French
Deutsch1951–52 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(s) |  Willie Horne 313 |
| Top try-scorer(s) |  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.
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.