1981–82 League Cup (rugby league)

This was the eleventh season for the rugby league League Cup, which was once again known as the John Player Trophy for sponsorship reasons.

1981–82 League Cup
Structure	National knockout championship
Teams	33
Winners	Hull F.C.
Runners-up	Hull Kingston Rovers

Hull F.C. won the trophy, beating derby rivals Hull Kingston Rovers by the score of 12-4 in the final, which was played at Headingley, Leeds, West Yorkshire. The attendance was 25,245 and receipts were £42987.

Background

This season saw two change in the entrants. With the entry of Cardiff City and Carlisle into the league and also this competition, no junior team was invited, and the number of entrants increased to thirty-three
To cater for the odd number, a Preliminary Round consisting of just one single match was introduced.

Competition and Results

[1][2]

Preliminary Round

Involved 1 match and 2 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Wed 30 Sep 1981	Leigh		41-4		Blackpool Borough	Hilton Park	4235

Round 1 - First Round

[3] Involved 16 matches and 32 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Fri 16 Oct 1981	Workington Town		22-9		Bramley	Derwent Park	2299
2	Sat 17 Oct 1981	Hunslet		8-44		Widnes	Elland Road	1062			[4]
3	Sat 17 Oct 1981	Warrington		24-15		Fulham	Wilderspool	2639			[5]
4	Sun 18 Oct 1981	Batley		7-16		Featherstone Rovers	Mount Pleasant	1363
5	Sun 18 Oct 1981	Carlisle		14-7		Cardiff City	Brunton Park	3224
6	Sun 18 Oct 1981	Castleford		21-7		Leigh	Wheldon Road	5060
7	Sun 18 Oct 1981	Dewsbury		2-34		Hull Kingston Rovers	Crown Flatt	3861
8	Sun 18 Oct 1981	Halifax		7-26		Hull F.C.	Thrum Hall	9871			[6]
9	Sun 18 Oct 1981	Huddersfield		19-17		Huyton	Fartown	931		1	[7][8]
10	Sun 18 Oct 1981	Keighley		27-22		Wakefield Trinity	Lawkholme Lane	2454			[9]
11	Sun 18 Oct 1981	Leeds		19-10		Wigan	Headingley	4976			[2]
12	Sun 18 Oct 1981	Oldham		21-7		Doncaster	Watersheddings	1894
13	Sun 18 Oct 1981	Rochdale Hornets		3-19		Bradford Northern	Athletic Grounds	2235
14	Sun 18 Oct 1981	St. Helens		16-16		Barrow	Knowsley Road	5349			[10]
15	Sun 18 Oct 1981	Swinton		32-5		York	Station Road	1862
16	Sun 18 Oct 1981	Whitehaven		11-19		Salford	Recreation Ground	3351

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
1	Thu 22 Oct 1981	Barrow		17-0		St. Helens	Craven Park	5182			[10]

Round 2 - Second Round

[3] Involved 8 matches and 16 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Sat 31 Oct 1981	Widnes		16-10		Carlisle	Naughton Park	3818			[4]
2	Sun 1 Nov 1981	Barrow		8-0		Bradford Northern	Craven Park	5512
3	Sun 1 Nov 1981	Castleford		5-23		Hull F.C.	Wheldon Road	13464			[6]
4	Sun 1 Nov 1981	Hull Kingston Rovers		18-6		Featherstone Rovers	Craven Park (1)	10017
5	Sun 1 Nov 1981	Keighley		10-11		Salford	Odsal	2730
6	Sun 1 Nov 1981	Leeds		13-8		Warrington	Headingley	5540			[5]
7	Sun 1 Nov 1981	Oldham		13-0		Huddersfield	Watersheddings	2284			[7][8]
8	Sun 1 Nov 1981	Swinton		19-9		Workington Town	Station Road	2433

Round 3 -Quarter Finals

[3] Involved 4 matches with 8 clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Sat 14 Nov 1981	Barrow		12-14		Hull F.C.	Craven Park	9019		2	[6]
2	Sun 15 Nov 1981	Oldham		14-5		Leeds	Watersheddings	3864
3	Sun 15 Nov 1981	Salford		0-6		Swinton	The Willows	6728		3
4	Sun 15 Nov 1981	Widnes		8-9		Hull Kingston Rovers	Naughton Park	11019			[4]

Round 4 – Semi-Finals

[3] Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Sat 28 Nov 1981	Hull F.C.		22-6		Oldham	Headingley	11080			[6]
2	Sat 12 Dec 1981	Hull Kingston Rovers		23-14		Swinton	Headingley	8193

Final

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
	Saturday 23 January 1982	Hull F.C.		12-4		Hull Kingston Rovers	Headingley	25245	42987		[6][11][12]

Teams and Scorers

[12][13]

Hull	№	Hull Kingston Rovers
	teams
Barry Banks	1	George Fairbairn
Dane O'Hara	2	Steve Hubbard
Mick Harrison	3	Mike Smith
James Leuluai	4	Phil Hogan
Paul Prendiville	5	Peter Muscroft
Terry Day	6	Steve Hartley
Tony Dean	7	Paul Harkin
Trevor Skerrett	8	Roy Holdstock
Ron Wileman	9	David Watkinson
Richard 'Charlie' Stone	10	Steve Crooks
Mick Crane	11	Phil Lowe
Lee Crooks	12	Len Casey
Steve 'Knocker' Norton	13	Dave Hall
Kevin Harkin (for Tony Dean)	14	Christopher Burton (for Paul Harkin)
? Not used	15	John Millington (for Roy Holdstock)
Arthur Bunting	Coach
12	score	4
?	HT	?
	Scorers
	Tries
Ron Wileman (1)	T
	Goals
Lee Crooks (4)	G	George Fairbairn (2)
	Drop Goals
Tony Dean (1)	DG
Referee		G. Frederick "Fred" Lindop (Wakefield)
Man of the match		Trevor Skerrett - Hull - Prop
Competition Sponsor		John Player

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	?	1	?
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
	St. Helens		16 (17)
	Barrow		16 (0)
						Barrow		8
						Bradford Northern		0
	Rochdale Hornets		3
	Bradford Northern		19
											Barrow		12
											Hull F.C.		14
	Castleford		21
	Leigh		7
						Castleford		5
						Hull F.C.		23
	Halifax		7
	Hull F.C.		26
																Hull F.C.		22
																Oldham		6
	Oldham		21
	Doncaster		7
						Oldham		13
						Huddersfield		0
	Huddersfield		19
	Huyton		17
											Oldham		14
											Leeds		5
	Leeds		19
	Wigan		10
						Leeds		13
						Warrington		8
	Warrington		24
	Fulham		15
																					Hull F.C.		12
																					Hull Kingston Rovers		4
	Hunslet		8
	Widnes		44
						Widnes		16
						Carlisle		10
	Carlisle		14
	Cardiff City		7
											Widnes		8
											Hull Kingston Rovers		9
	Dewsbury		2
	Hull Kingston Rovers		34
						Hull Kingston Rovers		18
						Featherstone Rovers		6
	Batley		7
	Featherstone Rovers		16
																Hull Kingston Rovers		23
																Swinton		14
	Keighley		27
	Wakefield Trinity		22
						Keighley		10
						Salford		11
	Whitehaven		1
	Salford		19
											Salford		0
											Swinton		6
	Swinton		32
	York		5
						Swinton		19
						Workington Town		9
	Workington Town		22
	Bramley		9

Notes and comments

1 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] gives the attendance as 957, but the Huddersfield Yearbook 1981[8] gives the attendance for this match as 931
2 * Wigan official archives[3] give the score as 12-10 (obviously incorrect as Hull proceeded to the Semi-finals) but RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] gives it as 12-14
3 * Wigan official archives[3] give the score as 0-8 but RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] gives it as 0-6
4 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] gives the attendance as 25,165 but Rothman's Yearbooks 1990-91 [11] and 1991-92[12] give it as 25,245
5 * The attendance was a new record for the final, easily beating last years previous record of 12,820
6 * 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

• 1981–82 Rugby Football League season
• 1981 Lancashire Cup
• 1981 Yorkshire Cup
• John Player Trophy
• Rugby league county cups

References

1. "Rugby League Project".
2. "Wigan "Cherry and White" archived results".
3. "Wigan "Cherry and White" j Player Round 1 and onwards archived results".
4. "Widnes Vikings - History - Season In Review - 1896-97".
5. "Warrington Wolves - Results Archive - 1897". Archived from the original on 2014-02-02.
6. "HULL&PROUD - Stats - Fixtures & Results".
7. "Fartown Rugby League Yearbook 1981" (PDF).
8. C & AC (1982). Huddersfield Yearbook 1981 price 60p. Huddersfield C & A C Supporters Club.
9. "Wakefield until I die".
10. "Saints Heritage Society - History - Season 1896-97".
11. Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1990). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1990-1991. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617851 X.
12. Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1991). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991-100. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617852 8.
13. "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