1955–56 Lancashire Cup Explained

1955–56 Lancashire Cup
Structure:Regional knockout championship
Season Champs:Leigh
Season Champ Name:Winners
Runner-Up Name:Runner-up
Second Place:Widnes
Prevseason Link:1954 Lancashire Cup
Prevseason Year:1954–55
Nextseason Link:1956 Lancashire Cup
Nextseason Year:1956–57
No Of Teams:15

1955–56 was the forty-third occasion on which the Lancashire Cup completion had been held.
Leigh won the trophy by beating Widnes by the score of 26-9.
The match was played at Central Park, Wigan, (historically in the county of Lancashire). The attendance was 26,504 and receipts were £4,090.

Background

The end of last season saw the demise of Belle Vue Rangers. With this and the retention of the invitation to juniors, Lancashire Amateurs the number of clubs was reduced by one to a total of 15.
The same pre-war fixture format was retained, and due to reduction in the number of clubs this resulted in one bye in the first round.
The whole tournament was again played on a knock-out basis, and there would be no return to the two legged fixtures during the life of the competition.

Competition and results

[1]

Round 1

Involved 7 matches (with one bye but no “blank” fixture) and 15 clubs

width=20 abbr="No" Game Nowidth=100 abbr="Date"Fixture datewidth=150 abbr="Home team"Home teamwidth=5 abbr="space" width=20 abbr="Score" Scorewidth=5 abbr="space" width=150 abbr="Away team" Away teamwidth=150 abbr="Venue" Venuewidth=30 abbr="Att" Attwidth=30 abbr="Rec" Recwidth=20 abbr="Notes" Noteswidth=30 abbr="Ref" Ref
1Sat 27 Aug 1955Barrow18-12St. HelensCraven Park9,732[2]
2Sat 27 Aug 1955Blackpool Borough8-18OldhamSt Anne's Road Greyhound Stadium
3Sat 27 Aug 1955Leigh71-14County AmateursKirkhall Lane
4Sat 27 Aug 1955Rochdale Hornets26-17WhitehavenAthletic Grounds
5Sat 27 Aug 1955Salford8-33WidnesThe Willows[3]
6Sat 27 Aug 1955Wigan15-16WarringtonCentral Park[4] [5]
7Sat 27 Aug 1955Workington Town24-10Liverpool CityBorough Park
8Swintonbye

Round 2 - quarterfinals

Involved 4 matches (with no bye) and 8 clubs

width=20 abbr="No" Game Nowidth=100 abbr="Date"Fixture datewidth=150 abbr="Home team"Home teamwidth=5 abbr="space" width=20 abbr="Score" Scorewidth=5 abbr="space" width=150 abbr="Away team" Away teamwidth=150 abbr="Venue" Venuewidth=30 abbr="Att" Attwidth=30 abbr="Rec" Recwidth=20 abbr="Notes" Noteswidth=30 abbr="Ref" Ref
1Tue 06 Sep 1955Barrow24-10Workington TownCraven Park
2Tue 06 Sep 1955Rochdale Hornets12-26WarringtonAthletic Grounds
3Wed 07 Sep 1955Oldham11-13LeighWatersheddings
4Thu 08 Sep 1955Widnes9-3SwintonNaughton Park

Round 3 – semifinals

Involved 2 matches and 4 clubs

width=20 abbr="No" Game Nowidth=100 abbr="Date"Fixture datewidth=150 abbr="Home team"Home teamwidth=5 abbr="space" width=20 abbr="Score" Scorewidth=5 abbr="space" width=150 abbr="Away team" Away teamwidth=150 abbr="Venue" Venuewidth=30 abbr="Att" Attwidth=30 abbr="Rec" Recwidth=20 abbr="Notes" Noteswidth=30 abbr="Ref" Ref
1Thu 22 Sep 1955Barrow7-11LeighCraven Park
2Thu 22 Sep 1955Widnes11-6WarringtonNaughton Park

Final

width=20 abbr="No" Game Nowidth=100 abbr="Date"Fixture datewidth=150 abbr="Home team"Home teamwidth=5 abbr="space" width=20 abbr="Score" Scorewidth=5 abbr="space" width=150 abbr="Away team" Away teamwidth=150 abbr="Venue" Venuewidth=45 abbr="Att" Attwidth=60 abbr="Rec" Recwidth=20 abbr="Notes" Noteswidth=30 abbr="Ref" Ref
Saturday 15 October 1955Leigh26-9WidnesCentral Park26,504£4,0901[6]

Teams and scorers

width=280 abbr="Leigh"Leighwidth=60 abbr="Number"width=280 abbr="Widnes"Widnes
teams
Jimmy Ledgard1John Sale
Bill Kindon2Gordon Williamson
Don Gullick3Harold 'Lal' Kinsey
Albert Moore4Tommy Galligan
Malcolm Davies5Peter Ratcliffe
Jack Fleming6Roy Butler
Brian Chadwick7Percy Davies
John Barton8Ron Rowbottom
Walt Tabern9Jack Hayes/J. J. Hayes
Stan Owen10Harold Tomlinson
Derek Hurt11Derek Smith/Tom Smith/Vin Smith
Mick Martyn12Gordon Murray
Peter Foster13George Kemel
26score9
8HT4
Scorers
Tries
TGordon Williamson (1)
T
T
T
T
Goals
GJohn Sale (3)
G
Drop Goals
DG
Referee
Scoring - Try = three (3) points - Goal = two (2) points - Drop goal = two (2) points

[3]

The road to success

Notes and comments

1 * 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

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Rugby League Project.
  2. Web site: Saints Heritage Society - History - Season 1896-97.
  3. Web site: Widnes Vikings - History - Season In Review - 1896-97.
  4. Web site: Wigan "Cherry and White" archived results.
  5. 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 .
  6. Book: Raymond Fletcher and David Howes. Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991-100. 1991. Queen Anne Press. 0 35617852 8.