In 1895/6, the first season of the Northern Union, each of the 22 clubs played each other
home and away making 42 fixtures.The fixtures
against the other 10 Lancashire clubs counted
towards the Lancashire Senior Competition.The first winners were Runcorn and Warrington
finished 6th.So many clubs
had joined the Northern Union that the second
season saw the introduction of two county leagues, which ran for 5 seasons.In 1901/2 fourteen clubs resigned from the
two county leagues to form the Northern Rugby League.The two division system lasted for four
seasons.During this period Warrington remained in the first division, however both
Leeds and St Helens had a season in the second
division.
In 1905/6 the clubs reverted back to one major league of 31 clubs and 1907/8 saw the
introduction of the Lancashire and Yorkshire
League trophies.Only league matches
against other clubs on the western side of the Pennines
were included in this competition within a competition.The county leagues remained until they were
withdrawn after the 1969/70 season.In
the intervening period Warrington won the Lancashire League eight times, six of those being during
the golden era of the late Forties to the mid-Fifties.
Bill Shankland was the first Warrington captain to lift the trophy when Warrington won the
Lancashire League in 1937/8.Warrington
only finished 5th in the Championship that season, behind both
Swinton and Barrow, however the Wire won the Lancashire League by virtue of suffering
only 6 of their 12 league defeats to Lancashire teams.
Warrington topped the Lancashire League in the
1947/8, 1948/9, 1950/1, 1953/4, 1954/5 and 1955/6 seasons.In the same nine years Warrington topped the league four times and
finished second twice.In 1948 Warrington defeated Oldham 45-3, with Brian Bevan scoring 5 tries to pip Wigan for the Lancashire title and so prevent them from winning all
four major trophies in a
season.The following season Warrington again finished a point above Wigan, when both
teams lost their final matches against Lancashire
opposition.
In 1951 Warrington
sent a weakened team to Swinton for the final league match and came away with
an improbable 20-14 victory to clinch the Lancashire League on points average
from WorkingtonTown.This match was to be Harold Palin’s final appearance for Warrington.In 1954 Warrington
won the Lancashire League over the four day Easter period with victories over Widnes, Whitehaven and Leigh and nine Bevan tries.In 1955 Warrington
finished top of both the League and the Lancashire League with Oldham finishing level on points in both leagues but with
an inferior points average.Both titles
were retained in 1956, Warrington
finishing 5 points clear in the Lancashire League.
Warrington’s final Lancashire League Trophy was in
the 1967/8 season.Warrington
finished one point above St Helens despite
losing both their league matches to the Knowsley Road outfit.A Jeff Bootle try and 2 goals saw the Wire to
the title with a 7-6 win at Leigh in the final league match of the season.
The Lancashire League competition was
withdrawn after the 1969/70 season.Warrington finished that
final year in 7th place with 14 wins and 2 draws from 28
matches.The final match in the
competition was a disappointing 6-9 defeat to Huyton at Wilderspool.Wingers Conrad Barton and John Heritage
scored tries in front of one of Wilderspool’s smallest ever crowds of 2,881.
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