1904–05 Northern Rugby Football Union season

The 1904–05 Northern Rugby Football Union season was the tenth season of rugby league football.

1904–05 Northern Rugby Football Union season
LeagueChampionship
TeamsFirst Division: 18
Second Division: 14
First Division
Champions Oldham (1st title)
Runners-up Bradford F.C.
Top point-scorer(s)England James Lomas Salford) (146)
Top try-scorer(s)James Dechan ( Bradford F.C.) (31)
Second Division
Champions Dewsbury
Resigned from the LeagueBirkenhead
Holbeck
South Shields
Lancaster

Season summary

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Oldham won their first Division One Championship whilst Warrington won the Challenge Cup.

Holbeck and South Shields dropped out, reducing the competition to 15 teams.[1]

Birkenhead resigned after 4 games, the results of which were struck out of the table. They lost all four games, conceding 93 points and scoring none.

On 4 March 1905, a record 11 tries were scored by George West (Hull Kingston Rovers) v Brookland Rovers in the Northern Union Challenge Cup. In this same match the record for most points in a match, 53 (11t, 10g) by George West (Hull Kingston Rovers) was recorded.[2]

There was no county league competition this season.

At the end of the season, all division one and division two clubs. except Lancaster, were elected to the new single top division, the NRFU Championship.

Notable events

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  • At the start of this season, the Northern Union changed its rules to allow clubs to have full-time players paid by the clubs, thus making it fully professional.[3]

Division One

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Team Pld W D L PF PA Pts
1 Oldham 34 25 1 8 291 158 51
2 Bradford 34 23 2 9 294 156 48
3 Broughton Rangers 34 22 2 10 295 175 46
4 Leeds 34 20 4 10 232 150 44
5 Warrington 34 20 2 12 220 150 42
6 Salford 34 19 2 13 276 204 40
7 Wigan 34 18 1 15 230 195 37
8 Hull 34 15 4 15 224 214 34
9 Hunslet 34 16 1 17 240 216 33
10 Halifax 34 15 2 17 204 155 32
11 Leigh 34 14 3 17 165 209 31
12 Hull Kingston Rovers 34 15 0 19 200 220 30
13 Swinton 34 13 2 19 155 196 28
14 Wakefield Trinity 34 13 2 19 154 211 28
15 Batley 34 12 3 19 160 228 27
16 Widnes 34 13 1 20 128 280 27
17 St. Helens 34 9 1 24 168 351 19
18 Runcorn 34 7 1 26 133 301 15

Division two

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Team Pld W D L PF PA Pts
1 Dewsbury 26 22 2 2 247 48 46
2 Barrow 26 22 0 4 286 68 44
3 York 26 18 3 5 205 76 39
4 Keighley 26 15 2 9 259 94 32
5 Huddersfield 26 14 2 10 231 143 30
6 Rochdale Hornets 26 11 4 11 154 145 26
7 Millom 26 12 0 14 139 173 24
8 Pontefract 26 10 1 15 156 175 21
9 Castleford 26 9 3 14 104 199 21
10 Normanton 26 9 1 16 105 228 19
11 Brighouse Rangers 26 8 1 17 111 169 17
12 Lancaster 26 8 1 17 106 257 17
13 Morecambe 26 7 2 17 88 272 16
14 Bramley 26 5 2 19 95 239 12

Challenge Cup

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Warrington beat Hull Kingston Rovers 6–0 in the final at Leeds before a crowd of 19,638 to win the Cup at their third attempt in a final.[2]

References

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  1. ^ "1904-05 Season summary". Archived from the original on 2009-08-26. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  2. ^ a b Raymond Fletcher; David Howes (1995). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1995-1996. London: Headline Book Publishing. p. 191. ISBN 0-7472-7817-2.
  3. ^ Michael Higgins; Clarissa Smith, John Storey (2010). The Cambridge Companion to Modern British Culture. Cambridge University Press. p. 225. ISBN 978-0-521-68346-3. Retrieved 2010-03-02.
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