1979–80 Lancashire Cup

1979–80 was the sixty-seventh occasion on which the Lancashire Cup completion had been held.

1979–80 Lancashire Cup
Structure	Regional knockout championship
Teams	14
Winners	Widnes
Runners-up	Workington Town
← 1978–79 1980–81 →

Widnes won the trophy by beating Workington Town by the score of 11-0

The match was played at The Willows, Salford, (historically in the county of Lancashire). The attendance was 6887 and receipts were £7100.00

After relatively little success in the competition, Workington Town had reached the semi-final stage in 1973–74, 1974–75 and 1975–76, had been runner-up in 1976–77, winner in 1977–78, and runners-up in 1978–79 and now again in 1979–80; not a bad eight year record.

Background

The total number of teams entering the competition remained at last season’s total of 14 with no junior/amateur clubs taking part.

The same fixture format was retained, but due to the number of participating clubs, this resulted in one “blank” or “dummy” fixture in the first round, and one bye in the second round.

Competition and results

^[1][2]

Round 1

Involved 7 matches (with one “blank” fixture) and 14 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Sun 19 Aug 1979	Barrow		44-11		Huyton	Craven Park
2	Sun 19 Aug 1979	Blackpool Borough		20-9		Whitehaven	Borough Park
3	Sun 19 Aug 1979	Leigh		20-3		Rochdale Hornets	Hilton Park
4	Sun 19 Aug 1979	St. Helens		16-28		Widnes	Knowsley Road	8350			^[3]^[4]
5	Sun 19 Aug 1979	Swinton		15-22		Oldham	Station Road
6	Sun 19 Aug 1979	Warrington		17-14		Wigan	Wilderspool	5038			^[5]^[6]
7	Sun 19 Aug 1979	Workington Town		14-8		Salford	Derwent Park
8		blank				blank

Round 2 - Quarter-finals

Involved 3 matches (with one bye) and 7 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Sun 26 Aug 1979	Barrow		50-8		Blackpool Borough	Craven Park
2	Sun 26 Aug 1979	Oldham		6-34		Warrington	Watersheddings				^[6]
3	Sun 26 Aug 1979	Widnes		33-3		Leigh	Naughton Park				^[3]
4		Workington Town				bye

Round 3 – Semi-finals

Involved 2 matches and 4 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Wed 26 Sep 1979	Barrow		4-6		Workington Town	Craven Park
2	Wed 24 Oct 1979	Warrington		2-13		Widnes	Wilderspool				^[3]^[6]^[7]

Final

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
	Saturday 8 December 1979	Widnes		11-0		Workington Town	The Willows	6,887	7,100	1	^[3]^[8]

Teams and scorers

^[3][8]

Widnes	№	Workington Town
	teams
David Eckersley	1	Paul Charlton
Stuart Wright	2	Iain McCorquodale[2]
Mal Aspey	3	Kevin Maughan
Eric Hughes	4	Ian Thompson
Mick Burke	5	David Beck
David Moran[4]	6	Ian Rudd
Reg Bowden[5]	7	Arnold "Boxer" Walker
Brian Hogan	8	Harry Beverley
Keith Elwell	9	Alan Banks
Glyn Shaw	10	Gary Wallbanks
Les Gorley	11	Bill Pattinson
Alan Dearden[6]	12	Ray Lewis
Mick Adams	13	John Dobie
Mick George[7] (for Eric Hughes)	14	Tony Roper (for Arnold Walker)
David Hull (unused)	15	Alan Varty (for Gary Wallbanks)
11	score	0
10	HT	0
	Scorers
	Tries
David Moran (1)	T
Mick Adams (1)	T
	Goals
Mick Burke (2)	G
	Drop Goals
Keith Elwell (1)	DG
Referee		W H (Billy) Thompson (Huddersfield)
Man of the match		Mick Adams - Widnes - loose forward
sponsored by		Burtonwood Brewery
Competition Sponsor		Forshaws (Burtonwood Brewery Co Ltd)

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

The road to success

	First round					Second round					Semi-finals					Final
	Swinton		15
	Oldham		22
						Oldham		6
						Warrington		34
	Warrington		17
	Wigan		14
											Warrington		2
											Widnes		13
	St. Helens		16
	Widnes		28
						Widnes		33
						Leigh		3
	Leigh		20
	Rochdale Hornets		3
																Widnes		11
																Workington Town		0
	Barrow		44
	Huyton		11
						Barrow		50
						Blackpool Borough		8
	Blackpool Borough		20
	Whitehaven		9
											Barrow		4
											Workington Town		6
	Workington Town		14
	Salford		8
						Workington Town
						bye
	blank
	blank

Notes and comments

1 * The Willows was the home ground of Salford with a final capacity of 11,363 which included 2,500 seats. The record attendance was 26,470 on the 13 February 1937 in the Challenge Cup first round match vs Warrington. The final match played on 11 September 2011 at The Willows attracted 10,146 spectators to a Super League match which saw Salford lose 18-44 to Catalans Dragons, a record for a Salford home match in Super League.^[9]

See also

• 1979–80 Northern Rugby Football League season
• Rugby league county cups

References

1. "Rugby League Project".
2. Jack Winstanley & Malcolm Ryding (1991). John Player Yearbook 1975–76. Queen Anne Press.
3. "Widnes Vikings - History - Season In Review - 1896-97".
4. "Saints Heritage Society - History - Season 1896-97".
5. . Archived from the original on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 16 February 2014.
6. . Archived from the original on 2 February 2014.
7. Club Programme dept. Match Programme. Warrington RLFC.
8. Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1991). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991-100. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617852 8.
9. "BBC Salford v Catalan (sic) Dragons Sept 2011".

External links

• Saints Heritage Society
• 1896–97 Northern Rugby Football Union season at wigan.rlfans.com 2 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine
• Widnes Vikings - One team, one passion Season In Review - 1896-97