1965–66 Lancashire Cup

1965–66 was the fifty-third occasion on which the Lancashire Cup completion had been held.

1965–66 Lancashire Cup
Structure	Regional knockout championship
Teams	14
Winners	Warrington
Runners-up	Rochdale Hornets
← 1964–65 1966–67 →

Warrington won the trophy by beating Rochdale Hornets by the score of 16-5

The match was played at Knowsley Road, Eccleston, St Helens, Merseyside, (historically in the county of Lancashire). The attendance was 21,360 and receipts were £3,800

It would be almost another 20 years before the attendance would again exceed 20,000

Background

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	Fri 10 Sep 1965	St. Helens		7-8		Swinton	Knowsley Road	14,500			[2]
2	Sat 11 Sep 1965	Blackpool Borough		9-14		Rochdale Hornets	Borough Park
3	Sat 11 Sep 1965	Leigh		21-7		Liverpool City	Hilton Park
4	Sat 11 Sep 1965	Oldham		21-14		Barrow	Watersheddings
5	Sat 11 Sep 1965	Salford		14-5		Workington Town	The Willows
6	Sat 11 Sep 1965	Widnes		9-12		Warrington	Naughton Park				[3][4]
7	Sat 11 Sep 1965	Wigan		25-23		Whitehaven	Central Park				[5]
8		blank				blank

Round 2 - Quarter-finals

Involved 3 matches (with one bye) and 7 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Wed 15 Sep 1965	Rochdale Hornets		4-0		Swinton	Athletic Grounds
2	Wed 15 Sep 1965	Salford		5-8		Leigh	The Willows
3	Thu '16 Sep 1965	Oldham		28-13		Wigan	Watersheddings				[5]
4		Warrington				bye					[4]

Round 3 – Semi-finals

Involved 2 matches and 4 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Thu 23 Sep 1965	Rochdale Hornets		19-0		Leigh	Athletic Grounds
2	Wed 06 Oct 1965	Warrington		21-10		Oldham	Wilderspool				[4]

Final

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
	Friday 29 October 1965	Warrington		16-5		Rochdale Hornets	Knowsley Road	21,360	£3,800	1	[4][6]

Teams and scorers

Warrington	№	Rochdale Hornets
	Teams
Geoff Bootle	1	Roy Pritchard
Ray Fisher	2	Tony Pratt
Joe Pickavance	3	Graham Starkey
Jackie Melling	4	J Chamberlain
Brian Glover	5	Gerry Unsworth
Willie Aspinall	6	M Garforth
John Smith	7	Johnny Fishwick
Bill Payne	8	Peter Birchall
Geoff Oakes	9	Kevin Ashcroft
Charlie Winslade	10	Stan Owen
Geoff Robinson	11	Ken Parr
Mal Thomas	12	Apisai Toga
Bill Hayes	13	Mick Baxter
	14	Voate Drui (for Parr)
	15
16	score	5
10	HT	5
	Scorers
	Tries
Jackie Melling (2)	T	Graham Starkey
Brian Glover (1)	T
Ray Fisher (1)	T
	Goals
Geoff Bootle (2)	G	Graham Starkey (2)
	Drop Goals
	DG
Referee		Eric Clay (Rothwell)

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

^[4]

The road to success

	First round					Second round					Semi-finals					Final
	Widnes		9
	Warrington		12
						Warrington
						bye
	blank
	blank
											Warrington		21
											Oldham		10
	Oldham		21
	Barrow		14
						Oldham		28
						Wigan		13
	Wigan		25
	Whitehaven		23
																Warrington		16
																Rochdale Hornets		5
	Blackpool Borough		9
	Rochdale Hornets		14
						Rochdale Hornets		4
						Swinton		0
	St. Helens		7
	Swinton		8
											Rochdale Hornets		19
											Leigh		0
	Salford		14
	Workington Town		5
						Salford		5
						Leigh		8
	Leigh		21
	Liverpool City		7

Notes and comments

1 * Knowsley Road was the home ground of St. Helens from 1890 to 2010. The final capacity was in the region of 18,000, although the actual record attendance was 35,695, set on 26 December 1949, for a league game between St Helens and Wigan

See also

• 1965–66 Northern Rugby Football League season
• Rugby league county cups