1987–88 John Player Special Trophy

1987–88 John Player Special Trophy
1987–88 John Player Special Trophy
Structure	National knockout championship
Teams	36
Winners	St. Helens
Runners-up	Leeds
	← 1986–87 1988–89 →

This was the seventeenth season for the League Cup, known as the John Player Special Trophy for sponsorship purposes.

St. Helens won the final, beating Leeds by the score of 15-14. The match was played at Central Park, Wigan. The attendance was 16,669 and receipts were £62232.

Background

This season saw no changes in the entrants, no new members and no withdrawals, the number remaining at thirty-six
Blackpool Borough moved to Springfield Park in Wigan and renamed as Springfield Borough

Competition and results

^[1]^[2]

Preliminary round

^[3] Involved 4 matches and 8 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Att	Notes

1	Sat 31 Oct 1987	Heworth	5-32	Swinton	Clarence Street	1063	1
2	Sun 1 Nov 1987	Featherstone Rovers	34-16	Thatto Heath	Post Office Road	1045	2
3	Sun 1 Nov 1987	York	38-2	Bramley	Clarence Street	1174	3
4	Sun 8 Nov 1987	Oldham	36-8	Fulham	Watersheddings	3197

Round 1 - First Round

^[3] Involved 16 matches and 32 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Att	Notes	Ref

1	Fri 13 Nov 1987	Springfield Borough	14-2	Barrow	Springfield Park	629		^[4]
2	Sat 14 Nov 1987	Oldham	22-6	Bradford Northern	Watersheddings	4858
3	Sat 14 Nov 1987	St. Helens	12-10	Widnes	Knowsley Road	7322		^[5]^[6]
4	Sun 15 Nov 1987	Batley	18-16	Hunslet	Mount Pleasant	1117
5	Sun 15 Nov 1987	Carlisle	16-22	Warrington	Brunton Park	1055		^[7]
6	Sun 15 Nov 1987	Dewsbury	14-12	Doncaster	Crown Flatt	1081
7	Sun 15 Nov 1987	Featherstone Rovers	12-34	Castleford	Post Office Road	3376
8	Sun 15 Nov 1987	Keighley	6-32	Halifax	Thrum Hall	5236	4
9	Sun 15 Nov 1987	Hull F.C.	42-6	Workington Town	Boulevard	2447		^[8]
10	Sun 15 Nov 1987	Hull Kingston Rovers	30-12	Rochdale Hornets	Craven Park (1)	2308
11	Sun 15 Nov 1987	Leigh	28-12	Huddersfield Barracudas	Hilton Park	2082		^[9]
12	Sun 15 Nov 1987	Runcorn Highfield	4-6	Mansfield Marksman	Canal Street	514
13	Sun 15 Nov 1987	Swinton	12-18	Salford	Station Road	3459
14	Sun 15 Nov 1987	Wakefield Trinity	22-22	York	Belle Vue	1864		^[10]
15	Sun 15 Nov 1987	Whitehaven	14-18	Leeds	Recreation Ground	3663
16	Sun 15 Nov 1987	Wigan	34-8	Sheffield Eagles	Central Park	7484		^[2]

Round 1 - First Round Replays

Involved 1 match and 2 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref

1	Wed 18 Nov 1987	York		6-30		Wakefield Trinity	Clarence Street	1467			^[10]

Round 2 - Second Round

^[11] Involved 8 matches and 16 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Att	Ref

1	Sat 21 Nov 1987	Wigan	26-16	Castleford	Central Park	9613	^[2]
2	Sun 22 Nov 1987	Batley	0-44	Oldham	Mount Pleasant	2808
3	Sun 22 Nov 1987	Hull F.C.	19-7	Leigh	Boulevard	3982	^[8]
4	Sun 22 Nov 1987	Leeds	20-10	Halifax	Headingley	13498
5	Sun 22 Nov 1987	St. Helens	40-0	Mansfield Marksman	Knowsley Road	4966	^[6]
6	Sun 22 Nov 1987	Salford	14-5	Dewsbury	The Willows	2129
7	Sun 22 Nov 1987	Springfield Borough	14-8	Wakefield Trinity	Springfield Park	1265	^[4]^[10]
8	Sun 22 Nov 1987	Warrington	12-8	Hull Kingston Rovers	Wilderspool	4550	^[7]

Round 3 -Quarter Finals

^[12] Involved 4 matches with 8 clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Att	Ref

1	Sat 28 Nov 1987	Warrington	10-14	Oldham	Wilderspool	5152	^[7]
2	Sun 29 Nov 1987	St. Helens	20-16	Hull F.C.	Knowsley Road	7400	^[6]^[8]
3	Sun 29 Nov 1987	Salford	12-16	Wigan	The Willows	7986	^[2]
4	Sun 29 Nov 1987	Springfield Borough	12-22	Leeds	Springfield Park	3894	^[4]

Round 4 – Semi-Finals

^[13] Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Att	Ref

1	Sat 12 Dec 1987	Leeds	19-6	Wigan	Burnden Park	13538	^[2]
2	Sat 19 Dec 1987	St. Helens	18-8	Oldham	Knowsley Road	8136	^[6]

Final

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref

	Saturday 9 January 1988	St. Helens		15-14		Leeds	Central Park	16669	62232	5	^[6]^[13]^[14]^[15]

Teams and scorers

^[14]^[15]^[16]

St. Helens	№	Leeds

	teams
Phil Veivers	1	Marty Gurr
Dave Tanner	2	Steve Morris
Paul Loughlin	3	Garry Schofield
Mark Elia	4	Peter Jackson
Les Quirk	5	John Basnett
Shane Cooper	6	David Creasser
Neil Holding	7	Ray Ashton
Tony Burke	8	Peter Tunks
Paul Groves	9	Colin Maskill
Peter Souto	10	Kevin Rayne
Paul Forber	11	Roy Powell
Roy Haggerty	12	Paul Medley
Andy Platt	13	David Heron
David Large (for ?)	14	Carl Gibson (for John Basnett)
Stuart Evans (for Peter Souto)	15	xJohn Fairbank (for Kevin Rayne)
Alex Murphy	Coach	Maurice Bamford

15	score	14
9	HT	14

	Scorers
	Tries
Paul Loughlin (2)	T	Peter Jackson (1)
	T	David Creasser (1)
	Goals
Paul Loughlin (3)	G	David Creasser (3)
	Drop Goals
Neil Holding (1)	DG

Referee		G. Frederick "Fred" Lindop (Wakefield)
Man of the match		Paul Loughlin - St Helens - Centre
Competition Sponsor		John Player Special

Scoring - Try = four points - Goal = two points - Drop goal = one point

Prize money

As part of the sponsorship deal and funds, the prize money awarded to the competing teams for this season is as follows :-

Finish Position	Cash Prize	No. receiving prize	Total Cash

Winner	?	1	?
Runner-up	?	1	?
semi-finalist	?	2	?
loser in Rd 3	?	4	?
loser in Rd 2	?	8	?
Loser in Rd 1	?	16	?
Loser in Prelim Round	?	?	?

Grand Total

Note - the author is unable to trace the award amounts for this season. Can anyone help ?

The road to success

This tree excludes any preliminary round fixtures

First round		Second round		Third round		Semifinals		Final

St. Helens	12

Widnes	10
		St. Helens	40

		Mansfield Marksman	0
Runcorn Highfield	4

Mansfield Marksman	6
				St. Helens	20

				Hull F.C.	16
Hull F.C.	42

Workington Town	6
		Hull F.C.	19

		Leigh	7
Leigh	28

Huddersfield Barracudas	12
						St. Helens	18

						Oldham	8
Carlisle	16

Warrington	22
		Warrington	12

		Hull Kingston Rovers	8
Hull Kingston Rovers	30

Rochdale Hornets	12
				Warrington	10

				Oldham	14
Batley	18

Hunslet	16
		Batley	0

		Oldham	44
Oldham	22

Bradford Northern	6
								St. Helens	15

								Leeds	14
Springfield Borough	14

Barrow	2
		Springfield Borough	14

		Wakefield Trinity	8
Wakefield Trinity	22 (30)

York	22 (6)
				Springfield Borough	12

				Leeds	22
Whitehaven	14

Leeds	18
		Leeds	20

		Halifax	10
Keighley	6

Halifax	32
						Leeds	19

						Wigan	6
Swinton	12

Salford	18
		Salford	14

		Dewsbury	5
Dewsbury	14

Doncaster	12
				Salford	12

				Wigan	16
Wigan	34

Sheffield Eagles	8
		Wigan	26

		Castleford	16
Featherstone Rovers	12

Castleford	34

Notes and comments

1 * Heworth are a Junior (amateur) club from York^[17]
2 * Thatto Heath are a Junior (amateur) club from St Helens^[18]
3 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject^[1] give score as 38-2 but Wigan official archives^[2] gives it as 37-2
4 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject^[1] give Halifax at home but Wigan official archives^[2] gives Keighley at home but with a reference that the game was played at Thrum Hall, the home of Halifax
5 * Central Park was the home ground of Wigan with a final capacity of 18,000, although the record attendance was 47,747 for Wigan v St Helens 27 March 1959

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "Rugby League Project".
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g "Wigan "Cherry and White" archived results".
^ ^a ^b "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Rd 1 archived results".
^ ^a ^b ^c "Springfield Borough archives".
^ "Widnes Vikings - History - Season In Review - 1896-97".
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Saints Heritage Society - History - Season 1896-97".
^ ^a ^b ^c "Warrington Wolves - Results Archive - 1897". Archived from the original on 2014-02-02.
^ ^a ^b ^c "HULL&PROUD - Stats - Fixtures & Results".
^ "Huddersfield Rugby League Heritage" (PDF).
^ ^a ^b ^c "Wakefield until I die".
^ "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Rd 2 archived results".
^ "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Rd 3 archived results".
^ ^a ^b "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player S-F archived results".
^ ^a ^b Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1990). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1990-1991. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617851 X.
^ ^a ^b Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1991). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991-100. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617852 8.
^ "St Helens Heritage archived results".
^ "Heworth ARLFC". Archived from the original on 2013-08-27. Retrieved 2014-07-13.
^ "Thatto Heath". Archived from the original on 2014-07-14. Retrieved 2014-07-13.

External links

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

[CherryMisc-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g "Wigan "Cherry and White" archived results".

[CherryJP1Misc-3] "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Rd 1 archived results".

[SpringfieldBorMisc-4] "Springfield Borough archives".

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

[SaintsMisc-6] "Saints Heritage Society - History - Season 1896-97".

[WiresMisc-7] "Warrington Wolves - Results Archive - 1897". Archived from the original on 2014-02-02.

[HullMisc-8] "HULL&PROUD - Stats - Fixtures & Results".

[HuddHeritageMisc-9] "Huddersfield Rugby League Heritage" (PDF).

[WakefieldTIDMisc-10] "Wakefield until I die".

[CherryJP2Misc-11] "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Rd 2 archived results".

[CherryJP3Misc-12] "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Rd 3 archived results".

[CherryJPSFMisc-13] "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player S-F archived results".

[Roth1990-91Misc-14] Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1990). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1990-1991. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617851 X.

[Roth1991-92Misc-15] Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1991). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991-100. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617852 8.

[SaintsHeritageJPFMisc-16] "St Helens Heritage archived results".

[HeworthYorkMisc-17] "Heworth ARLFC". Archived from the original on 2013-08-27. Retrieved 2014-07-13.

[ThattoHMisc-18] "Thatto Heath". Archived from the original on 2014-07-14. Retrieved 2014-07-13.

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