1948–49 Lancashire Cup Explained

1948–49 Lancashire Cup
Structure:	Regional knockout championship
Season Champs:	Wigan
Season Champ Name:	Winners
Runner-Up Name:	Runner-up
Second Place:	Warrington
Prevseason Link:	1947 Lancashire Cup
Prevseason Year:	1947–48
Nextseason Link:	1949 Lancashire Cup
Nextseason Year:	1949–50
No Of Teams:	14

The 1948–49 Lancashire Cup was the thirty-sixth occasion on which the Lancashire Cup competition had been held. Wigan won the trophy by beating Warrington by the score of 14–8. The match was played at Station Road, Pendlebury, (historically in the county of Lancashire). The attendance was a record-breaking 39,015, over 5,500 more than the previous record, and receipts were £5,518, another record. This was the third of Wigan's record-breaking run of six consecutive Lancashire Cup victories.

Background

Overall, the number of teams entering this year's competition remained the same as last year's 14 with a further invitation to Lancashire Amateurs (a junior/amateur club). The same pre-war fixture format was retained. This season saw no bye but one "blank" or "dummy" fixture in the first round. There was also one bye but no "blank" fixture" in the second round. As last season, all the first round matches of the competition will be played on the basis of two legged, home and away, ties. However this year, the second round becomes a straightforward knock-out basis.

Competition and results

Round 1

Involved 7 matches (with no bye and one "blank" fixture) and 14 clubs^[1]

width=20 abbr="No"	Game No	width=100 abbr="Date"	Fixture date	width=150 abbr="Home team"	Home team	width=5 abbr="space"		width=20 abbr="Score"	Score	width=5 abbr="space"		width=150 abbr="Away team"	Away team	width=150 abbr="Venue"	Venue	width=50 abbr="agg"	agg	width=30 abbr="Att"	Att	width=30 abbr="Rec"	Rec	width=20 abbr="Notes"	Notes	width=30 abbr="Ref"	Ref

1	Sat 04 Sep 1948	Leigh		37–2		Liverpool Stanley	Kirkhall Lane
2	Sat 04 Sep 1948	Oldham		8–7		Widnes	Watersheddings					^[2]
3	Sat 04 Sep 1948	Rochdale Hornets		5–13		Belle Vue Rangers	Athletic Grounds
4	Sat 04 Sep 1948	St. Helens		9–24		Wigan	Knowsley Road		25,000			^[3] ^[4]
5	Sat 04 Sep 1948	Swinton		26–10		Lancashire Amateurs	Station Road				1
6	Sat 04 Sep 1948	Warrington		30–8		Barrow	Wilderspool					^[5]
7	Sat 04 Sep 1948	Workington Town		7–5		Salford	Borough Park
8	blank				blank

Round 1 – second leg

Involved 7 matches (with no bye and one "blank" fixture) and 14 clubs. These are the reverse fixture from the first leg

width=20 abbr="No"	Game No	width=100 abbr="Date"	Fixture date	width=150 abbr="Home team"	Home team	width=5 abbr="space"		width=20 abbr="Score"	Score	width=5 abbr="space"		width=150 abbr="Away team"	Away team	width=150 abbr="Venue"	Venue	width=50 abbr="agg"	agg	width=30 abbr="Att"	Att	width=30 abbr="Rec"	Rec	width=20 abbr="Notes"	Notes	width=30 abbr="Ref"	Ref

1	Tue 07 Sep 1948	Liverpool Stanley		2–46		Leigh	Stanley Greyhound Stadium	4–83
2	Thu 09 Sep 1948	Widnes		5–5		Oldham	Naughton Park	12–13
3	Mon 06 Sep 1948	Belle Vue Rangers		6–5		Rochdale Hornets	Belle Vue Stadium	19–10
4	Wed 08 Sep 1948	Wigan		8–7		St. Helens	Central Park	32–16	18,000
5	Mon 13 Sep 1948	Lancashire Amateurs		4–11		Swinton	Kirkhall Lane	14–37			2
6	Thu 09 Sep 1948	Barrow		4–7		Warrington	Craven Park	12–37
7	Wed 08 Sep 1948	Salford		14–0		Workington Town	The Willows	19–7
8		blank				blank

Round 2 – quarterfinals

Involved 3 matches (with one bye) and 7 clubs

width=20 abbr="No"	Game No	width=100 abbr="Date"	Fixture date	width=150 abbr="Home team"	Home team	width=5 abbr="space"		width=20 abbr="Score"	Score	width=5 abbr="space"	width=150 abbr="Away team"	Away team	width=150 abbr="Venue"	Venue	width=50 abbr="agg"	agg	width=30 abbr="Att"	Att	width=30 abbr="Rec"	Rec	width=20 abbr="Notes"	Notes	width=30 abbr="Ref"	Ref

1	Thu 16 Sep 1948	Leigh		10–15		Warrington	Kirkhall Lane
2	Wed 29 Sep 1948	Salford		5–18		Wigan	The Willows
3	Thu 30 Sep 1948	Belle Vue Rangers		14–4		Swinton	Belle Vue Stadium
4		Oldham				bye

Round 3 – semifinals

Involved 2 matches and 4 clubs

width=20 abbr="No"	Game No	width=100 abbr="Date"	Fixture date	width=150 abbr="Home team"	Home team	width=5 abbr="space"		width=20 abbr="Score"	Score	width=5 abbr="space"	width=150 abbr="Away team"	Away team	width=150 abbr="Venue"	Venue	width=50 abbr="agg"	agg	width=30 abbr="Att"	Att	width=30 abbr="Rec"	Rec	width=20 abbr="Notes"	Notes	width=30 abbr="Ref"	Ref

1	Tue 28 Sep 1948	Warrington		55–0		Oldham	Wilderspool
2	Mon 04 Oct 1948	Wigan		22–9		Belle Vue Rangers	Central Park

Final

width=20 abbr="No"	Game No	width=100 abbr="Date"	Fixture date	width=150 abbr="Home team"	Home team	width=5 abbr="space"		width=20 abbr="Score"	Score	width=5 abbr="space"		width=150 abbr="Away team"	Away team	width=150 abbr="Venue"	Venue	width=50 abbr="agg"	agg	width=45 abbr="Att"	Att	width=60 abbr="Rec"	Rec	width=20 abbr="Notes"	Notes	width=30 abbr="Ref"	Ref

	Saturday 13 November 1948	Wigan		14–8		Warrington	Station Road		39,015	£5,518	3 4	^[6]

Teams and scorers

width=280 abbr="Wigan"	Wigan	width=60 abbr="Number"	No.	width=280 abbr="Warrington"	Warrington

	teams
Martin Ryan	1	Les Jones https://web.archive.org/web/20150220191052/http://wolvesplayers.thisiswarrington.co.uk/martini/results.asp?txtName=Jones&ddlAppearances=0&ddlTries=0&ddlGoals=0&ddlPoints=0&code=%25&Search=Search
Gordon Ratcliffe	2	Brian Bevan
Ted Ward	3	Albert Pimblett
Ernie Ashcroft	4	Ossie Peake
John Lawrenson	5	Albert Johnson
Ces Mountford	6	Jack Fleming
Johnny Alty http://wigan.rlfans.com/readarticle.php?article_id=102	7	Gerry Helme
Ken Gee	8	Bill Derbyshire
Joe Egan	9	Dave Cotton http://wolvesplayers.thisiswarrington.co.uk/martini/results.asp?txtName=Cotton&ddlAppearances=0&ddlTries=0&ddlGoals=0&ddlPoints=0&code=%25&Search=Search
Frank Barton	10	Billy Riley http://wolvesplayers.thisiswarrington.co.uk/martini/results.asp?txtName=Riley&ddlAppearances=0&ddlTries=0&ddlGoals=0&ddlPoints=0&code=%25&Search=Search
Nat Silcock, Jr.	11	Jim Featherstone
Billy Blan	12	Harry Bath
Bill Hudson	13	Harold Palin

14	score	8
12	HT	5

	Scorers
	Tries
Gordon Ratcliffe (1)	T	Albert Johnson (1)
Ted Ward (1)	T	Brian Bevan (1)
	Goals
Ted Ward (4)	G	Harold Palin (1)
Referee		S. Adams, (Hull)

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

^[3] ^[5]

The road to success

All the first round ties were played on a two leg (home and away) basis.

The first club named in each of the first round ties played the first leg at home.

the scores shown in the first round are the aggregate score over the two legs.

Notes and comments

1 * Lancashire Amateurs were a junior (or amateur) club from Lancashire.

2 * Lancashire Amateurs were a junior (or amateur) club from Lancashire. The match was played at Kirkhall Lane, Leigh.

3 * Station Road was the home ground of Swinton from 1929 to 1932 and at its peak was one of the finest rugby league grounds in the country and it boasted a capacity of 60,000. The actual record attendance was for the Challenge Cup semi-final on 7 April 1951 when 44,621 watched Wigan beat Warrington 3–2

4 * The attendance was a record-breaking 39,015, over 5,500 more than the previous record, set in 1934, and receipts were £5518-0-0, another record

External links

Notes and References

Web site: Rugby League Project.
Web site: Widnes Vikings – History – Season In Review – 1896–97.
Web site: Wigan "Cherry and White" archived results.
Web site: Saints Heritage Society – History – Season 1896–97.
Web site: Warrington Wolves – Results Archive – 1897 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100706043029/http://www.warringtonwolves.org/results-archive?y=1897 . 2010-07-06 .
Book: Raymond Fletcher and David Howes. Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991-100. 1991. Queen Anne Press. 0 35617852 8.