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1981–82 Lancashire Cup
1981–82 Lancashire Cup
Structure	Regional knockout championship
Teams	16
Winners	Leigh
Runners-up	Widnes
	← 1980–81 1982–83 →

The 1981–82 Lancashire Cup (known as the Forshaws Lancashire Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 69th staging of the rugby league knockout competition, the Lancashire Cup.

Leigh won the trophy with an 8–3 win against Widnes.

Background

This season saw the introduction of two new non-Lancashire clubs, Carlisle and Fulham, increasing the number of clubs in the competition from 14 to 16, meaning there was no longer a need for any teams to receive byes in the first round. In his column for the Manchester Evening News, Warrington player Ken Kelly was especially critical of the addition of London-based Fulham, arguing it makes a mockery of the competition.^[1]

Competition and results

First Round

Involved eight matches and 16 clubs. Carlisle's match against Wigan was the club's first ever competitive fixture.

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Att	Ref
1	14 August 1981	Oldham	7–17	Salford	Watersheddings	2915
2	16 August 1981	Barrow	15–7	Warrington	Craven Park	3197	^[2]
3	16 August 1981	Blackpool Borough	0–28	St Helens	Borough Park	2239	^[3]
4	16 August 1981	Carlisle	6–9	Wigan	Brunton Park	2779	^[4]
5	16 August 1981	Fulham	32–15	Swinton	Craven Cottage	3207
6	16 August 1981	Leigh	37–2	Whitehaven	Hilton Park	3915
7	16 August 1981	Rochdale Hornets	8–14	Widnes	Athletic Grounds	1054	^[5]
8	16 August 1981	Workington Town	35–2	Huyton	Derwent Park	1417

Second Round

Involved four matches and eight clubs.

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Att	Ref
1	23 August 1981	Leigh	32–17	Workington Town	Hilton Park	4283
2	23 August 1981	St. Helens	40–17	Barrow	Knowsley Road	4303	^[3]
3	23 August 1981	Salford	19–3	Fulham	The Willows	3462
4	23 August 1981	Wigan	11–26	Widnes	Central Park	6711	^[4]^[5]

Semi-finals

Involved two matches and four clubs.

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Att	Ref
1	2 September 1981	Leigh	20–6	St. Helens	Hilton Park	8196	^[3]
2	2 September 1981	Widnes	33–2	Salford	Naughton Park	5849	^[5]

Final

The final was played at Central Park, Wigan. The attendance was 9,011 and receipts were £14,029. This was Leigh's first Lancashire Cup since the 1970–71 season.^[6]

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Att	Ref
	26 September 1981	Leigh	8–3	Widnes	Central Park	9011	^[5]^[7]

Teams and scorers

^[5]^[7]

Leigh	№	Widnes
Mick Hogan	1	Mick Burke
Des Drummond	2	Mick George [1]
Terry Bilsbury	3	Eric Hughes
Steve Donlan	4	Eddie Cunningham
Graham Worgan	5	Keith Bentley
John Woods	6	Dave Moran [2]
Ken Green	7	Andy Gregory
Alf Wilkinson	8	Mike O'Neill
Ray Tabern	9	Keith Elwell
Tony Cooke	10	Brian Lockwood
Thomas Martyn	11	Les Gorley
Geoffrey Clarkson	12	Eric Prescott
Mick McTigue	13	Mick Adams
??	14
x Billy Platt (for Thomas Martyn)	15

8	score	3
5	HT	0

	Scorers
	Tries
Terry Bilsbury (1)	T	Keith Bentley (1)
	Goals
John Woods (2)	G
	Drop Goals
Steve Donlan (1)	DG
Referee		W H (Billy) Thompson (Huddersfield)
Man of the match		Ray Tabern - Leigh - Hooker
sponsored by		Burtonwood Brewery
Competition Sponsor		Forshaws (Burtonwood Brewery Co Ltd)

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

The road to success

First round		Second round		Semi-finals		Final

Leigh	37

Whitehaven	2
		Leigh	32

		Workington Town	17
Workington Town	35

Huyton	2
				Leigh	20

				St. Helens	6
Blackpool Borough	0

St. Helens	28
		St. Helens	40

		Barrow	17
Barrow	15

Warrington	7
						Leigh	8

						Widnes	3
Carlisle	6

Wigan	9
		Wigan	11

		Widnes	26
Rochdale Hornets	8

Widnes	14
				Widnes	33

				Salford	2
Oldham	7

Salford	17
		Salford	19

		Fulham	3
Fulham	32

Swinton	15