Captain Morgan Trophy

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The Captain Morgan Trophy was a knock-out trophy introduced by the Rugby League for season 1973–74. It was scrapped after only one season.

Background

The Captain Morgan Trophy[1] was a knock-out trophy introduced by the Rugby League supposedly intended to fill an "Imaginary" void in the season's fixture list.
The competition was introduced for the season 1973–1974, but failed to catch the imagination of the public, or the clubs themselves and only took place for the one single season.
The competition was sponsored by the House of Seagram, makers at that time of Captain Morgan Rum. (Note – This product is now produced by Diageo plc.),

The Captain Morgan Trophy competition had slightly different qualification and draw rules, as follows :-
1) Qualification for the competition was open to:-
a) the eight winners of the first round of the Yorkshire County cup
b) The seven winners of the first round of the Lancashire county cup and because there were only fifteen teams in the Lancashire competition, the Lancashire team losing in the first round by the smallest margin.
c) The idea of this arrangement was to eliminate some of the "lesser" or "poorer" teams from the competition, thus reducing the number of games which are very one sided. This objective was somewhat defeated after teams like St. Helens, Hull F.C. and Hull Kingston Rovers failed to gain entry.
2) In addition to this, for the first round the draw kept the Yorkshire sides apart from those on the West of the Pennines (i.e. those in Lancashire and Cumberland)
3) The two sets of teams were all brought together for the subsequent rounds.

The first and only final was held at

Salford, on 26 January 1974. Warrington defeated Featherstone Rovers
4–0 in front of a disappointing crowd of only 5,269.
The "Man of the Match" award was won by Derek Whitehead.
The
Dave Chisnall, Kevin Ashcroft, Brian Brady, Bobby Wanbon, David Wright, Ian Mather, with substitutes Billy Pickup (not used) and Joe Price. (Alex Murphy
was injured)
The Featherstone Rovers team included Harold Box and John "Keith" Bridges.

Competition and results

Round 1

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue H-T Att Notes Ref
1 24-10-1973 Wakefield Trinity 24–5 Batley Belle Vue 8–0 2010
2 27-10-1973 Bradford Northern 6–14 Leeds Odsal 6–8 5028
3 28-10-1973 Featherstone Rovers 27–8 Keighley Post Office Rd 9–2 1948
4 28-10-1973 Swinton 18–7 Whitehaven Station Road 13–2 1298
5 28-10-1973 Workington Town 22–13 Rochdale Hornets Derwent Park 12–8 1135
6 31-10-1973 Wigan 4–12 Warrington Central Park 2–6 8577 1,2 [3][4]
7 06-11-1973 Salford 32–9 Widnes The Willows 20–4 1709 3,4 [5]
8 07-11-1973 Castleford 32–7 Huddersfield Wheldon Road 9–5 886

Round 2

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue H-T Att Notes Ref
1 17-11-1973 Leeds 32–21 Swinton Headingley 17–4 3416
2 18-11-1973 Warrington 15–7 Castleford Wilderspool 10–2 5246 5 [4]
3 18-11-1973 Workington Town 10–5 Salford Derwent Park 10–3 1703
4 25-11-1973 Featherstone Rovers 20–14 Wakefield Trinity Post Office Rd 12–7 4000

Round 3 – Semi Finals

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue H-T Att Notes Ref
1 08-12-1973 Leeds 13–20 Warrington Headingley 11–7 4053 6 [4]
2 09-12-1973 Featherstone Rovers 37–18 Workington Town Post Office Rd 12–5 3000

Round 4 – Final

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue H-T Att Notes Ref
1 26 January 1974 Warrington 4–0 Featherstone Rovers The Willows, Salford 4–0 5259 7 [4]

Notes and comments


1 – Wigan scorer – John Gray 2 goals
2 – Warrington scores – Derek Whitehead 5 goals; Alex Murphy 1 dg; a n other 1 dg [2]
3 – Widnes scorers – Barry Sheridan 1 try, Ray Dutton 3 goals
4 – Widnes entered the competition as the loser by the smallest margin in the Lancashire Cup first round (after losing away at Salford by 12 points to 11) [2]
5 – Warrington scores – Tommy Conroy, Brian Brady and Dave Cunliffe each scored a try, Derek Whitehead 3 goals [2]
6 – Warrington scores – Kevin Ashcroft and Parry Gordon each scored a try, Derek Whitehead 5 goals, Kevin Ashcroft and Alex Murphy each 1 dg [2]
7 – Warrington scores – Derek Whitehead 2 goals [2]
8 – Derek Whitehead was presented with an 80oz magnum bottle of Captain Morgan Rum as winner of the man of the match award.[2]

See also

References

  1. ^ Jack Winstanley & Malcolm Ryding (1974). John Player Yearbook 1974–75. Queen Anne Press.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "Wire2Wire – Wolfbites". Archived from the original on 2012-04-06. Retrieved 2011-10-30.
  3. ^ "Cherry and White".
  4. ^ a b c d "Warrington Wolves History". Archived from the original on 2012-04-25.
  5. ^ "Widnes Vikings Stat Attack".

External links

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