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1945–46 Northern Rugby Football League season

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Rugby league season
1945–46 Rugby Football League season
LeagueNorthern Rugby Football League
Teams27
Champions Wigan
League Leaders Wigan
Top point-scorer(s) Jeff Bawden 239
Top try-scorer(s) Eric Batten 35
← 1944–451946–47 →

The 1945–46 Rugby Football League season was the 51st season of rugby league football.

Season summary

Wigan won their fifth Championship when they defeated Huddersfield 13-4 in the play-off final. They had also finished the regular season as the league leaders.

The Challenge Cup Winners were Wakefield Trinity who defeated Wigan 13-12 in the final.

Bramley, Broughton Rangers, Hull Kingston Rovers, Liverpool Stanley, Rochdale Hornets, Salford, Swinton, Warrington and Widnes returned following the Second World War. Workington Town also entered a team for the first time.

Jim Sullivan of Wigan ended his career this season as the all-time record scorer of goals with 2,867.

Wigan won the Lancashire League, and Wakefield Trinity won the Yorkshire League.

Championship

Team Pld W D L Pts
1 Wigan 36 29 2 5 58
2 Huddersfield 36 27 1 8 55
3 Wakefield Trinity 36 26 0 10 52
4 Bradford Northern 36 24 3 9 51
5 Barrow 36 22 4 10 48
6 Dewsbury 36 23 0 13 46
7 Hunslet 36 21 4 11 46
8 Salford 36 23 0 13 46
9 Batley 36 21 4 11 46
10 Warrington 36 21 3 12 45
11 Castleford 36 22 0 14 44
12 Widnes 36 19 3 14 41
13 Featherstone Rovers 36 19 1 16 39
14 Halifax 36 19 0 17 38
15 Oldham 36 18 0 18 36
16 Broughton Rangers 36 16 3 17 35
17 Hull 36 16 2 18 34
18 Hull Kingston Rovers 36 15 3 18 33
19 Workington Town 36 15 0 21 30
20 St. Helens 36 13 1 22 27
21 Swinton 36 9 5 22 23
22 Keighley 36 9 2 25 20
23 Leeds 36 9 1 26 19
24 Rochdale Hornets 36 9 1 26 19
25 Bramley 36 9 0 27 18
26 Liverpool Stanley 36 5 2 29 12
27 York 36 4 1 31 9

Play-offs

Semi-finals Championship final
      
1 Wigan 18
4 Bradford Northern 4
Wigan 13
Huddersfield 4
2 Huddersfield 8
3 Wakefield Trinity 3

Final

The Championship Play-off Final was played at Manchester City Football Club on Saturday 18 May.

18 May 1946
Wigan 13 – 4 Huddersfield
Tries: Ashcroft (2), Cunliffe
Goals: Nordgren (2)
 Goals: Bawden (2)
Maine Road, Manchester
Attendance: 67,136
Referee: A. S. Dobson (Featherstone)
Wigan Number Huddersfield
Teams
Jack Cunliffe 1 William Leake
Brian Nordgren 2 John Anderson
Gordon Ratcliffe 3 Alex Fiddes
Ernie Ashcroft 4 Bill Davies
Stan Jolley 5 Jeff Bawden
Reg Lowrey 6 Tom Grahame
Tommy Bradshaw 7 Glyn Morgan
George Banks 8 Ken Mallinson
Jack Blan 9 Harold Whitehead
Frank Barton 10 Joe Bradbury
Eddie Watkins 11 John Aspinall
Harry Atkinson 12 Leslie Baxter
Billy Blan 13 Robert Robson
0
Jim Sullivan Coach

Challenge Cup

Main article: 1945–46 Challenge Cup

The final returned to Wembley following the end of the Second World War. Wakefield Trinity beat Wigan 13-12 in front of a crowd of 54,730. This was Wakefield Trinity’s second Challenge Cup Final win in three final appearances. Their centre, Billy Stott was awarded the inaugural Lance Todd Trophy for man-of-the-match.

County cups

Main article: 1945–46 Lancashire Cup Main article: 1945–46 Yorkshire Cup

Widnes beat Wigan 7–3 to win the Lancashire Cup, and Bradford Northern beat Wakefield Trinity 5–2 to win the Yorkshire Cup.

European Championship

Main article: 1945–46 European Rugby League Championship

The tri-nation tournament was played between November 1945 and March 1946 as single round robin games between England, France and Wales. This was the fifth Rugby League European Championship, and was won by England on points average.
Match Details

Date Venue Home team Score Away team
24 November 1945 Swansea Wales 11 - 3 England
23 February 1946 Swinton England 16 - 6 France
24 March 1946 Bordeaux France 19 - 7 Wales

References

  1. "1945–46 Season summary". Retrieved 8 August 2009.
  2. ^ "RFL All Time Records". Archived from the original on 3 April 2009. Retrieved 7 August 2009.
  3. Raymond Fletcher; David Howes (1995). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1995-1996. London: Headline Book Publishing. p. 424. ISBN 0-7472-7817-2.

Sources

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