1991–92 League Cup (rugby league)

1991–92 League Cup

1991–92 League Cup (rugby league)
Structure	National knockout championship
Number of teams	38
Winners	Widnes
Runners-up	Leeds
< 1990–91 Seasons 1992–93 >

This was the twenty-first season of rugby league's League Cup competition, known as the Regal Trophy for sponsorship purposes.

Widnes won the final, beating Leeds by the score of 24-0. The match was played at Central Park, Wigan. The attendance was 15,070.

Background

This season saw two "name" changes and one of the three junior clubs being replaced by a new league club. The number of entrants remained the same at thirty-eight.
The changes were :-
1 Runcorn Highfield became Highfield and now played at Hoghton Road Stadium in Sutton, a suburb of St Helens and home to St Helens Town A.F.C. (although signing a 99-year lease, the club moved on after 4½ years after a proposed rent increase made a stay unviable - Fulham became London Crusaders but were still nomadic, although playing many home matches at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre before settling at Barnet Copthall for season 1993-94
2 Scarborough Pirates joined the league and the competition (albeit for a very brief one season stay before going into administration), taking the place of one of the junior teams-
The preliminary round involved twelve clubs, to reduce the numbers to entrants to the first round proper to thirty-two.

Competition and Results

Preliminary Round

Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Tue 29 Oct 1991	Rochdale Hornets		14-24		Widnes	Spotland	2278
2	Tue 29 Oct 1991	Wigan		34-14		Dewsbury	Central Park	5020
3	Thu 31 Oct 1991	Hull F.C.		22-7		Leigh	Boulevard	2219
4	Sun 3 Nov 1991	Saddleworth		0-30		Workington Town	Watersheddings	1650		1, 2
5	Sun 3 Nov 1991	Sheffield Eagles		36-8		Scarborough Pirates	Don Valley Stadium	1226
6	Mon 4 Nov 1991	Leigh East		20-10		Chorley Borough (2)	Hilton Park	1393		3, 4

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 16 Nov 1991	Warrington		8-17		Leeds	Wilderspool	4353
2	Sun 17 Nov 1991	Bradford Northern		76-0		Leigh East	Odsal	1613		3
3	Sun 17 Nov 1991	Doncaster		21-20		Whitehaven	Bentley Road Stadium/Tattersfield	693
4	Sun 17 Nov 1991	Halifax		46-4		Barrow	Thrum Hall	4791
5	Sun 17 Nov 1991	Highfield		10-28		Carlisle	Hoghton Road Stadium	180
6	Sun 17 Nov 1991	Huddersfield		10-32		St Helens	Fartown	4239
7	Sun 17 Nov 1991	Hull KR		10-22		Castleford	Craven Park (2)	3406
8	Sun 17 Nov 1991	Keighley Cougars		25-10		Hunslet	Cougar Park	1155
9	Sun 17 Nov 1991	Nottingham City		11-42		Wakefield Trinity	Harvey Hadden Stadium	916
10	Sun 17 Nov 1991	Oldham		16-10		London Crusaders	Watersheddings	2182
11	Sun 17 Nov 1991	Ryedale-York		6-13		Sheffield Eagles	Ryedale Stadium	1138
12	Sun 17 Nov 1991	Salford		74-10		Trafford Borough	The Willows	1783
13	Sun 17 Nov 1991	Swinton		8-34		Wigan	Station Road	4676
14	Sun 17 Nov 1991	Widnes		26-8		Workington Town	Naughton Park	4917
15	Mon 18 Nov 1991	Hull F.C.		12-8		Batley	Boulevard	2149
16	Tue 19 Nov 1991	Bramley		18-18		Featherstone Rovers	McLaren Field	1643

Round 1 - First Round Replays

Involved 1 match and 2 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Thu 21 Nov 1991	Featherstone Rovers		44-8		Bramley	Post Office Road	1617

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 23 Nov 1991	Hull F.C.		4-12		Leeds	Boulevard	4359
2	Sun 24 Nov 1991	Bradford Northern		44-10		Sheffield Eagles	Odsal	3118
3	Sun 24 Nov 1991	Carlisle		16-30		Widnes	Gifford Park	1874		5
4	Sun 24 Nov 1991	Featherstone Rovers		64-18		Halifax	Post Office Road	5462
5	Sun 24 Nov 1991	Oldham		18-24		St Helens	Watersheddings	5814
6	Sun 24 Nov 1991	Wakefield Trinity		10-30		Salford	Belle Vue	4577
7	Sun 24 Nov 1991	Wigan		32-8		Keighley Cougars	Central Park	6052
8	Mon 25 Nov 1991	Castleford		38-6		Doncaster	Wheldon Road	4145

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 30 Nov 1991	Salford		24-14		Wigan	The Willows	4608
2	Sun 1 Dec 1991	Leeds		24-4		Castleford	Headingley	15409
3	Sun 1 Dec 1991	St Helens		30-12		Bradford Northern	Knowsley Road	8641
4	Sun 1 Dec 1991	Widnes		34-22		Featherstone Rovers	Naughton Park	6551

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 7 Dec 1991	Leeds		22-15		Salford	Valley Parade	7275		6
2	Sat 21 Dec 1991	Widnes		18-10		St Helens	Central Park	6376

Final

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
	Saturday 11 January 1992	Widnes		24-0		Leeds	Central Park	15070		7, 8

Teams and Scorers

Widnes	№	Leeds
	teams
Alan Tait	1
John Devereux	2
Andy Currier	3
Darren Wright	4
Mark Sarsfield[1]	5
Jonathan Davies	6
Barry Dowd[2]	7
Kurt Sorensen	8
Paul Hulme	9
David Smith	10
Harvey Howard	11
"Richie" Eyres	12
Les Holliday	13
Paul Atcheson	14
Joe Grima	15
Frank Myler	Coach	Doug Laughton
24	score	0
7	HT	0
	Scorers
	Tries
Jonathan Davies (1)	T
Les Holliday (1)	T
Alan Tait (1)	T
Kurt Sorensen (1)	T
	Goals
Jonathan Davies {3)	G
	Drop Goals
Jonathan Davies (1)	DG
Les Holliday (1)	DG
Referee		Brian Galtress (Bradford)
Man of the match		? - ? - ?
Competition Sponsor		Regal

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

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	?	?	?
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
	Highfield		10
	Carlisle		28
						Carlisle		16
						Widnes		30
	Widnes		26
	Workington Town		8
											Widnes		34
											Featherstone Rovers		22
	Bramley		18 (8)
	Featherstone Rovers		18 (44)
						Featherstone Rovers		64
						Halifax		18
	Halifax		46
	Barrow		4
																Widnes		18
																St Helens		10
	Oldham		16
	London Crusaders		10
						Oldham		18
						St Helens		24
	Huddersfield		10
	St Helens		32
											St Helens		30
											Bradford Northern		12
	Bradford Northern		76
	Leigh East		0
						Bradford Northern		44
						Sheffield Eagles		10
	Ryedale-York		6
	Sheffield Eagles		13
																					Widnes		24
																					Leeds		0
	Hull F.C.		12
	Batley		8
						Hull F.C.		4
						Leeds		12
	Warrington		8
	Leeds		17
											Leeds		24
											Castleford		4
	Hull KR		10
	Castleford		22
						Castleford		38
						Doncaster		6
	Doncaster		21
	Whitehaven		20
																Leeds		22
																Salford		15
	Nottingham City		11
	Wakefield Trinity		42
						Wakefield Trinity		10
						Salford		30
	Salford		74
	Trafford Borough		10
											Salford		24
											Wigan		14
	Swinton		8
	Wigan		34
						Wigan		32
						Keighley Cougars		8
	Keighley Cougars		25
	Hunslet		.

Notes and comments

1 * Saddleworth Rangers are a Junior (amateur) club from Oldham
2 * Watersheddings was the home ground of Oldham
3 * Leigh East are a Junior (amateur) club from Leigh
4 * Hilton Park was the home ground of Leigh
5 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject gives the attendance as 1,874 but Widnes official archives gives it as 2,000
6 * Valley Parade was originally the home of Manningham Rugby League Football Club until 1903, when they changed name and codes and became Bradford City A.F.C.
7 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject gives the attendance as 15,070 but Widnes official archives gives it as 15,023
8 * 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

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

• 1991-92 Rugby Football League season
• 1991 Lancashire Cup
• 1991 Yorkshire Cup
• Regal Trophy
• Rugby league county cups

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