1992–93 League Cup (rugby league)

The 1992–93 League Cup was the twenty-second season for the League Cup, a rugby league competition that was known as the Regal Trophy for sponsorship purposes.

1992–93 League Cup
Structure	National knockout championship
Teams	37
Winners	Wigan
Runners-up	Bradford Northern

Wigan defeated Bradford Northern by the score of 15-8 in the final to claim the trophy. The match was played at Elland Road, Leeds in front of an attendance of 13,221.

Background

This season saw several changes in the entrants, one club re-formed/renamed, two French clubs were invited instead of the junior clubs, and one club withdrew. This resulted in one less club/entrant reducing the total number to thirty-seven.

The changes, in detail, are:

1. Trafford Borough re-formed as Blackpool Gladiators and moved back to Blackpool, playing at Jepson Way, Blackpool
2. Two French clubs, Carcassonne and XIII Catalan were invited to join the competition, instead of the junior clubs, who were no longer invited
3. Scarborough Pirates went into administration at the end of previous season

The preliminary round involved ten clubs, to reduce the numbers of entrants to the first round proper to thirty-two.

Competition and Results

[1][2]

Preliminary Round

Involved 5 matches and 10 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Tue 13 Oct 1992	Warrington		32-8		Blackpool Gladiators	Wilderspool	1412			[3]
2	Tue 27 Oct 1992	Chorley Borough (2)		10-38		Sheffield Eagles	Grundy Hill	368		1
3	Tue 27 Oct 1992	St. Helens		44-18		Huddersfield	Knowsley Road	4423			[4][5]
4	Tue 27 Oct 1992	Wakefield Trinity		90-12		Highfield	Belle Vue	1650		2	[6]
5	Wed 28 Oct 1992	Swinton		12-32		Hull Kingston Rovers	Gigg Lane	582

[7]

Round 1 - First Round

Involved 16 matches and 32 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Sat 2 Nov 1992	Wigan		52-0		Carcassonne	Central Park	4306			[2]
2	Sun 8 Nov 1992	Batley		6-13		Hunslet	Mount Pleasant	709
3	Sun 8 Nov 1992	Bradford Northern		70-10		Barrow	Odsal	3049
4	Sun 8 Nov 1992	Bramley		12-16		Carlisle	McLaren Field	550
5	Sun 8 Nov 1992	Doncaster		4-30		Workington Town	Bentley Road Stadium/Tattersfield	893
6	Sun 8 Nov 1992	Halifax		76-6		Nottingham City	Thrum Hall	3547
7	Sun 8 Nov 1992	Hull F.C.		22-16		Dewsbury	Boulevard	2984			[8]
8	Sun 8 Nov 1992	Hull Kingston Rovers		48-4		Whitehaven	Craven Park (2)	1627
9	Sun 8 Nov 1992	Leigh		32-24		Keighley Cougars	Hilton Park	2113
10	Sun 8 Nov 1992	London Crusaders		30-0		Wakefield Trinity	Crystal Palace NSC	860			[6]
11	Sun 8 Nov 1992	Oldham		22-40		Castleford	Watersheddings	4393
12	Sun 8 Nov 1992	Rochdale Hornets		32-16		XIII Catalan	Spotland	1507
13	Sun 8 Nov 1992	St. Helens		15-14		Leeds	Knowsley Road	11052			[5]
14	Sun 8 Nov 1992	Salford		14-18		Featherstone Rovers	The Willows	3088
15	Sun 8 Nov 1992	Warrington		31-16		Sheffield Eagles	Wilderspool	3112			[3]
16	Sun 8 Nov 1992	Widnes		46-4		Ryedale-York	Naughton Park	3475		3	[9]

[7]

Round 2 - Second Round

Involved 8 matches and 16 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Sat 5 Dec 1992	Warrington		12-12		Bradford Northern	Wilderspool	2145			[3]
2	Sun 6 Dec 1992	Castleford		54-0		Carlisle	The Jungle	2539
3	Sun 6 Dec 1992	Featherstone Rovers		8-25		St. Helens	Post Office Road	4473			[5]
4	Sun 6 Dec 1992	Hull F.C.		28-14		Halifax	Boulevard	5494			[8]
5	Sun 6 Dec 1992	Hull Kingston Rovers		0-18		Wigan	Craven Park (2)	3779			[2]
6	Sun 6 Dec 1992	Hunslet		12-34		Workington Town	Elland Road	1225
7	Sun 6 Dec 1992	Leigh		16-6		London Crusaders	Hilton Park	2181
8	Sun 6 Dec 1992	Widnes		30-2		Rochdale Hornets	Naughton Park	3591			[9]

[10]

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	Wed 16 Dec 1992	Bradford Northern		9-6		Warrington	Odsal	3474			[3]

Round 3 -Quarter Finals

Involved 4 matches with 8 clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Sat 19 Dec 1992	St. Helens		8-12		Castleford	Knowsley Road	4785			[5]
2	Sun 20 Dec 1992	Hull F.C.		24-14		Leigh	Boulevard	4835			[8]
3	Sun 20 Dec 1992	Workington Town		12-24		Wigan	Derwent Park	7682		4, 5	[2]
4	Tue 29 Dec 1992	Bradford Northern		21-10		Widnes	Odsal	5346			[9]

[11]

Round 4 – Semi-Finals

Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Sat 2 Jan 1993	Wigan		19-4		Hull F.C.	Central Park	8020		6	[2][8]
2	Sat 2 Jan 1993	Bradford Northern		19-12		Castleford	Valley Parade	5602		7

[12]

Final

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
	Saturday 23 January 1993	Wigan		15-8		Bradford Northern	Elland Road	13221		8	[13]

Teams and Scorers

Wigan	№	Bradford Northern
	teams
Steve Hampson	1	Dave Watson
Jason Robinson	2	Tony Marchant
Dean Bell	3	Steve McGowan
Andrew Farrar	4	Tony Anderson
Martin Offiah	5	Roger Simpson
Frano Botica	6	Neil Summers
Shaun Edwards	7	Deryck Fox
Neil Cowie	8	David Hobbs
Martin Dermott	9	Brian Noble
Andy Platt	10	Roy Powell
Denis Betts	11	Paul Medley
Billy McGinty	12	Karl Fairbank
Phil Clarke	13	David "Dave" Heron
Joe Lydon (for Martin Offiah 59-mins)	14	Keith Mumby (for Tony Anderson 44-mins)
Sam Panapa (for Phil Clarke 9-mins)	15	Trevor Clark (for Brian Noble 44-mins)
	Coach
15	score	8
6	HT	2
	Scorers
	Tries
Jason Robinson (1)	T	Steve McGowan
Shaun Edwards (1)	T
	Goals
Frano Botica (3)	G	David Hobbs (1)
	G	Keith Mumby (1)
	Drop Goals
Steve Hampson (1)	DG
Referee		John Holdsworth (Kippax)
Man of the match		Shaun Edwards
Competition Sponsor		Regal

Scoring - Try = four (4) points - Goal = two (2) points - Drop goal = one (1) point

[13]

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	?	5	?
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
	Batley		6
	Hunslet		13
						Hunslet		12
						Workington Town		34
	Doncaster		4
	Workington Town		30
											Workington Town		12
											Wigan		24
	Hull Kingston Rovers		48
	Whitehaven		4
						Hull Kingston Rovers		0
						Wigan		18
	Wigan		52
	Carcassonne		0
																Wigan		19
																Hull F.C.		4
	Hull F.C.		22
	Dewsbury		16
						Hull F.C.		28
						Halifax		14
	Halifax		76
	Nottingham City		6
											Hull F.C.		24
											Leigh		14
	Leigh		32
	Keighley Cougars		24
						Leigh		16
						London Crusaders		6
	London Crusaders		30
	London Crusaders		0
																					Wigan		15
																					Bradford Northern		8
	Warrington		31
	Sheffield Eagles		16
						Warrington		12 (6)
						Bradford Northern		12 (9)
	Bradford Northern		70
	Barrow		10
											Bradford Northern		21
											Widnes		10
	Widnes		46
	Ryedale-York		4
						Widnes		30
						Rochdale Hornets		2
	Rochdale Hornets		32
	XIII Catalan		16
																Bradford Northern		19
																Castleford		12
	Salford		14
	Featherstone Rovers		18
						Featherstone Rovers		8
						St. Helens		25
	St. Helens		15
	Leeds		14
											St. Helens		8
											Castleford		12
	Oldham		22
	Castleford		40
						Castleford		54
						Carlisle		0
	Bramley		12
	Carlisle		16

Notes and comments

1 * Grundy Hill was the home ground of Horwich RMI, in Bolton
2 * The second highest score, at the time
3 * RUGBYLEAGUEproiject[1] gives the attendance as 3,475 but Widnes official archives[9] gives it as 3,343
4 * RUGBYLEAGUEproiject[1] gives the attendance as 7,682 but Wigan official archives[2] gives it as 8,000
5 * RUGBYLEAGUEproiject[1] and Wigan official archives[2] gives the score as 12-34 but Wigan's official detailed archives[11] erroneously gives it as 12-24 whilst showing that 4 tries and 4 goals were scored
6 * Wigan's official detailed archives[12] erroneously shows the second semi-final as St. Helens 8 Castleford 12, (which was actually the third round clash)
8 * Elland Road, Leeds, is the home ground of Leeds United A.F.C. with a capacity of 37,914 (The record attendance was 57,892 set on 15 March 1967 for a cup match Leeds v Sunderland). The ground was originally established in 1897 by Holbeck RLFC who played there until their demise after the conclusion of the 1903-04 season On their demise the ground was taken over by Leeds City F.C.. After their expulsion from The Football League eight games into the 1919–20 season, leading to their liquidation the ground was taken over by, and is still the home ground, of Leeds United

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

• 1992-93 Rugby Football League season
• 1992 Lancashire Cup
• 1992 Yorkshire Cup
• Regal Trophy
• Rugby league county cups

References

1. "Rugby League Project".
2. "Wigan "Cherry and White" archived results".
3. "Warrington Wolves - Results Archive - 1897". Archived from the original on 2010-07-06.
4. "Huddersfield Rugby League Heritage" (PDF).
5. "Saints Heritage Society - History - Season 1896-97".
6. "Wakefield until I die".
7. "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Rd 1 archived results".
8. "HULL&PROUD - Stats - Fixtures & Results".
9. "Widnes Vikings - History - Season In Review - 1896-97".
10. "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Rd 2 archived results".
11. "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Rd 3 archived results".
12. "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player S-F archived results".
13. "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Final archived results". Archived from the original on 2018-06-19. Retrieved 2014-07-13.

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