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1986–87 John Player Special Trophy
1986–87 John Player Special Trophy
Structure	National knockout championship
Teams	36
Winners	Wigan
Runners-up	Warrington
	← 1985–86 1987–88 →

This was the sixteenth season of the rugby league League Cup, again known as the John Player Special Trophy for sponsorship purposes.

Wigan won the trophy, beating Warrington 18–4 in the final. The match was played at Burnden Park, Bolton, Greater Manchester. The attendance was 22,144 and receipts were £86041.

Background

This season saw no changes in the entrants, no new members and no withdrawals, the number remaining at thirty-six.

There were no drawn matches in this seasons tournament

Competition and results

^[1]^[2]

Preliminary round

^[3] Involved 4 matches and 8 clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Att	Notes	Ref

1	Wed 12 Nov 1986	Halifax	38-23	York	Thrum Hall	2962
2	Sat 15 Nov 1986	Millom	4-18	Wakefield Trinity	Coronation Field, Millom	2000	1	^[4]
3	Sun 16 Nov 1986	Batley	2-8	Myson (Hull)	Mount Pleasant	687	2
4	Sun 16 Nov 1986	Workington Town	16-6	Huddersfield Barracudas	Derwent Park	420		^[5]

Round 1 - First Round

^[3] Involved 16 matches and 32 clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Att	Notes	Ref

1	Sat 29 Nov 1986	Wigan	32-10	Leeds	Central Park	9112		^[2]
2	Sun 30 Nov 1986	Barrow	36-10	Runcorn Highfield	Craven Park	1771	3
3	Sun 30 Nov 1986	Blackpool Borough	42-12	Mansfield Marksman	Borough Park	376
4	Sun 30 Nov 1986	Doncaster	18-14	Hull Kingston Rovers	Bentley Road Stadium/Tattersfield	3084
5	Sun 30 Nov 1986	Featherstone Rovers	22-18	Workington Town	Post Office Road	1521
6	Sun 30 Nov 1986	Fulham	24-34	Castleford	Chiswick Poly Sports Grd	1374
7	Sun 30 Nov 1986	Halifax	36-22	Wakefield Trinity	Thrum Hall	4076		^[4]
8	Sun 30 Nov 1986	Leigh	32-10	Rochdale Hornets	Hilton Park	2754
9	Sun 30 Nov 1986	Myson (Hull)	11-18	Swinton	Craven Park (1)	1648	2
10	Sun 30 Nov 1986	Oldham	12-22	Bradford Northern	Watersheddings	5642
11	Sun 30 Nov 1986	Salford	12-27	Hull F.C.	The Willows	2100		^[6]
12	Sun 30 Nov 1986	Sheffield Eagles	14-6	Bramley	Owlerton Stadium	415
13	Sun 30 Nov 1986	Warrington	11-10	Hunslet	Wilderspool	3680		^[7]
14	Sun 30 Nov 1986	Whitehaven	8-10	St. Helens	Recreation Ground	3678		^[8]
15	Sun 30 Nov 1986	Widnes	82-0	Dewsbury	Naughton Park	2138	4	^[9]
16	Thu 04 Dec 1986	Carlisle	8-2	Keighley	Penrith FC	300

Round 2 - Second Round

^[10] Involved 8 matches and 16 clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Att	Notes	Ref

1	Sat 6 Dec 1986	Castleford	22-26	St. Helens	Wheldon Road	4808		^[8]
2	Sun 7 Dec 1986	Blackpool Borough	22-48	Hull F.C.	Borough Park	3723	5	^[6]
3	Sun 7 Dec 1986	Featherstone Rovers	12-19	Bradford Northern	Post Office Road	3907
4	Sun 7 Dec 1986	Leigh	26-14	Doncaster	Hilton Park	3363
5	Sun 7 Dec 1986	Sheffield Eagles	8-14	Barrow	Owlerton Stadium	513	6
6	Sun 7 Dec 1986	Warrington	44-10	Halifax	Wilderspool	5804		^[7]
7	Sun 7 Dec 1986	Wigan	20-14	Swinton	Central Park	9874		^[2]
8	Mon 8 Dec 1986	Widnes	36-6	Carlisle	Naughton Park	2016		^[9]

Round 3 -Quarter-finals

^[11] Involved 4 matches with 8 clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Att	Ref

1	Sat 13 Dec 1986	Bradford Northern	8-20	Hull F.C.	Odsal	3545	^[6]
2	Sun 14 Dec 1986	Barrow	6-16	Widnes	Craven Park	3199	^[9]
3	Sun 14 Dec 1986	St. Helens	20-22	Warrington	Knowsley Road	11571	^[7]^[8]
4	Sun 14 Dec 1986	Wigan	6-2	Leigh	Central Park	11573	^[2]

Round 4 – Semi-finals

^[12] Involved 2 matches and 4 clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Att	Ref

1	Sat 20 Dec 1986	Wigan	12-11	Hull F.C.	Headingley	5245	^[2]^[6]
2	Sat 27 Dec 1986	Warrington	35-4	Widnes	Central Park	6409	^[7]^[9]

Final

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref

	Saturday 10 January 1987	Wigan		18-4		Warrington	Burnden Park Bolton	22144	86041	7, 8	^[7]^[13]^[14]^[15]

Teams and scorers

^[14]^[15]^[16]

Wigan	No.	Warrington

	teams
Steve Hampson	1	Brian Johnson
David Stephenson	2	Kevin Meadows [1]
Joe Lydon	3	Paul Cullen
Dean Bell	4	Joe Ropati
Henderson Gill	5	Mark Forster
Ellery Hanley	6	Ken Kelly
Shaun Edwards	7	Steve Peters [2]
Graeme West	8	Les Boyd
Martin Dermott	9	Kevin Tamati
Brian Case	10	Bob Jackson
Ian Roberts	11	Gary Sanderson [3]
Ian Potter	12	Mark Roberts [4]
Andy Goodway	13	Mike Gregory
? Not used	14	Ronnie Duane (for Steve Peters 63-minutes)
? Not used	15	Alan Rathbone (for Kevin Tamati half-time)
Graham Lowe	Coach	Tony Barrow

18	score	4
4	HT	4

	Scorers
	Tries
Dean Bell (1)	T	Mark Forster (1)
Henderson Gill (2)	T
Andy Goodway (1)	T
	Goals
Henderson Gill (1)	G

Referee		John Holdsworth (Kippax)
Man of the match		Andy Goodway - Wigan - loose forward
Competition Sponsor		John Player Special

Scoring - Try = four 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 is as follows :-

Finish Position	Cash Prize	No. receiving prize	Total Cash

Winner	?	1	?
Runner-up	?	1	?
semi-finalist	?	2	?
loser in Rd 3	?	4	?
loser in Rd 2	?	8	?
Loser in Rd 1	?	16	?
Loser in Prelim Round	?	?	?

Grand Total

Note - the author is unable to trace the award amounts for this season. Can anyone help ?

The road to success

This tree excludes any preliminary round fixtures

First round		Second round		Third round		Semi-finals		Final

Wigan	32

Leeds	10
		Wigan	20

		Swinton	14
Myson (Hull)	11

Swinton	18
				Wigan	6

				Leigh	2
Leigh	32

Rochdale Hornets	10
		Leigh	26

		Doncaster	14
Doncaster	18

Hull Kingston Rovers	14
						Wigan	12

						Hull F.C.	11
Featherstone Rovers	22

Workington Town	18
		Featherstone Rovers	12

		Bradford Northern	19
Oldham	12

Bradford Northern	22
				Bradford Northern	8

				Hull F.C.	20
Blackpool Borough	42

Mansfield Marksman	12
		Blackpool Borough	22

		Hull F.C.	48
Salford	12

Hull F.C.	27
								Wigan	18

								Warrington	4
Fulham	24

Castleford	34
		Castleford	22

		St. Helens	26
Whitehaven	8

St. Helens	10
				St. Helens	20

				Warrington	22
Warrington	11

Hunslet	11
		Warrington	44

		Halifax	10
Halifax	36

Wakefield Trinity	22
						Warrington	35

						Widnes	4
Sheffield Eagles	14

Bramley	6
		Sheffield Eagles	8

		Barrow	14
Barrow	36

Runcorn Highfield	10
				Barrow	6

				Widnes	16
Widnes	62

Dewsbury	0
		Widnes	36

		Carlisle	6
Carlisle	8

Keighley	2

Notes and comments

1 * Millom are a Junior (amateur) club from Cumbria, current home ground is the Coronation Field ground.
2 * Myson are a Junior (amateur) club from Hull
3 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject^[1] gives score as 36-10 but Wigan official archives^[2] gives it as 3-10 (which must be incorrect as Barrow progressed to Round 1)
4 * The highest score, highest score by home team, and highest winning margin between professional clubs, to date
5 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject^[1] and Wigan official archives^[2] gives the venue as Borough Park, the home of Blackpool Borough but Hull F.C. official archives^[6] give the venue as Boulevard, home of Hull F.C.
6 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject^[1] gives the score as 8-14 but Wigan official archives^[2] gives it as 6-14
7 * The Rugby League Authorities were very unhappy with the television coverage of this final offered by the BBC. The broadcaster missed the first six minutes of the second half televising a horse race from Ireland. They also ignored the trophy presentation entirely and disrupted the pre match entertainment to interview Great Britain coach Malcolm Reilly, yet didn't show that interview anyway!
8 * Burnden Park was the home of English football club Bolton Wanderers from 1895 to 1997. It hosted the 1900-01 FA Cup final replay in which Tottenham Hotspur beat Sheffield United 3.1. The record attendance was for a 6th round F A Cup match with Stoke City (Stanley Matthews played for Stoke at the time) at which, although the ground capacity was set at 70,000, an estimated 85,000 fans crowded in, and when two crush barriers broke, the result was 33 fans killed and another 400 injured. The capacity at closure was a mere 25,000