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. Wigan beat Leigh 14–6 to win the Lancashire Cup, and Wakefield Trinity beat Keighley 17–3 to win the Yorkshire Cup.

## 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 |

## 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.

## 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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