1952–53 Northern Rugby Football League season

1952–53 Rugby Football League season
LeagueNorthern Rugby Football League
Champions St. Helens
League Leaders St. Helens
Top point-scorer(s) Harry Bath 379
Top try-scorer(s) Brian Bevan 72

The 1952–53 Rugby Football League season was the 58th season of rugby league football.

Season summary

St. Helens won their second Rugby Football League Championship when they beat Halifax 24–14 in the play-off final. They also ended the regular season as league leaders.

The Challenge Cup Winners were Huddersfield who beat St. Helens 15–10 in the final.

Cardiff dropped out of the league.[1]

St. Helens won the Lancashire League, and Halifax won the Yorkshire League. Leigh beat St. Helens 22–5 to win the Lancashire County Cup, and Huddersfield beat Batley 18–8 to win the Yorkshire County Cup.

Championship

Team Pld W D L PF PA Pts
1 St. Helens 36 32 2 2 769 273 66
2 Halifax 36 29 2 5 620 309 60
3 Bradford Northern 36 28 0 8 700 329 56
4 Huddersfield 36 27 2 7 747 366 56
5 Barrow 36 27 1 8 585 322 55
6 Leeds 36 24 0 12 690 452 48
7 Leigh 36 23 2 11 556 377 48
8 Oldham 36 22 2 12 599 280 46
9 Warrington 36 20 1 15 733 486 41
10 Whitehaven 36 19 3 14 465 486 41
11 Wigan 36 19 2 15 673 414 40
12 Hunslet 36 20 0 16 485 358 40
13 Salford 36 20 0 16 508 441 40
14 Swinton 36 18 0 18 441 401 36
15 Hull 36 17 2 17 461 451 36
16 Workington Town 36 16 2 18 453 460 34
17 Keighley 36 16 1 19 465 547 33
18 Wakefield Trinity 36 16 0 20 410 595 32
19 Dewsbury 36 15 1 20 410 440 31
20 Castleford 36 15 0 21 392 502 30
21 Batley 36 14 2 20 405 579 30
22 Rochdale Hornets 36 13 3 20 443 536 29
23 Widnes 36 13 2 21 336 478 28
24 Featherstone Rovers 36 12 1 23 415 535 25
25 York 36 10 0 26 370 496 20
26 Doncaster 36 10 0 26 377 665 20
27 Belle Vue Rangers 36 10 0 26 301 705 20
28 Hull Kingston Rovers 36 9 1 26 337 646 19
29 Bramley 36 6 0 30 293 898 12
30 Liverpool City 36 4 0 32 225 837 8
  Play-offs

Play-off

Semi-finals Championship final
      
1 St. Helens 46
4 Huddersfield 0
St. Helens 24
Halifax 14
2 Halifax 18
3 Bradford Northern 16

Challenge Cup

Main article: 1952–53 Challenge Cup

A club record 69,429 people watch the Challenge Cup 3rd Round tie at Odsal between Bradford Northern and Huddersfield. Larger crowds had watched matches at Odsal, but this was the largest involving the home side.[2]

In the Final, Huddersfield beat St. Helens 15–10 at Wembley in front of a crowd of 89,588. This produced a record gate taking for a Challenge Cup final of £31,000.[3]

This was Huddersfield’s sixth Cup Final win in seven Final appearances, including one win during the Second World War.[4] Peter Ramsden, their stand-off half, became the youngest player to win the Lance Todd Trophy for man-of-the-match at 19.[5] the Huddersfield team also featured Australian Pat Devery and New Zealand's Peter Henderson.

References

  1. ^ "1952-53 Season summary". Retrieved 2009-08-08.
  2. ^ "Bradford Bulls History". Archived from the original on 2009-04-25. Retrieved 2009-10-24.
  3. ^ Goodman, Tom (27 April 1953). "St. Helen's hooted in R.L. Cup final". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  4. ^ Raymond Fletcher; David Howes (1995). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1995-1996. London: Headline Book Publishing. p. 191. ISBN 0-7472-7817-2.
  5. ^ news.bbc.co.uk (11 May 2004). "Cup final facts". BBC Sport. UK: BBC. Retrieved 6 March 2011.

Sources