1951–52 Northern Rugby Football League season

Rugby 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

← 1950–51

1952–53 →

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

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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 |

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|  |  |  | | |  |  |  |
| 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

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|

Tries: Ryan, Cunliffe, Silcock
Goals: Gee (2)
|  | Goals: Phillips (3)

Leeds Road, Huddersfield
Attendance: 48,684
Referee: C.F. Appleton (Warrington)

Wigan | Number  | Bradford Northern

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| 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
| 0 |
Jim Sullivan | Coach | Dai Rees

## Challenge Cup

[edit]

Main article: 1951–52 Challenge Cup

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]

Main article: 1951–52 Lancashire Cup

Main article: 1951–52 Yorkshire Cup

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]

Main article: 1951–52 European Rugby League Championship

This was the twelfth competition and was won for the fourth time by France on points difference.[5][6]

### Results

[edit]

19 September

England | 35–11|  Wales

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St. Helens

3 November

Other nationalities  | 17–14|  France

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Hull

25 November

France | 42–13|  England

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Marseilles

1 December

Other nationalities  | 22–11|  Wales

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Abertillery

6 April

France | 20–12|  Wales

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Bordeaux

23 April

England | 31–18|   Other nationalities

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Wigan

### Final standings

[edit]

Team | Played | Won | Drew | Lost | For | Against | Diff | Points

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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]

1. ^ "1951-52 Season summary". Archived from the original on 2009-08-26. Retrieved 2009-08-08.
2. ^ news.bbc.co.uk (11 May 2004). "Cup final facts". BBC Sport. UK: BBC. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
3. ^ AAP (London) (1952-04-21). "Australians star in Cup Final". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2023-12-27 – via Trove.
4. ^ "RFL Challenge Cup Roll of Honour". Archived from the original on 2009-04-03. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
5. ^ European Championship 1951-52 at rugbyleagueproject.org
6. ^ Raymond Fletcher; David Howes (1995). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1995-1996. London: Headline Book Publishing. p. 424\. ISBN 0-7472-7817-2.

## Sources

[edit]

* 1951-52 Rugby Football League season at wigan.rlfans.com
* The Challenge Cup at The Rugby Football League website

* v
* t
* e

Wigan squad – 1951–52 Championship Final winners

* 1 Martin Ryan
* 2 Jack Hilton
* 3 Jack Broome
* 4 George Roughley
* 5 Brian Nordgren
* 6 Jack Cunliffe
* 7 Johnny Alty

* 8 Ken Gee
* 9 Ronnie Mather
* 10 George Woosey
* 11 Nat Silcock Jr.
* 12 Jack Large
* 13 Harry Street

* Coach: Jim Sullivan

* v
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* e

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