “poorer” teams from the competition, thus reducing the number of games which are very one sided. This objective was somewhat defeated after teams like St. Helens, Hull F.C. and Hull Kingston Rovers failed to gain entry.
2) In addition to this, for the first round the draw kept the Yorkshire sides apart from those on the West of the Pennines (i.e. those in Lancashire and Cumberland)
3) The two sets of teams were all brought together for the subsequent rounds.

The first and only final was held at The Willows in Salford, on 26 January 1974. Warrington defeated Featherstone Rovers 4-0 in front of a disappointing crowd of only 5,269.
The "Man of the Match" award was won by Derek Whitehead.
The Warrington team was[2] Derek Whitehead, Mick Philbin, Derek Noonan, Frank Reynolds, John Bevan, Alan Whittle, Parry Gordon, Dave Chisnall, Kevin Ashcroft, Brian Brady, Bobby Wanbon, David Wright, Ian Mather, with substitutes Billy Pickup (not used) and Joe Price. (Alex Murphy was injured)
The Featherstone Rovers team included Harold Box and John "Keith" Bridges.

Competition and Results

Round 1
Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue H-T Att Notes Ref
124-10-1973Wakefield Trinity24-5BatleyBelle Vue8-02010
227-10-1973Bradford Northern6-14LeedsOdsal6-85028
328-10-1973Featherstone Rovers27-8KeighleyPost Office Rd9-21948
428-10-1973Swinton18-7WhitehavenStation Road13-21298
528-10-1973Workington Town22-13Rochdale HornetsDerwent Park12-81135
631-10-1973Wigan4-12WarringtonCentral Park2-685771,2[3][4]
706-11-1973Salford32-9WidnesThe Willows20-417093,4[5]
807-11-1973Castleford32-7HuddersfieldWheldon Road9-5886

Round 2
Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue H-T Att Notes Ref
117-11-1973Leeds32-21SwintonHeadingley17-43416
218-11-1973Warrington15-7CastlefordWilderspool10-252465[4]
318-11-1973Workington Town10-5SalfordDerwent Park10-31703
425-11-1973Featherstone Rovers20-14Wakefield TrinityPost Office Rd12-74000

Round 3 - Semi Finals
Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue H-T Att Notes Ref
108-12-1973Leeds13-20WarringtonHeadingley11-740536[4]
209-12-1973Featherstone Rovers37-18Workington TownPost Office Rd12-53000

Round 4 - Final
Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue H-T Att Notes Ref
126 January 1974Warrington4-0Featherstone RoversThe Willows, Salford4-052597[4]

Notes and comments


1 -- Wigan scorer - John Gray 2 goals
2 -- Warrington scores - Derek Whitehead 5 goals; Alex Murphy 1 dg; a n other 1 dg [2]
3 -- Widnes scorers - Barry Sheridan 1 try, Ray Dutton 3 goals
4 -- Widnes entered the competition as the loser by the smallest margin in the Lancashire Cup first round (after losing away at Salford by 12 points to 11) [2]
5 -- Warrington scores - Tommy Conroy, Brian Brady and Dave Cunliffe each scored a try, Derek Whitehead 3 goals [2]
6 -- Warrington scores - Kevin Ashcroft and Parry Gordon each scored a try, Derek Whitehead 5 goals, Kevin Ashcroft and Alex Murphy each 1 dg [2]
7 -- Warrington scores - Derek Whitehead 2 goals [2]
8 -- Derek Whitehead was presented with an 80oz magnum bottle of Captain Morgan Rum as winner of the man of the match award.[2]

gollark: How exciting; I can't wait to communicate with spirits, then negotiate business deals involving having them look up random information on things in return for factory-farmed souls.
gollark: I can't, since I don't actually know what you're referring to.
gollark: Plants apparently have moderately complex responses to stimuli. Computers can classify images and beat humans at games and do logical reasoning and such.
gollark: Well, thinking is hard to define too.
gollark: If it's sufficiently random, and you sample it long enough, you'll eventually get Shakespeare plays and such!

See also

References
  1. Jack Winstanley & Malcolm Ryding (1974). John Player Yearbook 1974-75. Queen Anne Press.
  2. "Wire2Wire - Wolfbites". Archived from the original on 2012-04-06. Retrieved 2011-10-30.
  3. "Cherry and White".
  4. "Warrington Wolves History". Archived from the original on 2012-04-25.
  5. "Widnes Vikings Stat Attack".
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