1953–54 Northern Rugby Football League season

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1953–54 Northern Rugby Football League season
League Northern Rugby Football League
Champions File:Wolvescolours.svg Warrington
League Leaders Faxcolours.svg Halifax
Top point-scorer(s) File:Saintscolours.svg Peter Metcalfe 369
Top try-scorer(s) File:Wolvescolours.svg Brian Bevan 67
< 1952–53 Seasons 1954–55 >

The 1953–54 Rugby Football League season was the 59th season of rugby league football played in England. The championship, which involved thirty teams, started in August, 1953 and culminated in a finals play-off series in April, 1954 which resulted in a championship final between Warrington and Halifax. The season was also punctuated by the 1954 Rugby League World Cup, the first ever, and is also notable for its Challenge Cup final, which was drawn and had to be re-played, attracting a world record crowd for a rugby football match of either code.[1]

Season summary

The 1953-54 season saw Brian Bevan become the highest try scorer in rugby league history when he passed the 446 tries mark set by Alf Ellaby.

Warrington won the Lancashire League, and Halifax won the Yorkshire League. St.Helens beat Wigan 16–8 to win the Lancashire Cup, and Bradford Northern beat Hull 7–2 to win the Yorkshire Cup.

Championship

Ladder

Club P W D L PF PA D Pts
1 Halifax 36 30 2 4 538 219 +319 62
2 Warrington 36 30 1 5 663 311 352 61
3 St Helens 36 28 2 6 672 297 +375 58
4 Workington Town 36 29 0 7 604 333 +271 58
5 Hull 36 25 0 11 685 349 +336 50
6 Huddersfield 36 24 0 12 689 417 +272 48
7 Wigan 36 23 1 12 688 392 +296 47
8 Barrow 36 23 0 13 574 377 +197 46
9 Bradford Northern 36 22 0 14 628 414 +214 44
10 Leeds 36 22 0 14 766 517 +249 44
11 Wakefield Trinity 36 19 1 16 671 508 +163 39
12 Oldham 36 17 4 15 504 366 +138 38
13 Leigh 36 19 0 17 547 459 +88 38
14 Featherstone Rovers 36 18 2 16 478 431 +47 38
15 Hunslet 36 19 0 17 455 451 +4 38
16 Widnes 36 16 3 17 420 431 -11 35
17 York 36 17 0 19 412 401 +11 34
18 Keighley 36 15 3 18 473 533 -60 33
19 Rochdale Hornets 36 14 3 19 404 457 -53 31
20 Dewsbury 36 14 3 19 432 508 -76 31
21 Whitehaven 36 14 1 21 362 544 -182 29
22 Salford 36 13 2 21 370 438 -68 28
23 Swinton 36 13 1 22 341 513 -172 27
24 Batley 36 13 1 22 367 658 -291 27
25 Bramley 36 11 3 22 437 746 -309 25
26 Castleford 36 11 1 24 437 728 -291 23
27 Belle Vue Rangers 36 7 2 27 307 714 -407 16
28 Doncaster 36 5 2 29 340 840 -500 12
29 Hull Kingston Rovers 36 5 2 29 298 737 -439 12
30 Liverpool City 36 4 0 32 304 777 -473 8

Play-offs

Semi-finals

  • Halifax 18, Workington Town 7.
  • Warrington 11, St Helens 0.

Final

The Championship Final was played between Warrington and Halifax on 8 May (three days after the epic Challenge Cup re-play) at Maine Road before a crowd of 36,519. The match was televised by the BBC and it was a tremendous defensive effort that helped Warrington to a narrow 8-7 win, with Bath kicking 4 goals.

Challenge Cup

Halifax and Warrington, the teams that finished first and second respectively on the Championship ladder (separated by only one competition point), reached the Challenge Cup final in 1954. It was played at Wembley and 81,841 spectators saw what turned out to be a lacklustre match. After a couple of penalties, Halifax led 4-0 at half time, then in the second half Warrington drew level, also kicking two penalties. The final score was 4 - 4 and it remains the only time Wembley hasn't seen a single try on Cup Final day. The re-play was scheduled for 5pm the following Wednesday, 5 May at Odsal Stadium, Bradford.

Warrington Posit. Halifax
Eric Frodsham (c) 1. FB Tyssul Griffiths
Brian Bevan 2. WG Arthur Daniels
Jim Challinor 3. CE Tommy Lynch
Ron Ryder 4. CE Billy Mather
Stan McCormick 5. WG Dai Royston Bevan
Ray Price 6. SO Ken Dean
Gerry Helme 7. SH Stan Kielty
Danny Naughton 8. PR John Thorley
Frank Wright 9. HK Alvin Ackerley (c)
Gerard Lowe 10. PR Jack Wilkinson
Harry Bath 11. SR Albert Fearnley
Austin Heathwood 12. SR Derrick Schofield
Bob Ryan 13. LF Des Clarkson

Around 70,000 spectators were expected at Odsal for the replay which was re-scheduled for a 7pm kick-off to avoid the rush hour traffic. The twenty trains and fifty buses, specially scheduled for the match, as well as the 100 gatesmen and 150 policemen at the ground were therefore believed to be adequate. However the closeness with which the two teams were matched and the prospect of the Challenge Cup decider coming north for the first time in a decade seem to have generated immense interest.

People had started queuing a good hour before the shuttle buses started running from 4:25pm. The gates opened at 5.00pm, and by that time some people had already been queuing for an hour and a half. At an hour before kick off there were already an estimated 60,000 in the ground. The traffic on the roads in the surrounding area was at a standstill as more and more spectators converged on the stadium. Some squatted around the pitch, while others climbed onto rooftops for a better view. Fences around the ground had collapsed, as more people struggled to cram into the bowl of Odsal before kick-off. The official figure for the crowd at the match was 102,575,[2] easily the biggest number to see a rugby football match of either code. However it is widely believed that the real figure for spectators present is closer to 120,000.[3]

The match itself was another low-scoring struggle, but an improvement on the last one. Jim Challinor opened the scoring with a try for Warrington after nine minutes. Half an hour later, Tyssul Griffiths kicked a penalty for the Halifax side, who had also had two tries disallowed. This meant a half time score of 3 - 2 in favour of Warrington. The third quarter of the match saw additional goals kicked by both Griffiths and Harry Bath, bringing the score to 5 - 4, still just one point in favour of Warrington. Then Gerry Helme scored a try, which Bath couldn't convert, putting Warrington four points clear of Halifax, but still within a converted try. Controversy reared just before full-time, when Halifax had a third try disallowed by referee Ron Gelder. Warrington had claimed their 4th Challenge Cup, with Helme winning the Lance Todd Trophy for his match-winning performance, the first player to do so twice.

Sources

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