1952–53 Lancashire Cup

1952–53 Lancashire Cup
1952–53 Lancashire Cup
Structure	Regional knockout championship
Teams	14
Winners	Leigh
Runners-up	St. Helens
	← 1951–52 1953–54 →

The 1952–53 Lancashire Cup was the fortieth occasion on which the Lancashire Cup competition was held.

Leigh won the trophy by beating St. Helens by the score of 22–5.
The match was played at Station Road, (historically in the county of Lancashire). The attendance was 34,785 and receipts were £5,793.

Background

Overall, the number of teams entering this year's competition remained the same as last year's total of 14
The same pre-war fixture format was retained. This season saw no bye but one "blank" or "dummy" fixture in the first round. There was also one bye but no "blank" fixture" in the second round.

As last season, all the first round matches of the competition will be played on the basis of two legged, home and away, ties – and the remainder of the rounds remaining on straight forward knock-out basis.

Competition and results

^[1]

Round 1 – first leg

Involved 7 matches (with no bye and one "blank" fixture) and 14 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team	Score	Away team	Venue	Att	Ref

1	Sat 30 Aug 1952	Barrow	21–24	St. Helens	Craven Park	12,000	^[2]
2	Sat 30 Aug 1952	Oldham	25–6	Swinton	Watersheddings
3	Sat 30 Aug 1952	Liverpool City	14–58	Workington Town	Mill Yard, Knotty Ash
4	Sat 30 Aug 1952	Rochdale Hornets	21–16	Belle Vue Rangers	Athletic Grounds
5	Sat 30 Aug 1952	Salford	17–19	Warrington	The Willows		^[3]
6	Sat 30 Aug 1952	Whitehaven	4–15	Leigh	Recreation Ground
7	Sat 30 Aug 1952	Widnes	15–24	Wigan	Naughton Park		^[4]^[5]
8		blank		blank

Round 1 – second leg

Involved 7 matches (with no bye and one "blank" fixture) and 14 clubs. These are the reverse fixture from the first leg

Game No	Fixture date	Home team	Score	Away team	Venue	agg	Att	Ref

1	Wed 03 Sep 1952	St. Helens	23–5	Barrow	Knowsley Road	47–26	19,000	^[2]
2	Wed 03 Sep 1952	Swinton	18–19	Oldham	Station Road	24–44
3	Mon 01 Sep 1952	Workington Town	29–18	Liverpool City	Borough Park	87–32
4	Mon 01 Sep 1952	Belle Vue Rangers	7–17	Rochdale Hornets	Belle Vue Stadium	23–38
5	Wed 03 Sep 1952	Warrington	30–8	Salford	Wilderspool	49–25		^[3]
6	Wed 03 Sep 1952	Leigh	43–2	Whitehaven	Kirkhall Lane	58–6
7	Wed 03 Sep 1952	Wigan	38–5	Widnes	Central Park	62–20		^[4]^[5]
8		blank		blank

Round 2 – quarterfinals

Involved 3 matches (with one bye) and 7 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team	Score	Away team	Venue	Att	Ref

1	Mon 22 Sep 1952	Leigh	19–8	Wigan	Kirkhall Lane		^[4]
2	Tue 23 Sep 1952	St. Helens	31–7	Rochdale Hornets	Knowsley Road	16,957	^[2]
3	Wed 24 Sep 1952	Workington Town	13–10	Oldham	Borough Park
4		Warrington		bye			^[3]

Round 3 – semifinals

Involved 2 matches and 4 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team	Score	Away team	Venue	Att	Ref

1	Mon 13 Oct 1952	Workington Town	9–13	Leigh	Borough Park
2	Tue 14 Oct 1952	Warrington	10–17	St. Helens	Wilderspool	28,800	^[2]^[3]

Final

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	agg	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref

	Saturday 29 November 1952	Leigh		22–5		St. Helens	Station Road		34,785	£5,793	1 2	^[2]^[6]

Teams and scorers

Leigh	№	St. Helens

	teams
Jimmy Ledgard	1	Jimmy Lowe
Brian Chadwick	2	Steve Llewellyn
Trevor Allan	3	Doug Greenall
Edward Kerwick	4	Don Gullick
Frank Kitchen	5	Stan McCormick
Ken Baxter	6	Jimmy Honey
Tommy Bradshaw	7	George Langfield
Harry Edden	8	Alan Prescott
Joe Egan	9	Reg Blakemore
Stan Owen	10	Bill Whittaker
Charlie Pawsey	11	George Parsons
Rex Mossop	12	Bill Bretherton
Peter Foster	13	Ray Cale
Joe Egan	coach

22	score	5
15	HT	2

	Scorers
	Tries
	T	Don Gullick (1)
	T
	T
	T
	Goals
	G	George Langfield (1)
	G
	Drop Goals
	DG
Referee

Scoring – Try = three (3) points – Goal = two (2) points – Drop goal = two (2) points

^[2]

The road to success

All the first round ties were played on a two leg (home and away) basis.
The first club named in each of the first round ties played the first leg at home.
The scores shown in the first round are the aggregate score over the two legs.

First round		Second round		Semifinals		Final

Liverpool City	32

Workington Town	87
		Workington Town	13

		Oldham	10
Oldham	44

Swinton	24
				Workington Town	9

				Leigh	13
Whitehaven	6

Leigh	58
		Leigh	19

		Wigan	8
Widnes	20

Wigan	62
						Leigh	22

						St. Helens	5
Salford	25

Warrington	45
		Warrington

		bye
blank

blank
				Warrington	10

				St. Helens	17
Barrow	26

St. Helens	47
		St. Helens	31

		Rochdale Hornets	7
Rochdale Hornets	38

Belle Vue Rangers	23

Notes and comments

1 * Attendance given in official St. Helens archives as 34,541 – data given in Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991^[6] as 34,785
2 * Station Road was the home ground of Swinton from 1929 to 1932 and at its peak was one of the finest rugby league grounds in the country and it boasted a capacity of 60,000. The actual record attendance was for the Challenge Cup semi-final on 7 April 1951 when 44,621 watched Wigan beat Warrington 3–2

References

^ "Rugby League Project".
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "Saints Heritage Society – History – Season 1896–97".
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Warrington Wolves – Results Archive – 1897". Archived from the original on 6 July 2010.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Wigan "Cherry and White" archived results".
^ ^a ^b "Widnes Vikings – History – Season In Review – 1896–97".
^ ^a ^b Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1991). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991-100. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617852 8.

External links

[RLP.orgMisc-1] "Rugby League Project".

[SaintsMisc-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "Saints Heritage Society – History – Season 1896–97".

[WiresMisc-3] "Warrington Wolves – Results Archive – 1897". Archived from the original on 6 July 2010.

[CherryMisc-4] "Wigan "Cherry and White" archived results".

[ChemicsMisc-5] "Widnes Vikings – History – Season In Review – 1896–97".

[Roth1991-92Misc-6] Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1991). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991-100. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617852 8.

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