1979–80 John Player Trophy

This was the ninth season for the League Cup, known as the John Player Trophy for sponsorship reasons.

1979–80 John Player Trophy
Structure	National knockout championship
Teams	32
Winners	Bradford Northern
Runners-up	Widnes
← 1978–79 1980–81 →

Bradford Northern won the trophy, beating Widnes 6–0 in the final. The match was played at Headingley, Leeds, West Yorkshire. The attendance was 9,909 and receipts were £11560.

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 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.

The 1979–80 season saw no changes in the entrants, no new members and no withdrawals, the number remaining at eighteen. There were no drawn matches in the competition.

Competition and results

^[1][2]

Round 1 – First Round

^[3] Involved 16 matches and 32 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
	Fri 14 Sep 1979	Salford		47–5		Huddersfield	The Willows				[4]
	Sat 15 Sep 1979	Wakefield Trinity		25–18		Hull F.C.	Belle Vue				[5][6]
	Sun 16 Sep 1979	Barrow		13–18		St. Helens	Craven Park	4818			[7]
	Sun 16 Sep 1979	Batley		2–12		York	Mount Pleasant
	Sun 16 Sep 1979	Blackpool Borough		6–3		West Hull	Borough Park	555		1	[7]
	Sun 16 Sep 1979	Bramley		43–15		Whitehaven	McLaren Field
	Sun 16 Sep 1979	Castleford		15–12		Dewsbury	Wheldon Road
	Sun 16 Sep 1979	Doncaster		0–48		Bradford Northern	Bentley Road Stadium/Tattersfield
	Sun 16 Sep 1979	Featherstone Rovers		17–7		Halifax	Post Office Road
	Sun 16 Sep 1979	Warrington		25–9		Huyton	Wilderspool			2	[8]
	Sun 16 Sep 1979	Keighley		21–9		Rochdale Hornets	Lawkholme Lane
	Sun 16 Sep 1979	Leigh		16–0		Hull Kingston Rovers	Hilton Park
	Sun 16 Sep 1979	Oldham		7–31		Leeds	Watersheddings
	Sun 16 Sep 1979	Pilkington Recs		9–18		Wigan	Knowsley Road	6707		3, 4	[2][9][10]
	Sun 16 Sep 1979	Swinton		11-30		Workington Town	Station Road
	Sun 16 Sep 1979	Widnes		17-11		Hunslet	Naughton Park				[11]

Round 2 – Second Round

^[12] Involved 8 matches and 16 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
	Sat 29 Sep 1979	Castleford		24–10		Wigan	Wheldon Road			5	[2]
	Sun 30 Sep 1979	Keighley		9–15		Bradford Northern	Lawkholme Lane
	Sun 30 Sep 1979	Leeds		7–14		Leigh	Headingley
	Sun 30 Sep 1979	Salford		23–9		Bramley	The Willows
	Sun 30 Sep 1979	Wakefield Trinity		21–12		Featherstone Rovers	Belle Vue				[5]
	Sun 30 Sep 1979	Warrington		20–15		York	Wilderspool				[8]
	Sun 30 Sep 1979	Widnes		31–20		St. Helens	Naughton Park	9296			[7][11]
	Sun 30 Sep 1979	Workington Town		43–7		Blackpool Borough	Derwent Park

Round 3 -Quarter-finals

^[12] Involved 4 matches with 8 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
	Sat 20 Oct 1979	Warrington		6–14		Widnes	Wilderspool			6	[8][11]
	Sun 21 Oct 1979	Bradford Northern		25–11		Leigh	Odsal
	Sun 21 Oct 1979	Castleford		6–13		Salford	Wheldon Road
	Sun 21 Oct 1979	Wakefield Trinity		26–5		Workington Town	Belle Vue				[5]

Round 4 – Semi-finals

^[12] Involved 2 matches and 4 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
	Sat 3 Nov 1979	Widnes		19–3		Salford	Wilderspool	6567		7	[11]
	Sat 17 Nov 1979	Bradford Northern		16–3		Wakefield Trinity	Headingley	8233			[5]

Final

The final was originally scheduled to take place on 1 December 1979, but was postponed because of a BBC TV dispute.^[13] The game was rescheduled, but due to a frozen pitch at the original venue, Station Road, Swinton, the fixture was moved to Headingley in Leeds.^[14]

Fixture date	Home team	Score	Away team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
Saturday 5 January 1980	Bradford Northern	6–0	Widnes	Headingley	9909	11560	8	[9][10][11]

Teams and scorers

^[9][10][15]

Bradford Northern	No.	Widnes
	teams
Keith Mumby	1	David Eckersley
"Dave" Barends	2	Stuart Wright
David Redfearn	3	Mal Aspey
Derek Parker	4	Mick George
Les Gant	5	Mick Burke
Nigel Stephenson	6	Eric Hughes
Alan Redfearn	7	Reg Bowden
James "Jimmy" Thompson	8	Brian Hogan
"Keith" Bridges	9	Keith Elwell
Colin Forsyth	10	Glyndwr "Glyn" Shaw
Jeff Grayshon	11	Les Gorley
Gary Van Bellen	12	David Hull
Len Casey	13	Mick Adams
Steve Ferres (for Gary Van Bellen)	14	? Not used
Ian Van Bellen (for Colin Forsyth)	15	Jim Mills (for Brian Hogan)
	Coach
6	score	0
5	HT	0
	Scorers
	Tries
D. Parker (1)	T
	Goals
Keith Mumby (1)	G
	Drop Goals
Nigel Stephenson (1)	DG
Referee		William "Billy" H. Thompson (Huddersfield)
Man of the match		Len Casey – Bradford Northern – loose forward
Competition Sponsor		John Player

Scoring – Try = three points – Goal = two points – Drop goal = one point

Prize money

As part of the sponsorship deal and funds, the prize money awarded to the competing teams for this season was as follows:^[16]

Finish Position	Cash Prize	No. receiving prize	Total Cash
Winner	£8,500	1	£8,500
Runner-up	£4,000	1	£4,000
Semi-finalist	£2,000	2	£4,000
Loser in Rd 3	£1,000	4	£4,000
Loser in Rd 2	£800	8	£6,400
Loser in Rd 1	£600	16	£9,600
Grand Total			£36,500

The road to success

This tree excludes any preliminary round fixtures

	First round					Second round					Third round					Semi-finals					Final
	Keighley		21
	Rochdale Hornets		9
						Keighley		9
						Bradford Northern		15
	Doncaster		0
	Bradford Northern		48
											Bradford Northern		25
											Leigh		11
	Oldham		7
	Leeds		31
						Leeds		7
						Leigh		14
	Leigh		16
	Hull Kingston Rovers		0
																Bradford Northern		16
																Wakefield Trinity		3
	Wakefield Trinity		25
	Hull F.C.		18
						Wakefield Trinity		21
						Featherstone Rovers		12
	Featherstone Rovers		17
	Halifax		7
											Wakefield Trinity		26
											Workington Town		5
	Swinton		11
	Workington Town		30
						Workington Town		43
						Blackpool Borough		7
	Blackpool Borough		6
	West Hull		3
																					Bradford Northern		6
																					Widnes		0
	Warrington		25
	Huyton		9
						Warrington		21
						York		15
	Batley		2
	York		12
											Warrington		6
											Widnes		14
	Widnes		17
	Hunslet		11
						Widnes		31
						St. Helens		20
	Barrow		13
	St. Helens		18
																Widnes		19
																Salford		3
	Castleford		15
	Dewsbury		12
						Castleford		24
						Wigan		10
	Pilkington Recs		9
	Wigan		18
											Castleford		6
											Salford		13
	Salford		47
	Huddersfield		5
						Salford		23
						Bramley		9
	Bramley		43
	Whitehaven		15

Notes and comments

1 * West Hull are a Junior (amateur) club from Hull
2 * Warrington official website^[8] and Wigan official archives^[3] shows the match played at Wilderspool but RUGBYLEAGUEproject^[1] shows Huyton at home
3 * Pilkington Recs are a Junior (amateur) club from St Helens, home ground was City Road until they moved to Ruskin Drive from 2011–12
4 * Wigan official archives^[3] give the attendance as 6,500 but RUGBYLEAGUEproject^[1] gives it as 6,707
5 * Wigan official archives^[12] gives the score as 21–10, but RUGBYLEAGUEproject^[1] gives it as 24–10
6 * Warrington official website^[8] shows the match played on 2 October but RUGBYLEAGUEproject^[1] and Wigan official archives^[12] show it played on 20 October
7 * Wigan official archives^[12] show Salford at home, but RUGBYLEAGUEproject^[1] show Widnes at home
8 * Headingley, Leeds, is the home ground of Leeds RLFC with a capacity of 21,000. The record attendance was 40,175 for a league match between Leeds and Bradford Northern on 21 May 1947.

See also

• 1979–80 Northern Rugby Football League season
• 1979 Lancashire Cup
• 1979 Yorkshire Cup
• John Player Trophy
• Rugby league county cups