1966–67 BBC2 Floodlit Trophy
The 1966–67 BBC2 Floodlit Trophy was the second occasion on which the BBC2 Floodlit Trophy competition had been held.
1966–67 BBC2 Floodlit Trophy | |
---|---|
Structure | Floodlit knockout championship |
Teams | 11 |
Winners | Castleford |
Runners-up | Swinton |
Castleford won the trophy by beating Swinton by the score of 7-2
The match was played at Wheldon Road , Castleford, now in West Yorkshire. The attendance was 8,986 and receipts were £1,692
This was to be the second of Castleford's three victories in successive seasons in the first three Floodlit competitions
Background
This season the original eight invitees were joined by Barrow, Rochdale Hornets and Salford bringing the total of entrants up to eleven, an increase of three.
This involved the introduction of a preliminary knock-out round on a two legged home and away basis, to reduce the numbers to eight, followed by a mini-league and with the semi-finals and final stages again being on a knock out basis.
Competition and results
Preliminary round – first leg
Involved 3 matches and 6 Clubs
Game No | Fixture Date | Home Team | Score | Away Team | Venue | Agg | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Mon 15 Aug 1966 | Leigh | 11-16 | Castleford | Hilton Park | |||||||
2 | Tue 6 Sep 1966 | Swinton | 21-5 | Rochdale Hornets | Station Road | 1 | ||||||
3 | Wed 7 Sep 1966 | Salford | 10-19 | St. Helens | The Willows | 5000 | 2 | [2] |
Preliminary round – second leg
Involved 3 matches and 6 Clubs
Game No | Fixture Date | Home Team | Score | Away Team | Venue | Agg | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Wed 7 Sep 1966 | Castleford | 39-18 | Leigh | Wheldon Road | 55-29 | 3 | |||||
2 | Wed 5 Oct 1966 | Rochdale Hornets | 14-14 | Swinton | Athletic Grounds | 19-35 | 4 | |||||
3 | Mon 26 Sep 1966 | St. Helens | 40-5 | Salford | Knowsley Road | 59-15 | 8500 | 5 | [2] |
Round 1 – first qualifying round
Involved 4 matches and 8 Clubs
Game No | Fixture Date | Home Team | Score | Away Team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Tue 4 Oct 1966 | Oldham | 7-10 | Barrow | Watersheddings | 6 | |||||
2 | Tue 11 Oct 1966 | Leeds | 11-11 | Castleford | Headingley | ||||||
3 | Tue 18 Oct 1966 | St. Helens | 11-9 | Swinton | Knowsley Road | 8500 | [2] | ||||
4 | Tue 25 Oct 1966 | Warrington | 4-14 | Widnes | Wilderspool | [3][4] |
Round 2 – second qualifying round
Involved 4 matches with the same 8 clubs - but NOT reverse fixtures
Game No | Fixture Date | Home Team | Score | Away Team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Tue 1 Nov 1966 | Barrow | 11-11 | St. Helens | Craven Park | 6657 | 7 | [2] | |||
2 | Tue 8 Nov 1966 | Castleford | 31-10 | Warrington | Wheldon Road | [4] | |||||
3 | Tue 22 Nov 1966 | Widnes | 11-14 | Oldham | Naughton Park | [3] | |||||
4 | Tue 29 Nov 1966 | Swinton | 10-4 | Leeds | Station Road |
Qualifying league table
Pos | Club | P | W | D | L | PF | PA | Pts | PD | Notes | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Castleford | 2 | 1 | 1 | 42 | 21 | 21 | 3 | |||
2 | Widnes | 2 | 1 | 1 | 25 | 18 | 7 | 2 | |||
3 | Swinton | 2 | 1 | 1 | 19 | 15 | 4 | 2 | |||
4 | Barrow | 2 | 1 | 1 | 21 | 18 | 3 | 3 | |||
5 | St. Helens | 2 | 1 | 1 | 22 | 20 | 2 | 3 | |||
6 | Oldham | 2 | 1 | 1 | 21 | 21 | 0 | 2 | |||
7 | Leeds | 2 | 1 | 1 | 15 | 21 | -6 | 1 | |||
8 | Warrington | 2 | 2 | 14 | 45 | -31 | 0 |
Pos = Finishing position P = Games played W = Wins D = Drqw L = Lose
PF = Points scored PA = Points against Pts = League points PD = Points scored difference
To progress to the next stage
The rules stated that the four clubs with the greatest total winning margins were to qualify, and proceed, to the semi-final.
The four clubs in this case were Castleford, Widnes, Swinton and Barrow
Round 3 – semi-finals
Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs
Game No | Fixture Date | Home Team | Score | Away Team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Tue 6 Dec 1966 | Castleford | 21-5 | Barrow | Wheldon Road | ||||||
2 | Tue 13 Dec 1966 | Widnes | 6-19 | Swinton | Naughton Park | [3] |
Final
Game No | Fixture Date | Home Team | Score | Away Team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tuesday 20 December 1966 | Castleford | 7-2 | Swinton | Wheldon Road | 8,986 | 1,692 | 8 | [5][6] |
Teams and scorers
Castleford | № | Swinton |
---|---|---|
teams | ||
Derek Edwards | 1 | Ken Gowers (Capt.) |
Keith Howe | 2 | Derek Whitehead |
Ian Stenton | 3 | John Gomersall |
Ron Willett | 4 | Alan Buckley |
Jack Austin | 5 | Reg Williams |
Alan "Chuck" Hardisty (capt.) | 6 | Bob Fleet |
Keith Hepworth | 7 | Graham Williams |
Denis Hartley | 8 | Ken Halliwell |
Clive Dickinson | 9 | Derek Clarke |
Harold McCartney | 10 | Bernard Scott |
Wiliam "Bill" Bryant | 11 | Graham Rees |
Peter Small | 12 | Malcolm Cummings |
John Walker | 13 | David Robinson |
Glyn Jones (unused) | 14 | William Davies |
Tony Miller (unused) | 15 | Barry Simpson |
George Clinton | Coach | Cliff Evans |
7 | score | 2 |
7 | HT | 2 |
Scorers | ||
Tries | ||
Jack Austin (1) | T | |
Goals | ||
Ron Willett (1) | G | Derek Whitehead (1) |
Keith Hepworth (1) | G | |
Referee | J Manley (Warrington) |
Scoring - Try = three (3) points - Goal = two (2) points - Drop goal = two (2) points
The play-offs
Semi-Finals | Final | ||||||||
2 | St. Helens | 9 | |||||||
3 | Swinton | 5 | |||||||
St. Helens | 0 | ||||||||
Castleford | 4 | ||||||||
1 | Widnes | 9 | |||||||
4 | Castleford | 12 |
Notes and comments
1 * Rochdale Hornets join the competition and play first game in the competition
2 * Salford join the competition and play first game in the competition, and first at home in the competition
3 * At the time this was the highest score, highest aggregate score and greatest winning margin, but to be broken three weeks later
4 * Rochdale Hornets play their first game at home in the competition
5 * At the time this was the highest score, highest aggregate score and greatest winning margin
6 * Barrow join the competition and play first game in the competition
7 * Barrow play their first game at home in the competition
8 * Wheldon Road is the home ground of Castleford. The first match was played there in 1927 and the current capacity in the region of 13,000 although the record attendance was 25,449 set in 1935 in a Challenge Cup match against Hunslet.
General information for those unfamiliar
The Rugby League BBC2 Floodlit Trophy was a knock-out competition sponsored by the BBC and between rugby league clubs, entrance to which was conditional upon the club having floodlights. Most matches were played on an evening, and those of which the second half was televised, were played on a Tuesday evening.
Despite the competition being named as 'Floodlit', many matches took place during the afternoons and not under floodlights, and several of the entrants, including Barrow and Bramley did not have adequate lighting. And, when in 1973, due to the world oil crisis, the government restricted the use of floodlights in sport, all the matches, including the Trophy final, had to be played in the afternoon rather than at night.
The Rugby League season always (until the onset of "Summer Rugby" in 1996) ran from around August-time through to around May-time and this competition always took place early in the season, in the Autumn, with the final taking place in December (The only exception to this was when disruption of the fixture list was caused by inclement weather)
See also
References
- "Rugby League Project".
- "Saints Heritage Society - History - Season 1896-97".
- "Widnes Vikings - History - Season In Review - 1896-97".
- "Warrington Wolves - Results Archive - 1897". Archived from the original on 6 July 2010.
- Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1991). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991-1992. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617852 8.
- Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1990). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1990-1991. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617851 X.