1929–30 Northern Rugby Football League season

The 1929–30 Rugby Football League season was the 35th season of rugby league football.

1929–30 Northern Rugby Football League season
League	Championship
Teams	28
Champions	Huddersfield (5th title)
League Leaders	St. Helens
Runners-up	Leeds
Top point-scorer(s)	Joe Thompson (243)
Top try-scorer(s)	Alf Ellaby (39)
← 1928–29 1930–31 →

It is known for being the only season in league history to have all its games happen on cloudy days.

Season summary

Huddersfield won their fifth Championship, and their second in successive years, when they defeated Leeds 10–0 in the play–off final replay following a 2–2 draw.

St. Helens had finished the regular season as league leaders.

The Challenge Cup Winners were Widnes after beating St. Helens 10–3 in the final.^[1]

Championship

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PAv	PCT	Qualification
1	St Helens	40	27	1	12	549	295	1.861	68.75	Qualification for the Championship play-offs
2	Huddersfield	38	25	2	11	510	317	1.609	68.42
3	Salford	36	23	3	10	397	214	1.855	68.06
4	Leeds	40	25	2	13	672	302	2.225	65.00
5	Dewsbury	38	23	3	12	415	282	1.472	64.47
6	Hull Kingston Rovers	38	22	4	12	396	290	1.366	63.16
7	Wigan	38	23	1	14	590	303	1.947	61.84
8	Warrington	36	21	1	14	483	389	1.242	59.72
9	Hunslet F.C.	38	21	3	14	535	358	1.494	59.21
10	Oldham	38	20	4	14	393	306	1.284	57.89
11	Halifax	40	21	1	18	384	348	1.103	53.75
12	Hull	38	19	2	17	417	399	1.045	52.63
13	St Helens Recs	36	17	3	16	355	414	0.857	51.39
14	Swinton	36	17	2	17	332	220	1.509	50.00
15	Widnes	32	15	2	15	309	266	1.162	50.00
16	Wigan Highfield	32	16	0	16	257	266	0.966	50.00
17	Wakefield Trinity	40	19	1	20	399	428	0.932	48.75
18	Leigh	32	15	0	17	309	296	1.044	46.88
19	York	36	16	1	19	277	328	0.845	45.83
20	Keighley	36	14	2	20	244	427	0.571	41.67
21	Broughton Rangers	34	14	0	20	271	437	0.620	41.18
22	Rochdale Hornets	34	13	2	19	258	442	0.584	41.18
23	Featherstone Rovers	36	12	3	21	255	398	0.641	37.50
24	Bramley	36	10	5	21	199	399	0.499	34.72
25	Barrow	32	10	2	20	352	388	0.907	34.38
26	Castleford	36	10	2	24	230	535	0.430	30.56
27	Batley	36	7	2	27	221	543	0.407	22.22
28	Bradford Northern	38	7	2	29	299	718	0.416	21.05

Source: ^[2]

Championship play-off

	Semi-finals					Championship final
	1	St Helens	6
	4	Leeds	10
						Leeds		2	0
						Huddersfield		2	10
	2	Huddersfield	15
	3	Salford	10

Final

10 May 1930

Leeds	2 – 2	Huddersfield
Goals: Thompson	[3]	Goals: Stocks

Belle Vue, Wakefield Attendance: 32,095 Referee: A. E. Harding (Broughton)

Replay

12 May 1930

Huddersfield	10 – 0	Leeds
Tries: Parker, Spencer Goals: Stocks (2)	[4]

Thrum Hall, Halifax Attendance: 18,563 Referee: A. E. Harding (Broughton)

Huddersfield	Number	Leeds
	Teams
William Stocks	1	George Goldie
Ernie Mills	2	Stanley Smith
Len Bowkett	3	Tommy Askin
Gwyn Parker	4	Mel Rosser
Frank Royston	5	Frank O'Rourke
Stanley Spencer	6	Evan Williams
Ernie Thompson	7	Les Adams
John Rudd	8	Daniel Pascoe
Cyril Halliday	9	William Demaine
Sam Gee	10	Joe Thompson
Henry Tiffany	11	Arthur Thomas
Tom Banks	12	Dai Jenkins
Harold Young	13	Candy Evans

County leagues

St. Helens won the Lancashire League, and Huddersfield won the Yorkshire League.

Challenge Cup

Main article: 1929–30 Challenge Cup

Widnes beat St Helens 10–3 in the Challenge Cup Final at Wembley played before a crowd of 36,544.

This was Widnes' first Cup Final appearance and thus their first Cup Final win.^[5]

County cups

Main article: 1929–30 Lancashire Cup

Main article: 1929–30 Yorkshire Cup

Warrington beat Salford 15–2 to win the Lancashire Cup, and Hull Kingston Rovers beat Hunslet 13–7 to win the Yorkshire Cup.