1925–26 Lancashire Cup
The 1925–26 Lancashire Cup was the eighteenth tournament in the history of this regional rugby league competition, and another new name was added to the trophy. This time it was the turn of Swinton, one of the founding members of the Northern Union, whose previous best had been as runners up to Oldham in 1910.
| 1925–26 Lancashire Cup | |
|---|---|
| Structure | Regional knockout competition |
| Teams | 13 |
| Winners | Swinton |
| Runners-up | Wigan |
Background
The number of teams entering this year's competition remained at 13 which resulted in 3 byes in the first round.
Competition and results
Round 1
Involved 5 matches (with three byes) and 13 clubs
| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sat 10 October 1925 | Leigh | 10-7 | Rochdale Hornets | Mather Lane | ||||||
| 2 | Sat 10 October 1925 | Oldham | 14-9 | St. Helens | Watersheddings | [2] | |||||
| 3 | Sat 10 October 1925 | Wigan Highfield | 6-7 | Salford | Tunstall Lane | ||||||
| 4 | Sat 10 October 1925 | Barrow | 8-0 | Widnes | Little Park, Roose | [3] | |||||
| 5 | Sat 10 October 1925 | Wigan | 14-10 | Warrington | Central Park | [4][5] | |||||
| 6 | Broughton Rangers | bye | |||||||||
| 7 | St Helens Recs | bye | |||||||||
| 8 | Swinton | bye |
Round 2 – quarterfinals
| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mon 19 October 1925 | Oldham | 8-5 | Salford | Watersheddings | ||||||
| 2 | Wed 21 October 1925 | Wigan | 31-8 | Broughton Rangers | Central Park | [4] | |||||
| 3 | Thu 22 October 1925 | Barrow | 8-6 | Leigh | Little Park, Roose | ||||||
| 4 | Thu 22 October 1925 | St Helens Recs | 7-8 | Swinton | City Road |
Round 3 – semifinals
| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mon 2 November 1925 | Oldham | 5-5 | Wigan | Watersheddings | [4] | |||||
| 2 | Wed 4 November 1925 | Swinton | 22-3 | Barrow | Chorley Road ground | 8,000 | |||||
| Replay | |||||||||||
| 3 | Wed 11 November 1925 | Wigan | 52-3 | Oldham | Central Park | [4] | |||||
Final
The final was due to be played on Saturday, 21 November 1925 but was postponed due to bad weather, in this case fog. The weather during that short period was atrocious and in fact Wigan had 5 matches postponed due to either a waterlogged pitch, a frozen pitch, fog or other bad weather in the four-week period from early November to early December. The final was eventually played on Wednesday 9 December 1925 and Swinton beat Wigan by 15–11. The match was played at the Cliff, Broughton, Salford. The attendance was 15,000 and receipts £1,116.
| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday 21 November 1925 | Swinton | post | Wigan | The Cliff | 1 | [4] | |||||
| Wednesday 9 December 1925 | Swinton | 15-11 | Wigan | The Cliff | 17,000 | £1,115 | 2 | [4][6] |
Teams and scorers
| Swinton | No. | Wigan[4] |
|---|---|---|
| teams | ||
| Jack Pearson | 1 | Jim Sullivan |
| Frank Evans | 2 | Johnny Ring |
| Hector Halsall (c) | 3 | Tommy Howley |
| Jack Evans | 4 | David Booysen |
| Chris Brockbank | 5 | Attie van Heerden |
| Billo Rees | 6 | George Owens |
| Bryn Evans | 7 | Danny Hurcombe |
| Miller Strong | 8 | Wilf Hodder |
| Henry Blewer | 9 | Jack Bennett |
| Bert Morris | 10 | Bob Ilsley |
| Tom Halliwell | 11 | George van Rooyen |
| Harry Entwistle | 12 | Frank Stephens |
| Fred Beswick | 13 | Jack Price |
| 15 | score | 11 |
| 5 | HT | 0 |
| Scorers | ||
| Tries | ||
| Chris Brockbank (1) | T | Johnny Ring (3) |
| Jack Evans (1) | T | |
| Bryn Evans (1) | T | |
| Goals | ||
| Bert Morris (3) | G | Jim Sullivan (1) |
| G | ||
| Drop Goals | ||
| DG | ||
| Referee | ||
Scoring - Try = three (3) points - Goal = two (2) points - Drop goal = two (2) points
The road to success
| First round | Second round | Semifinals | Final | ||||||||||||||||
| St Helens Recs | |||||||||||||||||||
| bye | |||||||||||||||||||
| St Helens Recs | 7 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Swinton | 8 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Swinton | |||||||||||||||||||
| bye | |||||||||||||||||||
| Swinton | 22 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Barrow | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Widnes | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Barrow | 8 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Barrow | 8 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Leigh | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Leigh | 10 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Rochdale Hornets | 7 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Swinton | 15 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Wigan | 11 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Wigan | 14 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Warrington | 10 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Wigan | 31 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Broughton Rangers | 8 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Broughton Rangers | |||||||||||||||||||
| bye | |||||||||||||||||||
| Oldham | 5(52) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Wigan | 5(3) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Oldham | 14 | ||||||||||||||||||
| St. Helens | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Oldham | 8 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Salford | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Wigan Highfield | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Salford | 7 | ||||||||||||||||||
Notes
- 1 Match postponed due to fog
- 2 The Cliff was the home ground of Broughton Rangers from 1913 and until they moved out to Belle Vue in 1933.
References
- "Rugby League Project".
- "Saints Heritage Society - History - Season 1925–26".
- "Widnes Vikings - History - Season In Review - 1925–26".
- "Wigan "Cherry and White" archived results".
- "Warrington Wolves - Results Archive - 1925".
- Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1991). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991-1992. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617852 8.