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1963–64 Northern Rugby Football League season

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1963–64 Rugby Football League season
LeagueChampionship
First Division
Champions Swinton
Runners-up Wigan
Top point-scorer(s) Neil Fox 313
Top try-scorer(s) John Stopford 45
Second Division
Second Division Champions Oldham
Runners-up Leigh
Disbanded Bradford Northern

The 1963–64 Northern Rugby Football League season was the 69th season of rugby league football.

Season summary

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The 1963–64 season saw the league continue to be split into two divisions with each team playing each other team home and away and no playoffs.

Swinton won their sixth Championship.

The Challenge Cup winners were Widnes who beat Hull Kingston Rovers 13–5 in the final.

The 2nd Division Champions were Oldham

Bradford Northern disbanded on 10 December 1963 after playing 13 matches which were then declared null and void, and expunged from the 1963–64 season's records. They had won 1 and lost 12. Their last match on 23 November attracted a club record lowest crowd of just 324 against Barrow.[1]

There was no promotion or relegation as the League returned to one division in 1964–65.[2]

Brian Bevan ended his career with Warrington and Blackpool Borough as the all-time record try scorer with 796. [3]

St. Helens won the Lancashire League and Halifax won the Yorkshire League. St. Helens beat Leigh 15–4 to win the Lancashire County Cup and Halifax beat Featherstone Rovers 10–0 to win the Yorkshire County Cup.

Championship

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Team Pld W D L Pts
1 Swinton 30 25 0 5 50
2 Wigan 30 21 2 7 44
3 St. Helens 30 20 1 9 41
4 Featherstone Rovers 30 18 1 11 37
5 Workington Town 30 18 1 11 37
6 Castleford 30 18 0 12 36
7 Wakefield Trinity 30 16 0 14 36
8 Halifax 30 15 1 14 31
9 Hull Kingston Rovers 30 15 0 15 30
10 Warrington 30 15 0 15 30
11 Hunslet 30 14 0 16 28
12 Widnes 30 13 0 17 26
13 Leeds 30 10 0 20 20
14 Huddersfield 30 10 0 20 20
15 Keighley 30 5 0 25 10
16 Hull 30 4 0 24 8

Second Division

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Team Pld W D L F A Pts
1 Oldham 24 21 1 2 508 168 43
2 Leigh 24 16 2 6 411 224 34
3 Dewsbury 24 15 2 7 239 220 32
4 Barrow 24 14 1 9 351 280 29
5 Bramley 24 14 0 10 300 256 28
6 Blackpool Borough 24 12 1 11 299 303 25
7 York 24 12 0 12 317 250 24
8 Rochdale Hornets 24 8 1 15 209 271 17
9 Liverpool City 24 8 1 15 200 261 17
10 Batley 24 8 0 16 174 304 16
11 Whitehaven 24 8 0 16 173 341 16
12 Salford 24 8 0 16 218 392 16
13 Doncaster 24 7 1 16 182 311 15

Challenge Cup

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Main article: 1963–64 Challenge Cup

Widnes beat Hull Kingston Rovers 13–5 in the Challenge Cup played at Wembley Stadium on 9 May before a crowd of 84,488.

This was Widnes’ third Challenge Cup Final win in five Final appearances.[4] Frank Collier, their prop forward, was awarded the Lance Todd Trophy for his man-of-the-match performance.

County championships

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Western Division

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Pos Team Pld W D L PF PA PAv Pts Qualification
1 Swinton 8 8 0 0 190 34 5.588 16 Qualification for the play-offs
2 St Helens 8 8 0 0 173 57 3.035 16
3 Oldham 8 7 0 1 119 52 2.288 14
4 Widnes 8 6 1 1 101 68 1.485 13
5 Workington Town 8 5 2 1 141 63 2.238 12
6 Wigan 8 6 0 2 201 95 2.116 12
7 Warrington 8 5 0 3 143 84 1.702 10
8 Barrow 8 2 0 6 103 143 0.720 4
9 Leigh 8 2 0 6 59 93 0.634 4
10 Blackpool Borough 8 2 0 6 90 222 0.405 4
11 Whitehaven 8 1 2 5 40 128 0.313 4
12 Rochdale Hornets 8 1 1 6 61 149 0.409 3
13 Salford 8 0 0 8 59 190 0.311 0
14 Liverpool City 8 0 0 8 41 143 0.287 0
Source: [5]

Final

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16 May 1964
St Helens 10 – 7 Swinton
Tries: Northey, French
Goals: Coslett (2)
 Tries: Stopford
Goals: Blan (2)
Central Park, Wigan
Attendance: 17,363
Referee: Eric Clay (Leeds)

Eastern Division

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Due to Bradford's withdrawal from the league, not all teams played the same number of games, so league position was determined by win percentage.

Pos Team Pld W D L PF PA PAv PCT Qualification
1 Castleford 6 6 0 0 145 44 3.295 100.00 Qualification for the play-offs
2 Halifax 8 7 0 1 153 65 2.354 87.50
3 Wakefield Trinity 6 5 0 1 159 37 4.297 83.33
4 Bramley 8 6 0 2 80 61 1.311 75.00
5 Leeds 6 4 0 2 72 60 1.200 66.67
6 Featherstone Rovers 8 4 1 3 126 90 1.400 56.25
7 Huddersfield 6 3 0 3 84 51 1.647 50.00
8 Hull Kingston Rovers 8 4 0 4 105 86 1.221 50.00
9 Hull 8 4 0 4 92 89 1.034 50.00
10 Hunslet 8 4 0 4 101 130 0.777 50.00
11 Dewsbury 8 3 0 5 56 90 0.622 37.50
12 Doncaster 8 2 0 6 56 162 0.346 25.00
13 York 8 1 1 6 85 162 0.525 18.75
14 Keighley 8 1 0 7 64 123 0.520 12.50
15 Batley 8 1 0 7 80 208 0.385 12.50
16 Bradford Northern[a] 0 0 0 0 0 0 — —
Source: [5]
Notes:
  1. ^ Withdrew from the league mid-season.

Final

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23 May 1964
Halifax 20 – 12 Castleford
Tries: Jackson (2), Robinson, Dixon
Goals: James (4)
 Tries: Howe, Dickinson
Goals: Clark (3)
Fartown, Huddersfield
Attendance: 10,798
Referee: R. L. Thomas (Oldham)

County cups

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Main article: 1963–64 Lancashire Cup
Main article: 1963–64 Yorkshire Cup

Kangaroo tour

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Main article: 1963–64 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and France

The months from September until November also saw the appearance of the Australian team in England on their 1963–64 Kangaroo Tour. Other than the three test Ashes series against Great Britain (won 2–1 by Australia), The Kangaroos played 19 matches against Rugby Football League clubs and county representative sides.

References

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  1. ^ "1963-64 Season summary". Archived from the original on 2009-04-25. Retrieved 2009-10-24.
  2. ^ "1963-64 Season summary". Archived from the original on 2009-08-26. Retrieved 2009-08-08.
  3. ^ "RFL All Time Records". Archived from the original on 2009-04-03. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
  4. ^ "RFL Challenge Cup Roll of Honour". Archived from the original on 2009-04-03. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
  5. ^ a b Saxton, Irvin (ed.). History of Rugby League: No.69 1963–1964. League Publications.

Sources

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