1972–73 Player's No.6 Trophy

1972–73 Player's No.6 Trophy
StructureNational knockout championship
Teams32
WinnersLeeds
Runners-upSalford

This was the second season of the League Cup, which was known as the Players No.6 Trophy for sponsorship reasons.

Leeds won the trophy by beating Salford 12–7 in the final. The match was played at Fartown, Huddersfield. The attendance was 10,102 and receipts were £4563.

Background

This season saw no changes in the entrants, no new members and no withdrawals, the number remaining at thirty-two.

Competition and results

[1][2][3]

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 Fri 22 Sep 1972 Hull Kingston Rovers 20-10 Castleford Craven Park (1)
2 Sat 23 Sep 1972 Batley 26-3 Hunslet Mount Pleasant
3 Sat 23 Sep 1972 Bramley 26-5 Pilkington Recs McLaren Field 616 1, 2
4 Sat 23 Sep 1972 Halifax 20-22 St. Helens Thrum Hall 2446 [4]
5 Sat 23 Sep 1972 Leigh 10-9 Workington Town Hilton Park
6 Sat 23 Sep 1972 Whitehaven 11-16 Featherstone Rovers Recreation Ground
7 Sun 24 Sep 1972 Barrow 2-17 Salford Craven Park
8 Sun 24 Sep 1972 Blackpool Borough 9-51 Leeds Borough Park 3
9 Sun 24 Sep 1972 Bradford Northern 32-6 Rochdale Hornets Odsal
10 Sun 24 Sep 1972 Dewsbury 22-4 Dewsbury Celtic Crown Flatt 1897 4
11 Sun 24 Sep 1972 Doncaster 7-22 Widnes Bentley Road Stadium/Tattersfield [5]
12 Sun 24 Sep 1972 Huddersfield 23-15 Warrington Fartown [6][7]
13 Sun 24 Sep 1972 Hull F.C. 17-10 Oldham Boulevard [8]
14 Sun 24 Sep 1972 Swinton 29-10 Huyton Station Road
15 Sun 24 Sep 1972 Wigan 10-34 Wakefield Trinity Central Park 5 [9][10][11]
16 Sun 24 Sep 1972 York 21-13 Keighley Clarence Street

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 Fri 24 Nov 1972 Hull F.C. 9-4 Wakefield Trinity Boulevard [8][9][10]
2 Fri 24 Nov 1972 St. Helens 24-8 Featherstone Rovers Knowsley Road 4800 6 [4]
3 Fri 24 Nov 1972 Salford 19-3 Dewsbury The Willows
4 Sat 25 Nov 1972 Leeds 21-3 Leigh Headingley
5 Sun 26 Nov 1972 Bradford Northern 35-17 York Odsal
6 Sun 26 Nov 1972 Hull Kingston Rovers 25-5 Bramley Craven Park (1)
7 Sun 26 Nov 1972 Swinton 19-11 Huddersfield Station Road [6]
8 Sun 26 Nov 1972 Widnes 21-8 Batley Naughton Park [5]

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 Fri 8 Dec 1972 Hull Kingston Rovers A Swinton Craven Park (1) 7
2 Sat 9 Dec 1972 St. Helens 10-3 Widnes Knowsley Road [4][5]
3 Sun 10 Dec 1972 Hull F.C. 18-18 Leeds Boulevard 8 [8]
4 Sun 10 Dec 1972 Salford 39-2 Bradford Northern The Willows 9

Round 3 -Quarter Finals - Replays

Involved 2 matches with 4 clubs

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
1 Wed 13 Dec 1972 Hull Kingston Rovers 30-6 Swinton Craven Park (1)
2 Tue 12 Dec 1972 Leeds 37-5 Hull F.C. Headingley

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 30 Dec 1972 Hull Kingston Rovers 13-15 Salford Craven Park (1)
2 Sat 13 Jan 1973 Leeds 19-0 St. Helens Headingley 5854 [4]

Final

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
Saturday 24 March 1973 Leeds 12-7 Salford Fartown 10102 4563 10 [12][13]

Teams and scorers

Leeds № Salford
teams
John Holmes 1 Paul Charlton
Alan Smith 2 Anthony "Tony" Colloby
Syd Hynes 3 David Watkins
Les Dyl 4 Chris Hesketh
John Atkinson 5 Maurice Richards
Alan Hardisty 6 Ken Gill
Keith Hepworth 7 Peter Banner
Terry Clawson 8 John Ward
Tony Fisher 9 Terry Ramshaw
David Jeanes 10 Graham Mackay
Bob Haigh 11 Alan Grice
Phil Cookson 12 William Kirkbride
Graham Eccles 13 Colin Dixon
David Ward (for Terry Clawson) 14 xPhil Ward (for Ken Gill)
xFred Pickup (for Tony Fisher) 15 Doug Davies (for Alan Grice)
Coach
12 score 7
10 HT 5
Scorers
Tries
John Atkinson (2) T Colin Dixon (1)
Goals
John Holmes (1) G David Watkins (2)
Terry Clawson (2) G
Referee William "Billy" H. Thompson (Huddersfield)
Man of the match Keith Hepworth - Leeds - scrum-half
Competition Sponsor Player's №6

Scoring - Try = three points - Goal = two points - Drop goal = one point

[12][13]

Prize money

As part of the sponsorship deal and funds, the prize money awarded to the competing teams for this season was as follows:[14]

Finish Position Cash Prize No. receiving prize Total Cash
Winner £5,000 1 £5,000
Runner-up £2,500 1 £2,500
Semi-finalist £1,000 2 £2,000
Loser in Rd 3 £450 4 £1,800
Loser in Rd 2 £300 8 £2,400
Loser in Rd 1 £150 16 £2,400
Grand Total £16,100

The road to success

First round Second round Third round Semifinals Final
               
Hull F.C. 17
Oldham 10
Hull F.C. 9
Wakefield Trinity 4
Wigan 10
Wakefield Trinity 34
Hull F.C. 18 (5)
Leeds 18 (37)
Blackpool Borough 9
Leeds 51
Leeds 21
Leigh 3
Leigh 10
Workington Town 9
Leeds 19
St. Helens 0
Halifax 20
St. Helens 22
St. Helens 24
Featherstone Rovers 8
Whitehaven 11
Featherstone Rovers 16
St. Helens 10
Widnes 3
Doncaster 7
Widnes 22
Widnes 21
Batley 8
Batley 26
Hunslet 3
Leeds 12
Salford 7
Hull Kingston Rovers 20
Castleford 10
Hull Kingston Rovers 25
Bramley 5
Bramley 26
Pilkington Recs 5
Hull Kingston Rovers 30
Swinton 6
Swinton 29
Huyton 10
Swinton 19
Huddersfield 11
Huddersfield 23
Warrington 15
Hull Kingston Rovers 13
Salford 15
Barrow 2
Salford 17
Salford 19
Dewsbury 3
Dewsbury 22
Dewsbury Celtic 4
Salford 39
Bradford Northern 2
Bradford Northern 32
Rochdale Hornets 6
Bradford Northern 35
York 17
York 21
Keighley 13

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 to 2012 [12][13]
2 * Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1990–1991,[12] Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991–1992,[13] and RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] give the score as 26–5 but News of the World Football Annual 1973–74[2] gives the score as 28–5
3 * highest score to date
4 * Dewsbury Celtic are a Junior (amateur) club from Dewsbury, home ground is Crow Nest Park
5 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] gives score as 10–28 but the Wigan official archives[3] and 100 Years of Rugby. The History of Wakefield Trinity 1873–1973[9] and Wakefield until I die[10] all give the score as 10–34
6 * News of the World Football Annual 1973–74[2] gives score as 24–3 but both RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] and Wigan official archives[3] give it as 24–8
7 * Abandoned after 22 Minutes due to Fog with the score at 4–2 - Result declared void[3]
8 * NO mention on Hull official website[8] of any replay
9 * News of the World Football Annual 1973–74[2] gives the score as 30–2 but both RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] and Wigan official archives[3] give it as 39–2
10 * Fartown was the home ground of Huddersfield from 1878 to the end of the 1991–92 season to Huddersfield Town FC's Leeds Road stadium, and then to the McAlpine Stadium in 1994. Fartown remained as a sports/Rugby League ground but is now rather dilapidated, and is only used for staging amateur rugby league games.
Due to lack of maintenance, terrace closures and finally major storm damage closing one of the stands in 1986, the final ground capacity had been reduced to just a few thousands although the record attendance was set in a Challenge cup semi-final on 19 April 1947 when a crowd of 35,136 saw Leeds beat Wakefield Trinity 21–0.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Rugby League Project".
  2. ^ a b c d Frank Butler and Patrick Collins (1973). News of the World Football Annual 1973-74 - 87th year. News of the World Ltd.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Wigan "Cherry and White" Players Trophy results".
  4. ^ a b c d "Saints Heritage Society - History - Season 1896-97".
  5. ^ a b c "Widnes Vikings - History - Season In Review - 1896-97".
  6. ^ a b "Huddersfield Rugby League Heritage" (PDF).
  7. ^ "Warrington Wolves - Results Archive - 1897". Archived from the original on 2014-02-02.
  8. ^ a b c d "HULL&PROUD - Stats - Fixtures & Results".
  9. ^ a b c J C Lindley and D W Armitage (1973). 100 Years of Rugby. The History of Wakefield Trinity 1873-1973. Wakefield Trinity Centenary Committee. ISBN 0 35617852 8.
  10. ^ a b c "Wakefield until I die".
  11. ^ "Wigan "Cherry and White" archived results". Archived from the original on 2014-02-21. Retrieved 2014-07-12.
  12. ^ a b c d Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1990). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1990-1991. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617851 X.
  13. ^ a b c d Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1991). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991-1992. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617852 8.
  14. ^ Fletcher, Raymond; Howes, David, eds. (1992). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1992-93. London: Headline Publishing Group. p. 396. ISBN 978-0-7472-7906-8.