1961–62 Lancashire Cup

1961–62 was the forty-ninth occasion on which the Lancashire Cup completion had been held. St. Helens won the trophy by beating Swinton by the score of 25–9.

1961–62 Lancashire Cup
Structure	Regional knockout championship
Teams	14
Winners	St. Helens
Runners-up	Swinton
← 1960–61 1962–63 →

The match was played at Central Park, Wigan, (historically in the county of Lancashire). The attendance was 30,000, the last time the attendance at a Lancashire Cup final would reach 30,000, and receipts were £4,850.

This was the second of five consecutive Lancashire Cup final wins for St. Helens, and what is more, the second of the seven victories in a period of nine successive seasons.

It was also the second of Swinton’s three successive Lancashire Cup final runner-up positions.

Background

With again no invitation to a junior club this season, the total number of teams entering the competition remained the same at 14.

The same fixture format was retained, and due to the number of clubs this resulted in no bye but one “blank” or “dummy” fixture in the first round, and one bye in the second round

Competition and results

^[1]

Round 1

Involved 7 matches (with no bye but one “blank” fixture) and 14 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Saturday 2 September 1961	Barrow		3-10		Oldham	Craven Park
2	Saturday 2 September 1961	Liverpool City		14-16		Salford	Mill Yard, Knotty Ash
3	Saturday 2 September 1961	Rochdale Hornets		3-22		Blackpool Borough	Athletic Grounds
4	Saturday 2 September 1961	St. Helens		43-8		Leigh	Knowsley Road	21,800			[2]
5	Saturday 2 September 1961	Swinton		18-7		Warrington	Station Road				[3]
6	Saturday 2 September 1961	Widnes		54-2		Whitehaven	Naughton Park				[4]
7	Saturday 2 September 1961	Workington Town		18-30		Wigan	Derwent Park				[5]
8		blank				blank

Round 2 - quarterfinals

Involved 3 matches (with one bye) and 7 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Monday 18 September 1961	Salford		22-10		Blackpool Borough	The Willows
2	Thursday 21 September 1961	Widnes		9-5		Wigan	Naughton Park				[4][5]
3	Monday 2 October 1961	St. Helens		30-7		Oldham	Knowsley Road	18,500			[2]
4	.	Swinton				bye

Round 3 – semifinals

Involved 2 matches and 4 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Wednesday 4 October 1961	Swinton		10-5		Widnes	Station Road	13,250			[4]
2	Tuesday 10 October 1961	St. Helens		21-2		Salford	Knowsley Road	18,000			[2]

Final

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
	Saturday 11 November 1961	St. Helens		25-9		Swinton	Central Park	30,000	£4,850	1	[2][6]

Teams and scorers

^[2][7]

St. Helens	No.	Swinton
	teams
Austin Rhodes	1	Ken Gowers
Tom van Vollenhoven	2	Bernard McMahon
Ken Large	3	Malcolm Cummings
Brian McGinn	4	Bob Fleet
Mick Sullivan	5	John Speed
Wilf Smith	6	George Parkinson
Alex Murphy	7	Albert Cartwright
Fred Leyland	8	Arnold Thompson
Bob Dagnall	9	Trevor Roberts
Cliff Watson	10	Bill Bretherton
Ray French	11	Ken Roberts
Dick Huddart	12	Peter Norburn
Vince Karalius (c)	13	Albert Blan (c)
25	score	9
9	HT	4
	Scorers
	Tries
Austin Rhodes (1)	T	Bill Bretherton (1)
Tom van Vollenhoven (1)	T
Ken Large (1)	T
Mick Sullivan (1)	T
Alex Murphy (1)	T
	Goals
Austin Rhodes (5)	G	Albert Blan (3)
	G
	Drop Goals
	DG
Referee		R. Gelder (Wilmslow)

Scoring - Try = three (3) points - Goal = two (2) points - Drop goal = two (2) points

The road to success

	First round					Second round					Semifinals					Final
	St. Helens		43
	Leigh		8
						St. Helens		30
						Oldham		7
	Barrow		3
	Oldham		10
											St. Helens		21
											Salford		2
	Liverpool City		14
	Salford		16
						Salford		22
						Blackpool Borough		10
	Rochdale Hornets		3
	Blackpool Borough		22
																St. Helens		25
																Swinton		9
	Swinton		18
	Warrington		7
						Swinton
						bye
	blank
	blank
											Swinton		10
											Widnes		5
	Widnes		54
	Whitehaven		2
						Widnes		9
						Wigan		5
	Workington Town		18
	Wigan		30

Notes and comments

1 * Central Park was the home ground of Wigan with a final capacity of 18,000, although the record attendance was 47,747 for Wigan v St Helens 27 March 1959

See also

• 1961–62 Northern Rugby Football League season
• Rugby league county cups