1951–52 Northern Rugby Football League season
| 1951–52 Northern Rugby Football League season | |
|---|---|
| League | Northern Rugby League |
| 1951–52 Season | |
| Champions |  Wigan |
| League Leaders |  Bradford Northern |
| Top point-scorer |  Willie Horne 313 |
| Top try-scorer |  Lionel Cooper 71 |
The 1951–52 Rugby Football League season was the 57th season of rugby league football.
Season summary
[edit]Wigan won their eighth Championship when they beat Bradford Northern 13–6 in the play-off final. Bradford had ended the regular season as the league leaders.
The Challenge Cup Winners were Workington Town who beat Featherstone Rovers 18–10 in the final.
Liverpool Stanley was renamed Liverpool City, and Cardiff, and Doncaster joined the league.[1]
Wigan won the Lancashire League, and Huddersfield won the Yorkshire League.
Championship
[edit]Final standings
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bradford Northern | 36 | 28 | 1 | 7 | 57 |
| 2 | Wigan | 36 | 27 | 1 | 8 | 55 |
| 3 | Hull | 36 | 26 | 1 | 9 | 53 |
| 4 | Huddersfield | 36 | 26 | 0 | 10 | 52 |
| 5 | Oldham | 36 | 25 | 1 | 10 | 51 |
| 6 | Warrington | 36 | 24 | 1 | 11 | 49 |
| 7 | Leigh | 36 | 23 | 2 | 11 | 48 |
| 8 | Workington Town | 36 | 23 | 0 | 13 | 46 |
| 9 | Hunslet | 36 | 22 | 1 | 13 | 45 |
| 10 | Barrow | 36 | 21 | 2 | 13 | 44 |
| 11 | Doncaster | 36 | 21 | 1 | 14 | 43 |
| 12 | Widnes | 36 | 20 | 2 | 14 | 42 |
| 13 | Leeds | 36 | 19 | 2 | 15 | 40 |
| 14 | Swinton | 36 | 18 | 3 | 15 | 39 |
| 15 | Salford | 36 | 18 | 2 | 16 | 38 |
| 16 | Wakefield Trinity | 36 | 19 | 0 | 17 | 38 |
| 17 | Batley | 36 | 18 | 1 | 17 | 37 |
| 18 | Dewsbury | 36 | 18 | 0 | 18 | 36 |
| 19 | Whitehaven | 36 | 16 | 4 | 16 | 36 |
| 20 | St. Helens | 36 | 16 | 2 | 18 | 34 |
| 21 | Halifax | 36 | 16 | 2 | 18 | 34 |
| 22 | Featherstone Rovers | 36 | 14 | 2 | 20 | 30 |
| 23 | Belle Vue Rangers | 36 | 12 | 3 | 21 | 27 |
| 24 | York | 36 | 12 | 3 | 21 | 27 |
| 25 | Hull Kingston Rovers | 36 | 10 | 1 | 25 | 21 |
| 26 | Rochdale Hornets | 36 | 10 | 1 | 25 | 21 |
| 27 | Bramley | 36 | 10 | 1 | 25 | 21 |
| 28 | Castleford | 36 | 8 | 1 | 27 | 17 |
| 29 | Keighley | 36 | 8 | 1 | 27 | 17 |
| 30 | Cardiff | 36 | 5 | 0 | 31 | 10 |
| 31 | Liverpool City | 36 | 4 | 0 | 32 | 8 |
| Play-offs |
Source: wigan.rlfans.com Archived 2009-08-26 at the Wayback Machine.
League points: for win = 2; for draw = 1; for loss = 0.
Pld = Games played; W = Wins; D = Draws; L = Losses; Pts = League points.
Play-offs
[edit]| Semi-finals | Championship final | ||||||||
| 1 | Bradford Northern | 18 | |||||||
| 4 | Huddersfield | 15 | |||||||
| Bradford Northern | 6 | ||||||||
| Wigan | 13 | ||||||||
| 2 | Wigan | 13 | |||||||
| 3 | Hull | 9 | |||||||
10 May 1952 |
| Wigan | 13 – 6 | Bradford Northern |
|---|---|---|
| Tries: Ryan, Cunliffe, Silcock Goals: Gee (2) |
Goals: Phillips (3) |
| Wigan | Number | Bradford Northern |
|---|---|---|
| Teams | ||
| Martin Ryan | 1 | Joseph Phillips |
| Jack Hilton | 2 | Bob Hawes |
| Jack Broome | 3 | Joe Mageen |
| George Roughley | 4 | Norman Hastings |
| Brian Nordgren | 5 | Jack McLean |
| Jack Cunliffe | 6 | Len Haley |
| Johnny Alty | 7 | Gwylfa Jones |
| Ken Gee | 8 | Bill Shreeve |
| Ronnie Mather | 9 | Norman Haley |
| George Woosey | 10 | Brian Radford |
| Nat Silcock Jr. | 11 | Barry Tyler |
| Jack Large | 12 | Trevor Foster |
| Harry Street | 13 | Ken Traill |
| Jim Sullivan | Coach | Dai Rees |
Challenge Cup
[edit]Workington Town beat Featherstone Rovers 18–10 in the Challenge Cup Final played at Wembley Stadium on Saturday 19 April 1952 in front of a crowd of 72,093. Workington full-back and captain-coach Gus Risman became the oldest player to appear in a Cup final at age 41.[2] Three Australians, Tony Paskins, John Mudge and Bevan Wilson came up with decisive plays to help relative newcomers Workington to victory.[3] It was the club's first Cup Final win in their first Final appearance.[4] Billy Ivison, Workington Town's loose forward, was awarded the Lance Todd Trophy for man-of-the-match.
County cups
[edit]Wigan beat Leigh 14–6 to win the Lancashire Cup, and Wakefield Trinity beat Keighley 17–3 to win the Yorkshire Cup.
European Championship
[edit]This was the twelfth competition and was won for the fourth time by France on points difference.[5][6]
Results
[edit]Final standings
[edit]| Team | Played | Won | Drew | Lost | For | Against | Diff | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 France | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 76 | 42 | +34 | 4 |
 England | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 79 | 71 | +8 | 4 |
| Other nationalities | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 57 | 56 | +1 | 4 |
 Wales | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 34 | 77 | −43 | 0 |
References
[edit]- ↑ "1951-52 Season summary". Archived from the original on 2009-08-26. Retrieved 2009-08-08.
- ↑ news.bbc.co.uk (11 May 2004). "Cup final facts". BBC Sport. UK: BBC. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
- ↑ AAP (London) (1952-04-21). "Australians star in Cup Final". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2023-12-27 – via Trove.
- ↑ "RFL Challenge Cup Roll of Honour". Archived from the original on 2009-04-03. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
- ↑ European Championship 1951-52 at rugbyleagueproject.org
- ↑ Raymond Fletcher; David Howes (1995). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1995-1996. London: Headline Book Publishing. p. 424. ISBN 0-7472-7817-2.