1964–65 Northern Rugby Football League season

The 1964–65 Rugby Football League season was the 70th season of rugby league football.

1964–65 Rugby Football League season
LeagueChampionship
Champions Halifax
League Leaders St. Helens
Top point-scorer(s) Len Killeen 360
Top try-scorer(s) Trevor Lake 40
Reformed Bradford Northern

Rule change

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  • Substitutes were introduced.[1] They were initially only for players injured in the time up to and including half time.

Season summary

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1964-65 saw the two divisions of rugby league merge back into one single league. The championship play-offs returned to decide the champions. A new top 16 play-off format was introduced rather than top four system used between 1905–06 and 1962–63. A Bottom 14 Championship was also introduced for the remaining clubs who finished below the top 16, although some clubs declined to take part.

St. Helens had finished the regular season as league leaders. Halifax won their third Championship when they beat St. Helens 15-7 in the play-off final. Terry Fogerty was awarded the Harry Sunderland Trophy as man-of-the-match.

Challenge Cup winners were Wigan who beat Hunslet 20-16 in the final.

Bradford Northern were resurrected and accepted back into the League.[2]

St. Helens won the Lancashire League, and Castleford won the Yorkshire League.

Championship

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Team Pld W D L Pts
1 St. Helens 34 28 0 6 56
2 Wigan 34 26 0 8 52
3 Castleford 34 25 1 8 51
4 Wakefield Trinity 34 24 2 8 50
5 Warrington 34 24 1 9 49
6 Workington Town 34 23 1 10 47
7 Halifax 34 22 1 10 47
8 Hull Kingston Rovers 34 22 0 12 44
9 Oldham 34 20 1 13 41
10 Leeds 34 20 0 14 40
11 Swinton 34 19 1 14 39
12 Leigh 34 19 1 14 39
13 Hull F.C. 34 19 0 15 38
14 Hunslet 34 19 0 15 38
15 Featherstone Rovers 34 18 0 16 36
16 Barrow 34 18 0 16 36
17 Bradford Northern 34 15 1 18 31
18 Huddersfield 34 15 0 19 30
19 Widnes 34 14 2 18 30
20 Whitehaven 34 14 1 19 29
21 Dewsbury 34 13 2 18 28
22 Salford 34 11 2 21 24
23 Liverpool City 34 10 2 22 22
24 Bramley 34 10 1 23 21
25 York 34 10 0 24 20
26 Batley 34 9 1 24 19
27 Keighley 34 9 0 25 18
28 Doncaster 34 9 0 25 18
29 Rochdale Hornets 34 7 1 26 15
30 Blackpool Borough 34 6 2 26 14

Play-offs

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Round 1 Round 2 Semi-final Championship final
            
St. Helens 23
Barrow 7
St. Helens 24
Hull Kingston Rovers 6
Hull Kingston Rovers 18
Oldham 14
St. Helens 10
Wakefield Trinity 5
Wakefield Trinity 15
Hull F.C. 9
Wakefield Trinity 17
Warrington 8
Warrington 10
Leigh 4
St. Helens 7
Halifax 15
Castleford 18
Hunslet 7
Castleford 11
Workington Town 3
Swinton 2
Workington Town 29
Castleford 18
Halifax 26
Featherstone Rovers 15
Wigan 8
Featherstone Rovers 6
Halifax 31
Halifax 28
Leeds 11

Final

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22 May 1965
Halifax 15 – 7 St Helens
Tries: Burnett (2), Jackson
Goals: James (3)
Tries: Killeen
Goals: Killeen (2)
Station Road, Swinton
Attendance: 20,776
Referee: D. S. Brown (Dewsbury)
Player of the Match: Terry Fogerty

Challenge Cup

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Captained by player-coach Eric Ashton,[3] Wigan beat Hunslet 20–16 in the final played at Wembley in front of a crowd of 89,016.

This was Wigan’s seventh Cup Final win in thirteen Final appearances.

To date, this was Hunslet’s last Challenge Cup Final appearance.[4]

County cups

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St Helens beat Swinton 12–4 to win the Lancashire Cup, and Wakefield Trinity beat Leeds 18–2 to win the Yorkshire Cup.

References

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  1. ^ de la Riviere, Richard, ed. (2009), "Top ten: Rugby league rules", Rugby League World, no. 340, Brighouse: League Publications (published August 2009), p. 61, ISSN 1466-0105
  2. ^ "1964-65 Season summary". Archived from the original on 2009-08-26. Retrieved 2009-08-08.
  3. ^ news.bbc.co.uk (27 February 2004). "Cup heroes: Eric Ashton". BBC Sport. UK: BBC. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
  4. ^ "RFL Challenge Cup Roll of Honour". Archived from the original on 2009-04-03. Retrieved 2009-08-07.

Sources

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