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1978–79 John Player Trophy

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1978–79 John Player Trophy
StructureNational knockout championship
Teams32
WinnersWidnes
Runners-upWarrington

This was the eighth season for rugby league's League Cup competition, which was now known as the John Player Trophy for sponsorship reasons.

Widnes won the final against Warrington by the score of 16-4. The match was played at Knowsley Road, St Helens, Merseyside. The attendance was 10,743 and receipts were £11709.

Background

[edit]

This season saw no changes in the entrants, no new members and no withdrawals, the number remaining at eighteen.
Bad weather - Due to an exceptionally inclement (i.e. frost, snow etc.) winter there were very few Rugby League matches played during the months of January and February

Competition and results

[edit]

[1][2]

Round 1 - First Round

[edit]

Involved 16 matches and 32 Clubs

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
1 Fri 22 Sep 1978 Castleford 18-10 Swinton Wheldon Road
2 Fri 22 Sep 1978 Salford 25-7 Rochdale Hornets The Willows
3 Sat 23 Sep 1978 Leigh Miners W. 9-21 Halifax Hilton Park 1621 1
4 Sat 23 Sep 1978 St. Helens 16-11 Leeds Knowsley Road 4700 [3]
5 Sun 24 Sep 1978 Barrow 8-26 Bradford Northern Craven Park
6 Sun 24 Sep 1978 Doncaster 2-30 Wigan Bentley Road Stadium/Tattersfield 1332 [4]
7 Sun 24 Sep 1978 Huddersfield 10-21 Widnes Fartown [5][6]
8 Sun 24 Sep 1978 Hull Kingston Rovers 67-11 Oldham Craven Park (1) 2
9 Sun 24 Sep 1978 Keighley 20-4 York Lawkholme Lane
10 Sun 24 Sep 1978 Leigh 13-13 Huyton Hilton Park
11 Sun 24 Sep 1978 Milford 5-38 Dewsbury McLaren Field 3129 3
12 Sun 24 Sep 1978 New Hunslet 7-17 Hull F.C. Elland Road Greyhound Stadium [7]
13 Sun 24 Sep 1978 Wakefield Trinity 27-2 Batley Belle Vue [8]
14 Sun 24 Sep 1978 Warrington 14-4 Blackpool Borough Wilderspool 4 [9]
15 Sun 24 Sep 1978 Whitehaven 3-9 Featherstone Rovers Recreation Ground
16 Sun 24 Sep 1978 Workington Town 17-8 Bramley Derwent Park

[10]

Round 1 - First Round - Replays

[edit]

Involved 1 match and 2 Clubs

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
1 Tue 26 Sep 1978 Huyton 8-10 Leigh Alt Park, Huyton

Round 2 - Second Round

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Involved 8 matches and 16 Clubs

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
1 Sat 2 Dec 1978 Widnes 11-10 St. Helens Naughton Park 5030 [3][6]
2 Sun 3 Dec 1978 Castleford 20-9 Workington Town Wheldon Road
3 Sun 3 Dec 1978 Featherstone Rovers 0-7 Warrington Post Office Road [9]
4 Sun 3 Dec 1978 Hull F.C. 12-18 Bradford Northern Boulevard [7]
5 Sun 3 Dec 1978 Hull Kingston Rovers 16-14 Salford Craven Park (1)
6 Sun 3 Dec 1978 Keighley P Wigan Lawkholme Lane 5 [2]
7 Sun 3 Dec 1978 Leigh 17-8 Dewsbury Hilton Park
8 Sun 3 Dec 1978 Wakefield Trinity 15-10 Halifax Belle Vue [8]

[11]

Round 2 - Second Round Replays

[edit]

Involved 1 match and 2 Clubs - and due to the first match being postponed because of extremely inclement weather

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
1 Wed 6 Dec 1978 Keighley 9-5 Wigan Lawkholme Lane [2]

Round 3 -Quarter Finals

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Involved 4 matches with 8 clubs

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
1 Sun 17 Dec 1978 Bradford Northern 16-13 Wakefield Trinity Odsal [8]
2 Sun 17 Dec 1978 Hull Kingston Rovers 23-10 Castleford Craven Park (1)
3 Sun 17 Dec 1978 Keighley 4-15 Widnes Lawkholme Lane [6]
4 Sun 17 Dec 1978 Warrington 27-0 Leigh Wilderspool [9]

[11]

Semi-finals

[edit]

Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs
Bad weather - Due to an exceptionally inclement (i.e. frost, snow etc.) winter there were very few Rugby League matches played during the months of January and February[2][8]

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
1 Sat 27 Jan 1979 Warrington P Hull Kingston Rovers Wilderspool 6 [11]
2 Wed 24 Jan 1979 Widnes 21-3 Bradford Northern Naughton Park [6]
3 Sun 1 Apr 1979 Warrington 9-5 Hull Kingston Rovers Wilderspool [9]

Final

[edit]

The final was originally scheduled to take place on 27 January 1979, but was rescheduled due to the postponement of the semi-final matches. The final took place on 28 April 1979, a week before the Challenge Cup final.[12]

Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
Saturday 28 April 1979 Widnes 16–4 Warrington Knowsley Road 10743 11709 8, 9 [6][9][13][page needed][14][page needed]

Teams and scorers

[edit]

[13][14]

Widnes No. Warrington
teams
David Eckersley 1 Derek Finnegan/Finnigan[1]
Stuart Wright 2 Michael "Mike"/"Mick" Kelly[2]
Mal Aspey 3 Steve Hesford
Eric Hughes 4 Billy Benyon
Mick Burke 5 Dave Sutton[3]
David Moran[4] 6 Ken Kelly
Reg Bowden[5] (c) 7 Parry Gordon
Jim Mills 8 Roy Lester[6]
Keith Elwell 9 Tony Waller[7]
Glyndwr "Glyn" Shaw 10 Mike Nicholas
Alan Dearden[8] 11 Brian Case
David Hull 12 Tommy Martyn
Mick Adams 13 Alan Gwilliam[9]
? Not used 14 Eddie Hunter[10] (for Ken Kelly)
? Not used 15 ? Not used
Coach
16 score 4
2 HT 2
Scorers
Tries
Stuart Wright (1) T
David Hull (1) T
Goals
Mick Burke (3) G Steve Hesford (2)
Drop Goals
Keith Elwell (2) DG
Mick Adams (2) DG
Referee G. Frederick "Fred" Lindop (Wakefield)
Man of the match David Eckersley - Widnes - Fullback
Competition Sponsor John Player

Scoring - Try = three points - Goal = two points - Drop goal = one point

Prize money

[edit]

As part of the sponsorship deal and funds, the prize money awarded to the competing teams for this season was as follows:[15]

Finish Position Cash Prize No. receiving prize Total Cash
Winner £8,000 1 £8,000
Runner-up £3,500 1 £3,500
Semi-finalist £1,750 2 £3,500
Loser in Rd 3 £900 4 £3,600
Loser in Rd 2 £700 8 £5,600
Loser in Rd 1 £550 16 £8,800
Grand Total £33,000

The road to success

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This tree excludes any preliminary round fixtures

First round Second round Third round Semifinals Final
               
Keighley 20
York 4
Keighley 9
Wigan 5
Doncaster 2
Wigan 30
Keighley 4
Widnes 15
Huddersfield 10
Widnes 21
Widnes 11
St. Helens 10
St. Helens 16
Leeds 11
Widnes 21
Bradford Northern 3
New Hunslet 7
Hull F.C. 17
Hull F.C. 12
Bradford Northern 18
Barrow 8
Bradford Northern 26
Bradford Northern 16
Wakefield Trinity 13
Wakefield Trinity 27
Batley 2
Wakefield Trinity 15
Halifax 10
Leigh Miners W. 9
Halifax 21
Widnes 16
Warrington 4
Whitehaven 3
Featherstone Rovers 9
Featherstone Rovers 0
Warrington 7
Warrington 14
Blackpool Borough 4
Warrington 27
Leigh 0
Leigh 13 (10)
Huyton 13 (8)
Leigh 17
Dewsbury 8
Milford 5
Dewsbury 38
Warrington 9
Hull Kingston Rovers 5
Hull Kingston Rovers 67
Oldham 11
Hull Kingston Rovers 16
Salford 14
Salford 26
Rochdale Hornets 7
Hull Kingston Rovers 23
Castleford 10
Castleford 18
Swinton 10
Castleford 20
Workington Town 9
Workington Town 17
Bramley 8

Notes and comments

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1 * Leigh Miners' Welfare are a Junior (amateur) club from Leigh (formed by merger of Astley & Tyldesley and Hope Rangers - and now renamed as Leigh Miners Rangers) [16]
2 * new record score between professional clubs in the competition - at the time, beating the previous record of 9-51 set when Blackpool Borough lost at home to Leeds by 9-51 in season 1972–73
3 * Milford are a Junior (amateur) club from Leeds
4 * Warrington official archives[9] show the game as being played on 30 September but RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] and Wigan official archives[10] shows it as played on 24 September
5 * Postponed due to frozen pitch
6 * Postponed due to frozen pitch - was due to be televised by BBC
7 * Postponed due to the postponement of the Semi Final ties caused by frost and other extremely inclement weather.
8 * The Final had been due to be played on Saturday 27 January but was put back due to backlog of semi-finl ties caused by enforced postponement due to extreme inclement weather
9 * Knowsley Road was the home of St Helens R.F.C. from 1890 until its closure in 2010. The final capacity was 17,500 although the record attendance was 35,695 set on 26 December 1949 for a league game between St Helens and Wigan.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Rugby League Project".
  2. ^ a b c d "Wigan "Cherry and White" archived results". Archived from the original on 2014-02-21. Retrieved 2014-07-12.
  3. ^ a b "Saints Heritage Society - History - Season 1896-97".
  4. ^ "Wigan "Cherry and White" archived results".
  5. ^ "Huddersfield Rugby League Heritage" (PDF).
  6. ^ a b c d e "Widnes Vikings - History - Season In Review".
  7. ^ a b "HULL&PROUD - Stats - Fixtures & Results".
  8. ^ a b c d "Wakefield until I die".
  9. ^ a b c d e f "Warrington Wolves - Results Archive - 1897".
  10. ^ a b "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Round 1 archived results".
  11. ^ a b c "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player round 2 onwards archived results".
  12. ^ "Sport In Brief". The Guardian. London. 16 January 1979. p. 13. ProQuest 186085378.
  13. ^ a b Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1990). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1990-1991. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617851 X.
  14. ^ a b Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1991). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991-1992. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617852 8.
  15. ^ Fletcher, Raymond; Howes, David, eds. (1992). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1992-93. London: Headline Publishing Group. p. 396. ISBN 978-0-7472-7906-8.
  16. ^ "Leigh Miners Rangers". Archived from the original on 2014-01-01. Retrieved 2014-07-12.
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