1975–76 League Cup (rugby league)

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

1975–76 League Cup
Structure	National knockout championship
Teams	32
Winners	Widnes
Runners-up	Hull F.C.

Widnes won the trophy by beating Hull F.C. by the score of 19-13 in the final played at Headingley, Leeds, West Yorkshire. The attendance was 9,035 and receipts were £6275.

Background

This season saw no changes in the entrants, no new members and no withdrawals, the number remaining at eighteen.

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 26 Sep 1975	Castleford		26-15		York	Wheldon Road
2	Fri 26 Sep 1975	Mayfield		3-53		Salford	The Willows	3449		1, 2, 3
3	Sat 27 Sep 1975	Barrow		16-9		Pilkington Recs	Craven Park	612		4
4	Sat 27 Sep 1975	Wigan		30-7		Keighley	Central Park				[2]
5	Sat 27 Sep 1975	Workington Town		16-9		Bramley	Derwent Park
6	Sun 28 Sep 1975	Batley		18-9		Whitehaven	Mount Pleasant
7	Sun 28 Sep 1975	Blackpool Borough		11-36		St. Helens	Borough Park				[5]
8	Sun 28 Sep 1975	Bradford Northern		12-32		Wakefield Trinity	Odsal				[6]
9	Sun 28 Sep 1975	Doncaster		12-23		Hull F.C.	Bentley Road Stadium/Tattersfield				[7]
10	Sun 28 Sep 1975	Huddersfield		20-12		Warrington	Fartown				[8][9]
11	Sun 28 Sep 1975	Hull Kingston Rovers		33-10		Rochdale Hornets	Craven Park (1)
12	Sun 28 Sep 1975	Huyton		14-20		Oldham	Alt Park, Huyton
13	Sun 28 Sep 1975	Leigh		12-5		Featherstone Rovers	Hilton Park
14	Sun 28 Sep 1975	New Hunslet		28-8		Halifax	Elland Road Greyhound Stadium			5
15	Sun 28 Sep 1975	Swinton		7-23		Leeds	Station Road
16	Sun 28 Sep 1975	Widnes		27-12		Dewsbury	Naughton Park				[10]

Round 2 - Second round

[11] Involved 8 matches and 16 clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Fri 7 Nov 1975	Hull Kingston Rovers		23-8		Leigh	Craven Park (1)			6
2	Sat 8 Nov 1975	Wigan		5-18		Widnes	Central Park				[2][10]
3	Sun 9 Nov 1975	Huddersfield		14-5		Barrow	Fartown				[9]
4	Sun 9 Nov 1975	Hull F.C.		9-9		Leeds	Boulevard				[7]
5	Sun 9 Nov 1975	St. Helens		47-9		Batley	Knowsley Road				[5]
6	Sun 9 Nov 1975	Salford		46-3		Oldham	The Willows
7	Sun 9 Nov 1975	Wakefield Trinity		14-24		Castleford	Belle Vue				[6]
8	Sun 9 Nov 1975	Workington Town		23-6		New Hunslet	Derwent Park

Round 2 - Second round replays

Involved 1 match and 2 clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Thu 13 Nov 1975	Leeds		11-23		Hull F.C.	Headingley				[7]

Round 3 - Quarterfinals

Involved 4 matches with 8 clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Sat 22 Nov 1975	Hull F.C.		9-8		St. Helens	Boulevard				[5][7]
2	Sun 23 Nov 1975	Huddersfield		10-19		Castleford	Fartown				[9]
3	Sun 23 Nov 1975	Hull Kingston Rovers		14-18		Widnes	Craven Park (1)				[10]
4	Sun 23 Nov 1975	Salford		16-8		Workington Town	The Willows

[11]

Round 4 – Semifinals

Involved 2 matches and 4 clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Sat 29 Nov 1975	Castleford		9-17		Widnes	Wheldon Road				[10]
2	Sat 13 Dec 1975	Salford		14-22		Hull F.C.	The Willows				[7]

[11]

Final

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
	Saturday 24 January 1976	Widnes		19-13		Hull F.C.	Headingley	9035	6275	7	[7][10][12][13]

Teams and scorers

[12][13][14][15]

Widnes	№	Hull
	teams
Ray Dutton	1	Mike Stephenson
Alan Prescott	2	Alf Macklin
Derek "Mick" George	3	George Clark
Mal Aspey	4	Steve Portz
David Jenkins	5	Paul Hunter
Eric Hughes	6	Brian Hancock
Reg Bowden	7	Ken Foulkes
Jim Mills	8	Bill Ramsey
Keith Elwell	9	Peter Flanagan
John Wood	10	Alan Wardell
John Foran	11	Keith Boxall
Barry Sheridan	12	Malcolm Walker
Mick Adams	13	Mick Crane
? Not used	14	? Not used
? Not used	15	Chris Davidson (for Ken Foulkes)
	Coach
19	score	13
8	HT	8
	Scorers
	Tries
David Jenkins (2)	T	Paul Hunter (1)
Reg Bowden (1)	T	Mick Crane (2)
Mick Adams (1)	T
	Goals
Ray Dutton (3)	G	Keith Boxhall (2)
	Drop Goals
Reg Bowden (1)	DG
Referee		J. V. Moss (Manchester)
Man of the match		Reg Bowden - Widnes - scrum-half
Competition Sponsor		Player's №6

Scoring - Try = three (3) 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

The road to success

This tree excludes any preliminary round fixtures

	First Round					Second Round					Third Round					Semi Finals					Final
	Huddersfield		20
	Warrington		12
						Huddersfield		14
						Barrow		5
	Barrow		16
	Pilkington Recs		9
											Huddersfield		10
											Castleford		19
	Bradford Northern		12
	Wakefield Trinity		32
						Wakefield Trinity		14
						Castleford		24
	Castleford		26
	York		15
																Castleford		9
																Widnes		17
	Hull Kingston Rovers		33
	Rochdale Hornets		10
						Hull Kingston Rovers		23
						Leigh		8
	Leigh		12
	Featherstone Rovers		5
											Hull Kingston Rovers		14
											Widnes		18
	Wigan		30
	Keighley		7
						Wigan		5
						Widnes		18
	Widnes		27
	Dewsbury		12
																					Widnes		19
																					Hull F.C.		13
	Mayfield		3
	Salford		53
						Salford		46
						Oldham		3
	Huyton		14
	Oldham		20
											Salford		16
											Workington Town		8
	Workington Town		16
	Bramley		9
						Workington Town		23
						New Hunslet		6
	New Hunslet		28
	Halifax		8
																Salford		14
																Hull F.C.		22
	Doncaster		12
	Hull F.C.		23
						Hull F.C.		9 (23)
						Leeds		9 (11)
	Swinton		7
	Leeds		23
											Hull F.C.		9
											St. Helens		8
	Blackpool Borough		11
	St. Helens		36
						St. Helens		47
						Batley		9
	Batley		18
	Whitehaven		9

Notes and comments

1 * Mayfield are a Junior (amateur) club from Rochdale
2 * Although Mayfield were drawn at home, the match was moved to Salford
3 * Rothmans Rugby League Yearbooks 1990-1991 [12] and 1991-92[13] and Wigan official archives[2] give the score as 3-57, but RUGBYLEAGUEprojects[1] and The News of the World/Empire News annual 1976–77[3] give it as 3-53
4 * Pilkington Recs are a Junior (amateur) club from St Helens, home ground was City Road until they moved to Ruskin Drive from 2011-12
5 * Wigan official archives[2] gives the score as 25-8 but RUGBYLEAGUEprojects[1] gives it as 28-8
6 * Wigan official archives[2] gives the score as 23-3 but RUGBYLEAGUEprojects[1] and The News of the World/Empire News annual 1976–77[3] give it as 23-8
7 * Headingley, Leeds, is the home ground of Leeds RLFC with a capacity of 21,000. The record attendance was 40,175 for a league match between Leeds and Bradford Northern on 21 May 1947.

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

• 1975–76 Northern Rugby Football League season
• 1975 Lancashire Cup
• 1975 Yorkshire Cup
• Player's No.6 Trophy
• Rugby league county cups

References

1. "Rugby League Project".
2. "Wigan "Cherry and White" archived results".
3. Frank Butler and Patrick Collins (1976). News of the World Football Annual 1976–77 - 90th year. News of the World Ltd.
4. "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Round 1 results".
5. "Saints Heritage Society - History - Season 1896-97".
6. "I'm Wakefield 'til I die..."
7. "HULL&PROUD - Stats - Fixtures & Results".
8. "Warrington Wolves - Results Archive - 1897". Archived from the original on 2014-02-02.
9. "Huddersfield Rugby League Heritage" (PDF).
10. "Widnes Vikings - History - Season In Review - 1896-97".
11. "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Round 2 on 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 Lague Yearbook 1991-1992. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617852 8.
14. "Widnes Stat Attack archived results".
15. "Hull RLFC official stats".

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