1980–81 John Player Trophy Explained

1980–81 John Player Trophy
Structure:National knockout championship
Season Champs:Warrington
Season Champ Name:Winners
Runner-Up Name:Runner-up
Second Place:Barrow
Prevseason Link:1979–80 John Player Trophy
Prevseason Year:1979–80
Nextseason Link:1981–82 John Player Trophy
Nextseason Year:1981–82
No Of Teams:32

This was the tenth season for rugby league's League Cup competition. It was again known as the John Player Trophy for sponsorship purposes.

Warrington won the final, beating Barrow by the score of 12-5 at Central Park, Wigan in front of a crowd of 12,802. The gate receipts were £21020.

Background

This season saw only one change in the entrants, with the admittance of Fulham to the league and to this competition, resulted in only one junior club being invited, the total number remaining at thirty-two.

Competition and results

[1]

Round 1 - First Round

[2] Involved 16 matches and 32 Clubs

width=10 abbr="No" Game Nowidth=110 abbr="Date"Fixture Datewidth=150 abbr="Home Team"Home Teamwidth=20 abbr="Score" Scorewidth=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 22 Nov 1980Hull F.C.12-0Bradford NorthernBoulevard10854[3]
2Sat 22 Nov 1980Hunslet15-5Workington TownMount Pleasant700
3Sun 23 Nov 1980Batley4-20HuddersfieldMount Pleasant1781[4]
4Sun 23 Nov 1980Blackpool Borough21-7HuytonBorough Park450
5Sun 23 Nov 1980Bramley10-11HalifaxMcLaren Field2338
6Sun 23 Nov 1980Castleford30-17St Helens Recs28231
7Sun 23 Nov 1980Dewsbury12-37Featherstone RoversCrown Flatt2700
8Sun 23 Nov 1980Doncaster10-18WhitehavenBentley Road Stadium/Tattersfield432
9Sun 23 Nov 1980Fulham9-3LeedsCraven Cottage12583
10Sun 23 Nov 1980Keighley16-34Hull Kingston RoversLawkholme Lane38952
11Sun 23 Nov 1980Leigh38-5Rochdale HornetsHilton Park3167
12Sun 23 Nov 1980St. Helens12-14WarringtonKnowsley Road7946[5] [6]
13Sun 23 Nov 1980Salford17-9WiganThe Willows3715[7]
14Sun 23 Nov 1980Swinton10-12BarrowStation Road2470
15Sun 23 Nov 1980Widnes20-17Wakefield TrinityNaughton Park5956[8] [9]
16Sun 23 Nov 1980York11-9OldhamClarence Street5154

Round 2 - Second Round

[2] Involved 8 matches and 16 Clubs

width=10 abbr="No" Game Nowidth=110 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 6 Dec 1980Warrington11-7Hull Kingston RoversWilderspool4325
2Sun 7 Dec 1980Barrow26-13HunsletCraven Park4185
3Sun 7 Dec 1980Blackpool Borough5-11HalifaxBorough Park1724
4Sun 7 Dec 1980Hull F.C.11-10YorkBoulevard11129
5Sun 7 Dec 1980Leigh17-9FulhamHilton Park7606
6Sun 7 Dec 1980Salford8-15CastlefordThe Willows3452
7Sun 7 Dec 1980Whitehaven22-3Featherstone RoversRecreation Ground3922
8Tue 9 Dec 1980Widnes25-9HuddersfieldNaughton Park3571

Round 3 -Quarter Finals

[2] Involved 4 matches with 8 clubs

width=10 abbr="No" Game Nowidth=110 abbr="Date"Fixture Datewidth=150 abbr="Home Team"Home Teamwidth=40 abbr="Score" Scorewidth=150 abbr="Away Team" Away Teamwidth=150 abbr="Venue" Venuewidth=30 abbr="Att" Attwidth=20 abbr="Notes" Noteswidth=30 abbr="Ref" Ref
1Sat 13 Dec 1980Castleford18–10Widnes35713
2Sun 14 Dec 1980Hull F.C.13–0WhitehavenBoulevard11228
3Sun 14 Dec 1980Leigh13–15BarrowHilton Park55214
4Sun 14 Dec 1980Warrington16–10HalifaxWilderspool5532

Round 4 – Semi-Finals

[2] Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs

width=10 abbr="No" Game Nowidth=110 abbr="Date"Fixture Datewidth=150 abbr="Home Team"Home Teamwidth=20 abbr="Score" Scorewidth=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 20 Dec 1980Warrington5-5CastlefordCentral Park3877
2Sat 10 Jan 1981Barrow13-10Hull F.C.Headingley11202

Round 3 – Semi-Finals - Replays

Involved 1 match and 2 Clubs

width=10 abbr="No" Game Nowidth=110 abbr="Date"Fixture Datewidth=150 abbr="Home Team"Home Teamwidth=20 abbr="Score" Scorewidth=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
1Sun 28 Dec 1980Warrington22-10CastlefordHeadingley9279

Final

Teams

width=280 abbr=winnerWarringtonwidth=60 abbr="Number"№width=280 abbr=runner-upBarrow
Steve Hesford1Dave Elliott
Rick Thackray2Ralph McConnell
Ian Duane3Nigel French
John Bevan4Ian Ball (c)
Mike Kelly5Tony Wainwright
Ken Kelly (c)6Mel Mason
Alan Gwilliam7David Cairns
Neil Courtney8David Chisnall
Tony Waller9Howard Allen
Brian Case10Malcolm Flynn
Tommy Martyn11Kevin James
Ian Potter12Steve Kirkby
Eddie Hunter13Derek Hadley
? not used14? not used
Bob Eccles (for Eddie Hunter)15Eddie Szymala (for Howard Allen)
Billy BenyonCoachFrank Foster

Prize money

As part of the sponsorship deal and funds, the prize money awarded to the competing teams for this season is as follows:

width=100 abbr="Finish Position" Finish Positionwidth=110 abbr="Cash Prize"Cash Prizewidth=50 abbr="No. receiving prize"No. receiving prizewidth=100 abbr="Total Cash"Total Cash
Winner£8,5001£8,500
Runner-up£4,0001£4,000
Semi-finalists£2,0002£4,000
Losers in Rd 3£1,0004£4,000
Losers in Rd 2£8008£6,400
Losers in Rd 1£60016£9,600
Grand Total£36,500

The road to success

This tree excludes any preliminary round fixtures

Notes and comments

1 * Pilkington Recs are a Junior (amateur) club from St Helens, home ground was City Road until they moved to Ruskin Drive from 2011-12
2 * Wigan official archives[2] gives the score as 15-34 but RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] gives it as 16-34
3 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] gives the attendance as 3,571, the same as the previously listed match (which was Widnes v Huddersfield in round 2), but the Widnes official website[9] omits to give the attendance for this match, one of only a few matches for that season without an attendance noted
4 * Wigan official archives[2] give the score as 13-10 but RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] gives it as 13-15. As Barrow progressed into the semi-final, the score given in the Wigan archives was obviously in error
5 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] gives the attendance as 12,820 but Rothman's Yearbooks 1990-91 and 1992-93 give it as 12,802
6 * The attendance was a record for the final of this tournament (but would be broken next season)
7 * 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

References

General

Specific

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Rugby League Project.
  2. Web site: Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Round 1 onwards archived results.
  3. Web site: HULL&PROUD - Stats - Fixtures & Results.
  4. Web site: Huddersfield Rugby League Heritage.
  5. Web site: Warrington Wolves - Results Archive - 1897 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140202093910/http://www.warringtonwolves.org/results-archive?y=1897 . 2014-02-02 .
  6. Web site: Saints Heritage Society - History - Season 1896-97.
  7. Web site: Wigan "Cherry and White" archived results. 2014-07-13. 2014-02-21. https://web.archive.org/web/20140221234707/http://wigan.rlfans.com/news.php?readmore=3199. dead.
  8. Web site: Wakefield until I die.
  9. Web site: Widnes Vikings - History - Season In Review - 1896-97.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "1980–81 John Player Trophy".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.