1974–75 League Cup (rugby league)

This was the fourth season for the League Cup, which was again known as the Players No.6 Trophy for sponsorship reasons.

1974–75 League Cup
Structure	National knockout championship
Teams	32
Winners	Bradford Northern
Runners-up	Widnes

Bradford Northern won the trophy by beating Widnes by the score of 3-2. The final was played at Wilderspool, Warrington. The attendance was 5,935 and receipts were £3305.

Background

This season saw no changes in the entrants, no new members and no withdrawals, the number remaining at eighteen.
For the first time in the competition, there were no drawn matches.

Competition and results

[1][2][3]

Round 1 - First round

[4] Involved 16 matches and 32 clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Fri 27 Sep 1974	Salford		36-5		Castleford	The Willows
2	Sat 28 Sep 1974	Barrow		5-14		York	Craven Park
3	Sat 28 Sep 1974	Bramley		15-6		Hull F.C.	McLaren Field			1	[5]
4	Sat 28 Sep 1974	Leeds		49-10		New Hunslet	Headingley
5	Sat 28 Sep 1974	Wakefield Trinity		44-10		Leigh	Belle Vue				[6]
6	Sat 28 Sep 1974	Whitehaven		32-6		Lock Lane	Recreation Ground	537		2, 3
7	Sun 29 Sep 1974	Blackpool Borough		17-20		Wigan	Borough Park				[7]
8	Sun 29 Sep 1974	Bradford Northern		12-8		Dewsbury	Odsal			4
9	Sun 29 Sep 1974	Doncaster		15-6		Kippax White Swan	Bentley Road Stadium/Tattersfield	453		5, 6
10	Sun 29 Sep 1974	Halifax		11-13		Keighley	Thrum Hall
11	Sun 29 Sep 1974	Huyton		14-12		Huddersfield	Alt Park, Huyton				[8]
12	Sun 29 Sep 1974	Oldham		21-14		Workington Town	Watersheddings			7
13	Sun 29 Sep 1974	Rochdale Hornets		12-16		Hull Kingston Rovers	Athletic Grounds
14	Sun 29 Sep 1974	Swinton		7-6		St. Helens	Station Road				[9]
15	Sun 29 Sep 1974	Warrington		36-3		Batley	Wilderspool				[10]
16	Sun 29 Sep 1974	Widnes		10-5		Featherstone Rovers	Naughton Park				[11]

Round 2 - Second round

[12] Involved 8 matches and 16 clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Fri 8 Nov 1974	Salford		14-9		Bramley	The Willows
2	Sat 9 Nov 1974	Oldham		3-12		Bradford Northern	Watersheddings
3	Sun 10 Nov 1974	Keighley		4-39		Leeds	Lawkholme Lane			8	[5]
4	Sun 10 Nov 1974	Swinton		18-2		Wigan	Station Road	4420		9	[7]
5	Sun 10 Nov 1974	Warrington		33-6		Huyton	Wilderspool			10	[10]
6	Sun 10 Nov 1974	Whitehaven		14-4		Doncaster	Recreation Ground
7	Sun 10 Nov 1974	Widnes		35-13		Wakefield Trinity	Naughton Park				[6][11]
8	Sun 10 Nov 1974	York		12-26		Hull Kingston Rovers	Clarence Street

Round 3 -Quarterfinals

[12] Involved 4 matches with 8 clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Fri 6 Dec 1974	Whitehaven		5-0		Warrington	Recreation Ground				[10]
2	Sat 7 Dec 1974	Hull Kingston Rovers		25-17		Salford	Craven Park (1)
3	Sun 8 Dec 1974	Bradford Northern		17-7		Leeds	Odsal
4	Sun 8 Dec 1974	Widnes		15-5		Swinton	Naughton Park				[11]

Round 4 – Semifinals

[12] Involved 2 matches and 4 clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Sat 4 Jan 1975	Widnes		16-14		Hull Kingston Rovers	Naughton Park				[11]
2	Sat 11 Jan 1975	Whitehaven		6-18		Bradford Northern	Recreation Ground			11

Final

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
	Saturday 25 January 1975	Bradford Northern		3-2		Widnes	Wilderspool	5935	3305	3-2	[11][13][14]

Teams and scorers

[3][13][14][15][15]

Bradford Northern	№	Widnes
	teams
Stuart Carlton	1	Ray Dutton
Richard Francis	2	Alan Prescott
Phil Ward	3	Dennis O'Neill
Les Gant	4	Mal Aspey
David Redfearn	5	Chris Anderson
Mick Blacker	6	Eric Hughes
Barry Seabourne	7	Reg Bowden
Kelvin "Kel" Earl	8	Jim Mills
Francis Jarvis	9	Keith Elwell
Phil Jackson	10	Barry Sheridan
Graham Joyce	11	Mick Adams
Dennis Trotter	12	Bob Blackwood
Stanley "Stan" Fearnley	13	Doug Laughton
Ken Kelly	14	Terry Karalius
Pattinson	15	John Peek
	Coach
3	score	2
3	HT	2
	Scorers
	Tries
Stuart Carlton - after 20 mins	T
	Goals
	G	Ray Dutton (1)
Referee		G. Frederick "Fred" Lindop (Wakefield)
Man of the match		Barry Seabourne - Bradford Northern - scrum-half
Competition Sponsor		Player's №6

Scoring - Try = three (3) points - Goal = two (2) points - Drop goal = one (1) point

Timeline in the final

Time	Incident	Score
20 min	Try: Stuart Carlton	3-0
?	Penalty Goal: Ray Dutton	3-2
Half Time		3-2
Full Time		3-2

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	£5000	1	£5000
Runner-up	£2500	1	£2500
semi-finalist	£1000	2	£2000
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 rest of the award amounts. Can anyone help ?

Notes and comments

1 * The News of The World/Empire News annual 1975–76[2] gives the score as 15-10 but others including The John Player Yearbook 1975–76[3] give it as 15-6
2 * Lock Lane are a Junior (amateur) club from Castleford
3 * The John Player Yearbook 1975–76[3] gives the attendance as 1,000 but the Rothmans Rugby League Yearbooks 1990-91[13] and 1991-92,[14] and RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] and Wigan official archives[7] give it as 537
4 * Wigan official archives[7] gives the score as 12-6 but The News of The World/Empire News annual 1975–76,[2] RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] and The John Player Yearbook 1975–76 gives it as 12-8
5 * Kippax White Swan are a Junior (amateur) club from Castleford
6 * The John Player Yearbook 1975–76[3] gives the attendance as 513 but Rothmans Rugby League Yearbooks 1990-91[13] and 1991-92[14] and RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] give it as 453
7 * The News of The World/Empire News annual 1975–76,[2] Wigan official archives[7] and RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] give the score as 21-14 but The John Player Yearbook 1975–76[3] give it as 22-14
8 * Hull F.C. official website[5] shows Hull playing away at Leeds in December in the JPT, an obvious error
9 * Swinton No 8 Brian Butler was sent off in the 36th minute for "interfering in a tackle by Green on David Hill" and Wigan hooker Colin Clarke was sent off in the 6th minute for dissent.
10 * The News of The World/Empire News annual 1975–76[2] gives the score as 13-6 but Wigan official archives,[7] RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] and The John Player Yearbook 1975–76[3] give it as 33-6
11 * The News of The World/Empire News annual 1975–76[2] gives the score as 13-6 but Wigan official archives,[7] RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] and The John Player Yearbook 1975–76[3] give it as 33-6
13 * Wilderspool was the home ground of Warrington from 1883 to the end of the 2003 Summer season when they moved into the new purpose built Halliwell Jones Stadium. Wilderspool remained as a sports/Ruugby League ground and is/was used by Woolston Rovers/Warrington Wizards junior club.
The ground had a final capacity of 9,000 although the record attendance was set in a Challenge cup third round match on 13 March 1948 when 34,304 spectators saw Warrington lose to Wigan 10-13.

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

• 1974–75 Northern Rugby Football League season
• 1974 Lancashire Cup
• 1974 Yorkshire Cup
• Player's No.6 Trophy
• Rugby league county cups

References

1. "Rugby League Project".
2. Frank Butler and Patrick Collins (1975). News of the World Football Annual 1975–76 - 89th year. News of the World Ltd.
3. Jack Winstanley & Malcolm Ryding (1991). John Player Yearbook 1975–76. Queen Anne Press.
4. "Wigan "Cherry and White" John Player Round 1 archived results".
5. "HULL&PROUD - Stats - Fixtures & Results".
6. "I'm Wakefield 'til I die..."
7. "Wigan "Cherry and White" archived results".
8. "Huddersfield Rugby League Heritage" (PDF).
9. "Saints Heritage Society - History - Season 1896-97".
10. "Warrington Wolves - Results Archive - 1897". Archived from the original on 2014-02-02.
11. "Widnes Vikings - History - Season In Review - 1896-97".
12. "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player round 2 onwards".
13. Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1990). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1990-1991. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617851 X.
14. Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1991). Rothmans Rugby Lague Yearbook 1991-1992. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617852 8.
15. "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