1949–50 Northern Rugby Football League season

1949–50 Rugby Football League season
1949–50 Rugby Football League season
League	Northern Rugby Football League
Champions	Wigan
League Leaders	Wigan
Top point-scorer(s)	Harold Palin 290
Top try-scorer(s)	Brian Nordgren 57
	← 1948–49 1950–51 →

The 1949–50 Rugby Football League season was the 55th season of rugby league football. First placed Wigan successfully defended a challenge from second placed Huddersfield in the play-off final to claim the Rugby Football League Championship. The Challenge Cup winners were Warrington who beat Widnes 19-0 in the final.^[1] Wigan won the Lancashire League, and Huddersfield won the Yorkshire League. Wigan beat Leigh 20–7 to win the Lancashire Cup, and Bradford beat Huddersfield 11–4 to win the Yorkshire Cup. Crowds peaked in 1949-50 with a record 69.8 million paying to watch rugby league matches.^[2]

Championship

This season the Rugby Football League Championship was determined by a final.

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	Pts
1	Wigan	36	31	1	4	63
2	Huddersfield	36	28	1	7	57
3	Swinton	36	25	4	7	54
4	Halifax	36	25	0	11	50
5	Salford	36	24	2	10	50
6	Leigh	36	24	1	11	49
7	St. Helens	36	23	2	11	48
8	Leeds	36	24	0	12	48
9	Dewsbury	36	23	0	13	46
10	Workington Town	36	22	1	13	45
11	Warrington	36	22	0	14	44
12	Castleford	36	20	0	16	40
13	Keighley	36	20	0	16	40
14	Wakefield Trinity	36	19	0	17	38
15	Hunslet	36	18	1	17	37
16	Widnes	36	16	4	16	36
17	Belle Vue Rangers	36	16	2	18	34
18	Oldham	36	15	4	17	34
19	Hull	36	15	3	18	33
20	Barrow	36	14	1	21	29
21	Bradford	36	14	1	21	29
22	Hull Kingston Rovers	36	14	1	21	29
23	Whitehaven	36	11	4	21	26
24	Batley	36	10	0	26	20
25	Featherstone Rovers	36	9	2	25	20
26	Bramley	36	6	1	29	13
27	Rochdale Hornets	36	5	2	29	12
28	York	36	6	0	30	12
29	Liverpool Stanley	36	4	0	32	8

Play-offs

The top four finishing teams entered a play-off series which culminated in a final between Wigan and Huddersfield, but not before Wigan had to re-play and defeat Halifax, with whom they drew in their first play-off match.

Semi-final / Replay				Championship final

1	Wigan	5	18

4	Halifax	5	2
				Wigan	20

				Huddersfield	2
2	Huddersfield		9

3	Swinton		0

Wigan were without eight of their regular starters for the final, as the players had been selected for the 1950 Great Britain Lions tour, and had already departed for Australia.^[3] Despite a weakened team, Wigan were able to win, claiming their seventh Rugby Football League Championship.

13 May 1950

Wigan	20 – 2	Huddersfield
Tries: Silcock, Broome, Nordgren, Blan Goals: Ward (4)		Goals: Bawden

Maine Road, Manchester
Attendance: 65,065
Referee: M. Coates (Pudsey)

Wigan	Number	Huddersfield
	Teams
Ted Ward	1	Johnny Hunter
Nat Silcock Jr.	2	Dick Cracknell
Jack Broome	3	Jeff Bawden
George Roughley	4	Pat Devery
Brian Nordgren	5	Lionel Cooper
Cecil Mountford	6	Russ Pepperell
Johnny Alty	7	Billy Banks
Ted Slevin	8	John Daly
Harold McIntyre	9	James Mundy
Frank Barton	10	Arthur Wilmot
Bill Hudson	11	Ken Morrison
Jack Large	12	Bob Nicholson
Billy Blan	13	Ike Owens
	0
Jim Sullivan	Coach	Alex Fiddes

Challenge Cup

Warrington beat Widnes 19-0 in the final played at Wembley in front of a crowd of 94,249. This was Warrington’s third Cup final win in nine Final appearances. In the match Albert Naughton, at centre for Warrington opposed his older brother Johnny, who was in the Widnes second row.^[4] This was the second successive Final that the losing side had failed to score.^[5] The Warrington scrum-half Gerry Helme won the Lance Todd Trophy for man-of-the-match.

County cups

First round		Second round		Semifinals		Final

Hull Kingston Rovers	10

Bramley	16
		Bramley	5

		Keighley	4
Keighley	60

Yorkshire Amateurs	10
				Bramley	6

				Bradford	8
York	22

Bradford	53
		Bradford	13

		Castleford	6
Castleford	25

Hull	21
						Bradford	11

						Huddersfield	4
Hunslet	7

Dewsbury	29
		Dewsbury	12

		Batley	5
Batley	17

Halifax	9
				Dewsbury	2

				Huddersfield	7
Huddersfield	29

Leeds	13
		Huddersfield	20

		Wakefield Trinity	12
Wakefield Trinity	31

Featherstone Rovers	14

References

^ "1949-50 Season summary". Retrieved 2009-08-08.
^ Jon Henderson (2007). Best of British: Hendo's sporting heroes. UK: Yellow Jersey Press. p. 85. ISBN 9780224082488.
^ "Wigan Will Need Eight Reserves For Final". Hull Daily Mail. 11 May 1950. p. 7 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^ news.bbc.co.uk (11 May 2004). "Cup final facts". BBC Sport. UK: BBC. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
^ "RFL All Time Records". Archived from the original on 2009-04-03. Retrieved 2009-08-07.

External links

[1] "1949-50 Season summary". Retrieved 2009-08-08.

[2] Jon Henderson (2007). Best of British: Hendo's sporting heroes. UK: Yellow Jersey Press. p. 85. ISBN 9780224082488.

[3] "Wigan Will Need Eight Reserves For Final". Hull Daily Mail. 11 May 1950. p. 7 – via British Newspaper Archive.

[4] ws.bbc.co.uk (11 May 2004). "Cup final facts". BBC Sport. UK: BBC. Retrieved 6 March 2011.

[5] "RFL All Time Records". Archived from the original on 2009-04-03. Retrieved 2009-08-07.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]