1965 BBC2 Floodlit Trophy

1965 was the inaugural season of the BBC2 Floodlit Trophy competition. Castleford won the trophy by beating St. Helens with the score of 4-0. The match was played at Knowsley Road, Eccleston, St Helens, Merseyside. The attendance was 11,510 and receipts were £3,548. This was to be the first of Castleford's three victories in successive seasons in the first three Floodlit competitions.

1965–66 BBC2 Floodlit Trophy
Structure	Floodlit knockout championship
Teams	8
Winners	Castleford
Runners-up	St. Helens

Background

This season there were a total of only eight teams entering, all by invite, playing a total of eleven matches for which the BBC paid the RFL a grand total of £9,000.00. The entrants included the seven clubs with permanent floodlights: Castleford, Leigh, Oldham, St Helens, Swinton, Warrington and Widnes together with Leeds, who installed floodlights in September 1966. The competition was played in the form of a mini-league with the semi-finals and final stages being on a knock out basis.

Competition and results

[1]

Round 1 – first qualifying round

Involved 4 matches and 8 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Tue 6 Oct 1965	St. Helens		25-19		Leigh	Knowsley Road	13000			[2][3]
2	Tue 12 Oct 1965	Warrington		10-20		Widnes	Wilderspool				[4][5]
3	Tue 19 Oct 1965	Swinton		21-5		Oldham	Station Road
4	Tue 26 Oct 1965	Castleford		7-7		Leeds	Wheldon Road

Round 2 – second qualifying round

Involved 4 matches with the same 8 clubs - but NOT reverse fixtures

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Tue 2 Nov 1965	Leigh		13-9		Warrington	Hilton Park				[4]
2	Tue 9 Nov 1965	Widnes		19-8		Swinton	Naughton Park				[5]
3	Tue 16 Nov 1965	St. Helens		21-9		Leeds	Knowsley Road	5600			[2]
4	Tue 25 Nov 1965	Oldham		4-6		Castleford	Watersheddings

Qualifying league table

Pos	Club	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Pts	PD	Notes	Ref
1	Widnes	2	2			39	18	4	21
2	St. Helens	2	2			46	28	4	18
3	Swinton	2	1		1	29	24	2	5
4	Castleford	2	1	1		13	11	3	2
5	Leigh	2	1		1	32	34	2	-2
6	Leeds	2		1	1	16	28	1	-12
7	Warrington	2			2	19	33	0	-14
8	Oldham	2			2	9	27	0	-18

Pos = Finishing position P = Games played W = Wins D = Draw L = Lose
PF = Points scored PA = Points against Pts = League points PD = Points scored difference

To progress to the next stage

The rules stated that the four clubs with the greatest total winning margins were to qualify, and proceed, to the semi-final. The four clubs in this case were Widnes, St. Helens, Swinton and Castleford

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Tue 30 Nov 1965	Widnes		9-12		Castleford	Naughton Park				[5]
2	Tue 7 Dec 1965	St. Helens		9-5		Swinton	Knowsley Road	9000			[2]

Final

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
	Tuesday 14 December 1965	St. Helens		0-4		Castleford	Knowsley Road	11,510	£3,548	1	[2][6][7]

Teams and scorers

Castleford	№	St. Helens
	teams
Derek Edwards	1	Frank Barrow
Colin Battye	2	Tom van Vollenhoven
Malcolm Battye	3	David Wood
Ron Willett	4	Billy Benyon
Trevor Briggs	5	Len Killeen
Alan "Chuck" Hardisty	6	Alex Murphy
Roger Millward	7	Bob Prosser
Abe Terry	8	Ray French
John Ward	9	Robert "Bob" Dagnall
Clive Dickinson	10	Cliff Watson
Wiliam "Bill" Bryant	11	Merv Hicks
John Taylor	12	John Mantle
Peter Small	13	Doug Laughton
Trevor Bedford (unused?)	14
John Walker (unused?)	15
George Clinton	Coach	Joe Coen
4	score	0
2	HT	0
	Scorers
	Goals
Ron Willett (2)	G
Referee		Laurie Gant (Wakefield)

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

[2][7]

The play-offs

	Semi-Finals					Final
	2	St. Helens	9
	3	Swinton	5
						St. Helens		0
						Castleford		4
	1	Widnes	9
	4	Castleford	12

Notes and comments

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.

General information

The Rugby League BBC2 Floodlit Trophy was a knock-out competition sponsored by the BBC and between rugby league clubs, entrance to which was conditional upon the club having floodlights. Most matches were played on an evening, and those of which the second half was televised, were played on a Tuesday evening.

Despite the competition being named as 'Floodlit', many matches took place during the afternoons and not under floodlights, and several of the entrants, including Barrow and Bramley, did not have adequate lighting. When in 1973, due to the world oil crisis, the government restricted the use of floodlights in sport, all of the matches, including the Trophy final, had to be played in the afternoon rather than at night. 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 taking place in December (the only exception to this was when disruption of the fixture list was caused by inclement weather).

See also

• 1965–66 Northern Rugby Football League season
• 1965 Lancashire Cup
• 1965 Yorkshire Cup
• BBC2 Floodlit Trophy
• Rugby league county cups

References

1. "Rugby League Project".
2. "Saints Heritage Society - History - Season 1896-97".
3. Club Programme dept. Match Programme. St Helens RLFC.
4. "Warrington Wolves - Results Archive - 1897". Archived from the original on 6 July 2010.
5. "Widnes Vikings - History - Season In Review - 1896-97".
6. Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1991). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991-1992. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617852 8.
7. Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1990). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1990-1991. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617851 X.

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