1991–92 League Cup (rugby league)

1991–92 League Cup
Structure National knockout championship
Number of teams 38
Winners Widnes
Runners-up Leeds
< 1990–91 Seasons 1992–93 >

This was the twenty-first season of rugby league's League Cup competition, known as the Regal Trophy for sponsorship purposes.

Widnes won the final, beating Leeds by the score of 24-0. The match was played at Central Park, Wigan. The attendance was 15,070.

Background

This season saw two "name" changes and one of the three junior clubs being replaced by a new league club. The number of entrants remained the same at thirty-eight.
The changes were :-
1 Runcorn Highfield became Highfield and now played at Hoghton Road Stadium in Sutton, a suburb of St Helens and home to St Helens Town A.F.C. (although signing a 99-year lease, the club moved on after 4½ years after a proposed rent increase made a stay unviable - Fulham became London Crusaders but were still nomadic, although playing many home matches at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre before settling at Barnet Copthall for season 1993-94
2 Scarborough Pirates joined the league and the competition (albeit for a very brief one season stay before going into administration), taking the place of one of the junior teams-
The preliminary round involved twelve clubs, to reduce the numbers to entrants to the first round proper to thirty-two.

Competition and Results[1][2]

Preliminary Round[3]

Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
1Tue 29 Oct 1991Rochdale Hornets14-24WidnesSpotland2278[4]
2Tue 29 Oct 1991Wigan34-14DewsburyCentral Park5020[2]
3Thu 31 Oct 1991Hull F.C.22-7LeighBoulevard2219[5]
4Sun 3 Nov 1991Saddleworth0-30Workington TownWatersheddings16501, 2
5Sun 3 Nov 1991Sheffield Eagles36-8Scarborough PiratesDon Valley Stadium1226
6Mon 4 Nov 1991Leigh East20-10Chorley Borough (2)Hilton Park13933, 4

Round 1 - First Round[6]

Involved 16 matches and 32 Clubs

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
1Sat 16 Nov 1991Warrington8-17LeedsWilderspool4353[7]
2Sun 17 Nov 1991Bradford Northern76-0Leigh EastOdsal16133
3Sun 17 Nov 1991Doncaster21-20WhitehavenBentley Road Stadium/Tattersfield693
4Sun 17 Nov 1991Halifax46-4BarrowThrum Hall4791
5Sun 17 Nov 1991Highfield10-28CarlisleHoghton Road Stadium180
6Sun 17 Nov 1991Huddersfield10-32St HelensFartown4239[8][9]
7Sun 17 Nov 1991Hull KR10-22CastlefordCraven Park (2)3406
8Sun 17 Nov 1991Keighley Cougars25-10HunsletCougar Park1155
9Sun 17 Nov 1991Nottingham City11-42Wakefield TrinityHarvey Hadden Stadium916[10]
10Sun 17 Nov 1991Oldham16-10London CrusadersWatersheddings2182
11Sun 17 Nov 1991Ryedale-York6-13Sheffield EaglesRyedale Stadium1138
12Sun 17 Nov 1991Salford74-10Trafford BoroughThe Willows1783
13Sun 17 Nov 1991Swinton8-34WiganStation Road4676[2]
14Sun 17 Nov 1991Widnes26-8Workington TownNaughton Park4917[4]
15Mon 18 Nov 1991Hull F.C.12-8BatleyBoulevard2149[5]
16Tue 19 Nov 1991Bramley18-18Featherstone RoversMcLaren Field1643

Round 1 - First Round Replays

Involved 1 match and 2 Clubs

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
1Thu 21 Nov 1991Featherstone Rovers44-8BramleyPost Office Road1617

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
1Sat 23 Nov 1991Hull F.C.4-12LeedsBoulevard4359[5]
2Sun 24 Nov 1991Bradford Northern44-10Sheffield EaglesOdsal3118
3Sun 24 Nov 1991Carlisle16-30WidnesGifford Park18745[4]
4Sun 24 Nov 1991Featherstone Rovers64-18HalifaxPost Office Road5462
5Sun 24 Nov 1991Oldham18-24St HelensWatersheddings5814[9]
6Sun 24 Nov 1991Wakefield Trinity10-30SalfordBelle Vue4577[10]
7Sun 24 Nov 1991Wigan32-8Keighley CougarsCentral Park6052[2]
8Mon 25 Nov 1991Castleford38-6DoncasterWheldon Road 4145

Round 3 -Quarter Finals[12]

Involved 4 matches with 8 clubs

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
1Sat 30 Nov 1991Salford24-14WiganThe Willows4608[2]
2Sun 1 Dec 1991Leeds24-4CastlefordHeadingley15409
3Sun 1 Dec 1991St Helens30-12Bradford NorthernKnowsley Road8641[9]
4Sun 1 Dec 1991Widnes34-22Featherstone RoversNaughton Park6551[4]

Round 4 – Semi-Finals[12]

Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
1Sat 7 Dec 1991Leeds22-15SalfordValley Parade72756
2Sat 21 Dec 1991Widnes18-10St HelensCentral Park6376[4][9]

Final

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
Saturday 11 January 1992Widnes24-0LeedsCentral Park150707, 8[4][12]

Teams and Scorers[13]

Widnes № Leeds
teams
Alan Tait1
John Devereux2
Andy Currier3
Darren Wright4
Mark Sarsfield5
Jonathan Davies6
Barry Dowd7
Kurt Sorensen8
Paul Hulme9
David Smith10
Harvey Howard11
"Richie" Eyres12
Les Holliday13
Paul Atcheson14
Joe Grima15
Frank MylerCoachDoug Laughton
24score0
7HT0
Scorers
Tries
Jonathan Davies (1)T
Les Holliday (1)T
Alan Tait (1)T
Kurt Sorensen (1)T
Goals
Jonathan Davies {3)G
Drop Goals
Jonathan Davies (1)DG
Les Holliday (1)DG
RefereeBrian Galtress (Bradford)
Man of the match? - ? - ?
Competition SponsorRegal

Scoring - Try = four (4) 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

Note - the author is unable to trace the award amounts for this season. Can anyone help ?

The road to success

This tree excludes any preliminary round fixtures

First Round Second Round Third Round Semi Finals Final
               
Highfield 10
Carlisle 28
Carlisle 16
Widnes 30
Widnes 26
Workington Town 8
Widnes 34
Featherstone Rovers 22
Bramley 18 (8)
Featherstone Rovers 18 (44)
Featherstone Rovers 64
Halifax 18
Halifax 46
Barrow 4
Widnes 18
St Helens 10
Oldham 16
London Crusaders 10
Oldham 18
St Helens 24
Huddersfield 10
St Helens 32
St Helens 30
Bradford Northern 12
Bradford Northern 76
Leigh East 0
Bradford Northern 44
Sheffield Eagles 10
Ryedale-York 6
Sheffield Eagles 13
Widnes 24
Leeds 0
Hull F.C. 12
Batley 8
Hull F.C. 4
Leeds 12
Warrington 8
Leeds 17
Leeds 24
Castleford 4
Hull KR 10
Castleford 22
Castleford 38
Doncaster 6
Doncaster 21
Whitehaven 20
Leeds 22
Salford 15
Nottingham City 11
Wakefield Trinity 42
Wakefield Trinity 10
Salford 30
Salford 74
Trafford Borough 10
Salford 24
Wigan 14
Swinton 8
Wigan 34
Wigan 32
Keighley Cougars 8
Keighley Cougars 25
Hunslet .

Notes and comments

1 * Saddleworth Rangers are a Junior (amateur) club from Oldham
2 * Watersheddings was the home ground of Oldham
3 * Leigh East are a Junior (amateur) club from Leigh[14]
4 * Hilton Park was the home ground of Leigh
5 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] gives the attendance as 1,874 but Widnes official archives[4] gives it as 2,000
6 * Valley Parade was originally the home of Manningham Rugby League Football Club until 1903, when they changed name and codes and became Bradford City A.F.C.
7 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] gives the attendance as 15,070 but Widnes official archives[4] gives it as 15,023
8 * Central Park was the home ground of Wigan with a final capacity of 18,000, although the record attendance was 47,747 for Wigan v St Helens 27 March 1959

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

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Rugby League Project".
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Wigan "Cherry and White" archived results".
  3. ↑ "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Prelim Rd archived results".
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Widnes Vikings - History - Season In Review - 1896-97".
  5. 1 2 3 "HULL&PROUD - Stats - Fixtures & Results".
  6. ↑ "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Rd 1 archived results".
  7. ↑ "Warrington Wolves - Results Archive - 1897". Archived from the original on 2010-07-06.
  8. ↑ "Huddersfield Rugby League Heritage" (PDF).
  9. 1 2 3 4 "Saints Heritage Society - History - Season 1896-97".
  10. 1 2 "Wakefield until I die".
  11. ↑ "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Rd 2 archived results".
  12. 1 2 3 "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Rd 3 onward archived results".
  13. ↑ "Widnes Stat Attack archived results".
  14. ↑ "Leigh East ARLFC".

External links

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