Lancashire Cup
by Neil Dowson
The Lancashire Cup was introduced in the 1905/6 season, the year when two divisions was ended and 31 clubs reverted to one major league. There were 80 finals before the competition was withdrawn after the 1992/3 final. Warrington won the Lancashire Cup on nine occasions and were runners-up six times.
Warrington won their first Lancashire Cup tie with a 10-0 win over Rochdale Hornets at Wilderspool, on 14 October 1905. Bill Harmer and Danny Isherwood scored tries and Preston kicked 2 goals.
In the second year of the competition the Wirepullers reached the final, only to lose to Broughton Rangers 15-6 at Wigan, in front of a crowd of 14,048. George Dickenson and Ernie Brookes scored tries for Warrington.
The first Lancashire Cup final win for Warrington came in 1921/2, when Oldham were defeated 7-5 at Broughton. Bob Bradbury scored a try and Ben Jolley kicked 2 goals.
Warrington won the Cup again on their next three appearances in the final in 1929/30, 1932/3 and 1937/8. In the first Salford were beaten 15-2 at Wigan, Billy Kirk, Jesse Meredith and Tommy Blinkhorn scored tries and Billy Holding kicked 3 goals. Next St Helens were defeated 10-9, with tries from Dai Davies and Tommy Thompson and 2 goals from Holding. Finally there was an 8-4 win over Barrow, who pipped Warrington for a top four spot later that season. The points coming from the two Australians, Dave Brown, 2 tries and Bill Shankland a goal.
After the War Warrington lost their next two final appearances, both to Wigan, at Swinton, in 1948/9 (14-8) and in 1950/1 (28-5). The next Cup final win was the controversial 5-4 victory over St Helens at Wigan in 1959/60. Brian Bevan was carried shoulder high by the fans after he scored a late try, hotly disputed by Saints, to win the match for the Wire, Eric Fraser kicked a goal. Warrington won the trophy again in 1965/6 with a 16-5 win over Rochdale. Jackie Melling (2), Ray Fisher and Brian Glover scored the tries and Geoff Bootle landed 2 goals. Two year later they lost they replayed final 13-10 to St Helens. Willie Aspinall dropped a goal in the draw with Melling and Parry Gordon scoring tries and Bill Allen 2 goals in the replay.
Second division Wigan were defeated in the 1980/1 final 26-10. Tommy Martyn (a 60m charge down the touchline from a kick-off), John Bevan, Rick Thackray and Steve Hesford scored tries, Hesford kicked 7 goals and hooker Tony Waller won the man of the match award..
Two years later Warrington won the Cup again with a 16-0 win over St Helens. Paul Fellow, Mike Kelly, Bob Eccles and skipper Ken Kelly scored tries and Hesford kicked 2 goals and won the man of the match award despite missing 7 kicks at goal.
The 1985/6 and 1987/8 finals were both lost to Wigan, 34-8 and 28-16 respectively. Wilderspool Stadium was the venue for eleven Lancashire Cup finals. The largest attendance being 33,701 for the sell-out 1949/50 final when Wigan beat Leigh 20-7. The last final held at Wilderspool was in 1991/2 when St Helens beat Rochdale 24-14.
Warrington last appearance in a Lancashire Cup final was in 1989/90 when man of the match Bob Jackson inspired the Wire to a 24-16 win over Oldham. Jackson (2), Joe Ropati and Mark Forster crossed for tries and Robert “Rocky” Turner kicked 4 goals, to enable skipper Mike Gregory to lift the trophy.
Warrington’s finale in the Lancashire Cup came with a 1st round defeat at Watersheddings 33-20 to Oldham, on 13 September 1992. Kevin Ellis (2), Kelly Shelford and Rob Myler scored the tries and Turner kicked 2 goals. The RFL then dropped the competition from the rugby league calendar.
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