1976–77 League Cup (rugby league)

1976–77 League Cup

Structure

National knockout championship

Number of teams

Winners

Runners-up

< 1975–76	Seasons	1977–78 >

This was the sixth season for the League Cup, which was once again known as the Players No.6 Trophy because of its sponsorship.

Castleford won the final, beating Blackpool Borough by the score of 25-15. The match was played at The Willows, Salford. The attendance was 4,512 and receipts were £2,919.

Background

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.

Competition and Results

This season saw no changes in the entrants, no new members and no withdrawals, the number remaining at thirty-two. For the second season there were no drawn matches in the competition.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Round 1 - First Round^[4]

Involved 16 matches and 32 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Att	Notes	Ref

1	Sat 23 Oct 1976	Hull F.C.	18-5	Warrington	Boulevard			^[5]^[6]
2	Sat 23 Oct 1976	Leeds	34-10	Rochdale Hornets	Headingley
3	Sun 24 Oct 1976	Blackpool Borough	16-15	Barrow	Borough Park
4	Sun 24 Oct 1976	Bradford Northern	23-18	Huddersfield	Odsal
5	Sun 24 Oct 1976	Bramley	33-5	Dewsbury	McLaren Field
6	Sun 24 Oct 1976	Featherstone Rovers	43-13	Whitehaven	Post Office Road
7	Sun 24 Oct 1976	Ovenden	4-24	Halifax	Thrum Hall	3680	1, 2
8	Sun 24 Oct 1976	Hull KR	7-12	St Helens	Craven Park (1)	5984		^[7]
9	Sun 24 Oct 1976	Huyton	6-8	York	Alt Park, Huyton
10	Sun 24 Oct 1976	Leigh	29-7	Swinton	Hilton Park
11	Sun 24 Oct 1976	New Hunslet	10-24	Castleford	Elland Road Greyhound Stadium
12	Sun 24 Oct 1976	Oldham	17-9	Batley	Watersheddings
13	Sun 24 Oct 1976	Ace Caravans	15-39	Salford	The Willows	3037	3, 4, 5
14	Sun 24 Oct 1976	Wakefield Trinity	8-10	Widnes	Belle Vue			^[8]^[9]
15	Sun 24 Oct 1976	Wigan	33-0	Keighley	Central Park			^[3]
16	Sun 24 Oct 1976	Workington Town	45-15	Doncaster	Derwent Park

Round 2 - Second Round^[10]

Involved 8 matches and 16 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Att	Notes	Ref

1	Sat 6 Nov 1976	Leeds	18-17	Salford	Headingley
2	Sat 6 Nov 1976	St Helens	18-22	Castleford	Knowsley Road	2691		^[7]
3	Sun 7 Nov 1976	Blackpool Borough	7-3	Halifax	Borough Park
4	Sun 7 Nov 1976	Hull F.C.	19-5	Bradford Northern	Boulevard			^[5]
5	Sun 7 Nov 1976	Oldham	13-28	Leigh	Watersheddings		6
6	Sun 7 Nov 1976	Widnes	10-0	Featherstone Rovers	Naughton Park			^[9]
7	Sun 7 Nov 1976	Workington Town	17-13	Bramley	Derwent Park
8	Sun 7 Nov 1976	York	8-7	Wigan	Clarence Street	6503	7	^[3]

Round 3 -Quarter Finals^[10]

Involved 4 matches with 8 clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Ref

1	Sat 20 Dec 1976	Leeds	14-20	Castleford	Headingley
2	Sun 21 Dec 1976	Leigh	17-12	Hull F.C.	Hilton Park	^[5]
3	Sun 21 Dec 1976	Widnes	13-10	York	Naughton Park	^[9]
4	Sun 21 Dec 1976	Workington Town	5-11	Blackpool Borough	Derwent Park

Round 4 – Semi-Finals^[10]

Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Notes	Ref

1	Sat 27 Dec 1976	Castleford	15-10	Widnes	Wheldon Road	8	^[9]
2	Sat 11 Jan 1976	Blackpool Borough	15-5	Leigh	Borough Park	8

Final

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref

	Saturday 22 January 1977	Castleford		25-15		Blackpool Borough	The Willows	4512	2919	9	^[11]^[12]

Teams and Scorers^[11]^[12]

Castleford	№	Blackpool Borough

	teams
Geoffrey Wraith	1	D. Reynolds
Steve Fenton	2	D. Robinson
John Joyner	3	J. Heritage
Philip Johnson	4	P. Machen
Trevor Briggs	5	Phil Pitman
Bruce Burton	6	G. Marsh
Gary Stephens	7	J. Newall
Paul Kahn	8	James "Jimmy" Hamilton
Robert Spurr	9	Howard Allen
Alan Dickinson	10	J. Egan
Mal Reilly	11	Paul Gamble
Geoffrey "Sammy" Lloyd	12	K. Groves
Steve 'Knocker' Norton	13	Malcolm Pattinson
? Not used	14	C. Lamb (for Phil Pitman)
? Not used	15	P. Hurst (for K. Groves)
	Coach

25	score	15
	HT

	Scorers
	Tries
Geoffrey Wraith (1)	T	P. Machen (1)
John Joyner (1)	T	Howard Allen (1)
Philip Johnson (1)	T	J. Egan (1)
Bruce Burton (1)	T
Gary Stephens (1)	T
	Goals
Geoffrey "Sammy" Lloyd (5)	G	J. Egan (3)

Referee		Micheal "Mick" J. Naughton (Widnes)
Man of the match		Gary Stephens - Castleford - scrum-half/halfback
joint with		Howard Allen - Blackpool Borough - hooker
Competition Sponsor		Player's №6

Scoring - Try = three (3) 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	?

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


Leeds	34

Rochdale Hornets	10
		Leeds	18

		Salford	17
Ace Caravans	15

Salford	39
				Leeds	14

				Castleford	20
Hull KR	7

St Helens	12
		St Helens	18

		Castleford	22
New Hunslet	10

Castleford	24
						Castleford	15

						Widnes	10
Wakefield Trinity	8

Widnes	10
		Widnes	10

		Featherstone Rovers	0
Featherstone Rovers	43

Whitehaven	13
				Widnes	13

				York	10
Huyton	6

York	8
		York	8

		Wigan	7
Wigan	33

Keighley	0
								Castleford	25

								Blackpool Borough	15
Workington Town	45

Doncaster	15
		Workington Town	17

		Bramley	13
Bramley	22

Dewsbury	5
				Workington Town	5

				Blackpool Borough	11
Blackpool Borough	16

Barrow	15
		Blackpool Borough	7

		Halifax	3
Ovenden	4

Halifax	24
						Blackpool Borough	15

						Leigh	5
Oldham	17

Batley	9
		Oldham	13

		Leigh	28
Leigh	29

Swinton	7
				Leigh	17

				Hull F.C.	12
Hull F.C.	18

Warrington	5
		Hull F.C.	19

		Bradford Northern	5
Bradford Northern	23

Huddersfield	18

Notes

1 * Ovenden are a Junior (amateur) club from Halifax
2 * Ovenden were drawn at home but chose to give away home advantage
3 * Ace Caravans were a Junior (amateur) club from Hull
4 * Ace Caravans were drawn at home but chose to give away home advantage
5 * The Rothmans Yearbooks 1990-91^[11] and 1991-92^[12] gave the attendance as 3,037 but The News of the World/Empire News annual 1977-78^[2] gave it as 3,680
6 * The News of the World/Empire News annual 1977-78^[2] gives the score as 13-25 but other sources including RUGBYLEAGUEprojects,^[1] Wigan official archives^[3] give the score as 13-28
7 * Wigan's centre threequarter (No. 4) Bill Francis & York's second row (No. 11) Gary Hetherington were both sent off for fighting in the 78th Minute
8 * Wigan official website^[10] states incorrectly that the match date was Saturday 27 November
9 * The Willows was the home ground of Salford with a final capacity of 11,363 which included 2,500 seats. The record attendance was 26,470 on the 13 February 1937 in the Challenge Cup first round match vs Warr

References

1 2 "Rugby League Project".
1 2 3 Frank Butler and Patrick Collins (1977). News of the World Football Annual 1977-78 - 91st year. News of the World Ltd.
1 2 3 4 "Wigan "Cherry and White" archived results".
↑ "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player round 1 archived results".
1 2 3 "HULL&PROUD - Stats - Fixtures & Results".
↑ "Warrington Wolves - Results Archive - 1897".
1 2 "Saints Heritage Society - History - Season 1896-97".
↑ "Wakefield until I die".
1 2 3 4 "Widnes Vikings - History - Season In Review - 1896-97".
1 2 3 4 "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player round 2 onwards results".
1 2 3 Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1990). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1990-1991. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617851 X.
1 2 3 Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1991). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991-1992. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617852 8.

External links

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