2009 Championship 1 Explained

2009 Championship 1
League:Championship 1
Pixels:255px
Duration:18 games each
No Of Teams:10
Attendance:71,166 (average 791) http://www.therfl.co.uk/~therflc/tables/table.php?id=90&z=nationalleague
Season:2009 Season
League Leaders: Dewsbury Rams
League Leaders Name:Champions
Season Champs: Keighley Cougars
Season Champ Name:Playoff Winners
Second Place: Keighley Cougars
Mvp Link:Man of Steel Award
Promotion: Dewsbury Rams Keighley Cougars
Promote From:National League 1
Prevseason Link:2008 National League 2
Prevseason Year:2008
Nextseason Link:2010 Championship 1
Nextseason Year:2010

2009 Championship 1 was a semi-professional rugby league football competition played in the United Kingdom, the third tier of the sport in the country. The winner of this league will be promoted to the Co-operative Championship. There is no relegation from this league as it is the lowest tier of professional rugby league in the UK.

2009 Structure

Championship 1
width=20%Team width=10%2008 Seasonwidth=20%Stadium width=2%Capacitywidth=20%City/Area
Blackpool Panthers9thWoodlands Memorial Ground9,000Lytham St Annes, Lancashire
Dewsbury Rams11th
(National League One)
Crown Flatt5,100Dewsbury, West Yorkshire
Hunslet Hawks12thSouth Leeds Stadium4,000Leeds, West Yorkshire
Keighley Cougars5thCougar Park7,800Keighley, West Yorkshire
London Skolars11thNew River Stadium5,000Haringey, London
Oldham3rdBoundary Park10,368Oldham, Greater Manchester
Rochdale Hornets7thSpotland Stadium10,249Rochdale, Greater Manchester
Swinton Lions10thPark Lane3,000Swinton, Greater Manchester
Workington Town8thDerwent Park10,000Workington, Cumbria
York City Knights6thHuntington Stadium3,428York, North Yorkshire

The Dewsbury Rams were easily the best team throughout the regular season. They won all their games and finished on top of the table, 12 points ahead of the second placed Keighley Cougars. The Rochdale Hornets were stripped of six competition points for going into administration and had to be reformed by local fans https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2009/jan/13/rochdale-hornets-administration-rugby-league.

Table

Three points were awarded for a win, one point for a draw. Bonus points were awarded (one point per game) to losing teams where the margin of defeat was 13 points or less.

PositionClubPlayedWonDrawnLostPts forPts agstPts diffPoints
1181800760233537054
2 Keighley Cougars181305539415124342
3 York City Knights181206589360229440
4 Oldham R.L.F.C.181017618449169435
5 Blackpool Panthers1891856545676533
6 Hunslet Hawks18100847241161333
7 Swinton Lions188010513516−3327
8 Rochdale Hornets186012500557−57615(a)
9 Workington Town182016281700−419511
10 London Skolars181017210927−71725

a: Rochdale were docked 9 points for going into administration.

Play-offs

Championship 1 uses a top 6 play-off system.

Elimination semi-finals

HomeScoreAwayMatch information
width=17%Date and timewidth=19%Venuewidth=13%Refereewidth=7%Attendance
Blackpool Panthers18–21 Hunslet Hawks13 September, 15:00 GMTWoodlands Memorial GroundCraig Halloran543
align=left Oldham R.L.F.C.31–26 Swinton Lions13 September, 15:00 GMTBoundary ParkMatthew Thomasson745

Qualification and elimination matches

HomeScoreAwayMatch information
width=17%Date and timewidth=19%Venuewidth=13%Refereewidth=7%Attendance
Keighley Cougars32–18 York City Knights20 September, 15:00 GMTCougar ParkRonnie Laughton1,501
Oldham R.L.F.C.54–30 Hunslet Hawks20 September, 15:00 GMTBoundary ParkJamie Leahy801

Final qualifiers

HomeScoreAwayMatch information
width=17%Date and timewidth=19%Venuewidth=13%Refereewidth=7%Attendance
York City Knights14–44 Oldham R.L.F.C.27 September, 15:00 GMTHuntington StadiumPhil Bentham1,164

Grand Final

HomeScoreAwayMatch information
width=17%Date and timewidth=19%Venuewidth=13%Refereewidth=7%Attendance
Keighley Cougars28–26 Oldham R.L.F.C.4 October, 15:05 GMTHalliwell Jones StadiumRonnie Laughton11,398

2009 Attendances

width=20 abbr="Position" width=175 Team width=20 Played width=20 Highest width=20 Lowest width=20 Total width=20 Average
192,10391211,3811,265
2103,10662911,4691,147
3101,7265349,898989
4111,41974510,710974
591,2494806,139682
6910194125,747639
789752804,139517
897053694,610512
966933533070512
1091,1562154003445
Total9011,39821582,564907

– Crowd figures could not be found for all games.– The final will be played at a neutral venue and thus will not be included in the averages of any team.

https://web.archive.org/web/20110826110642/http://rugbyleaguecrowds.webs.com/2009championship1.htm

See also