1958–59 Northern Rugby Football League season

Rugby league season

1958–59 Rugby Football League season
League	Northern Rugby Football League
League Leaders	St. Helens
Top point-scorer(s)	Fred Griffiths 394
Top try-scorer(s)	Tom van Vollenhoven (62)
← 1957–58 1959–60 →

The 1958–59 Northern Rugby Football League season was the 64th season of rugby league football. Thirty clubs from across Northern England competed for the Championship, culminating in a final between St. Helens and Hunslet.

Season summary

St. Helens won their third Championship when they beat Hunslet 44–22 in the Championship Final. They had also finished the regular season as the league leaders.

The Challenge Cup winners were Wigan who beat Hull F.C. 30–13 in the final.

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

This season, St. Helens winger Tom van Vollenhoven set a new record for most tries in a season, with 62.

Championship

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	Pts
1	St. Helens	38	31	1	6	63
2	Wigan	38	29	0	9	58
3	Hunslet	38	27	3	8	57
4	Oldham	38	28	1	9	57
5	Wakefield Trinity	38	27	1	10	55
6	Swinton	38	27	1	10	55
7	Hull	38	25	1	12	51
8	Widnes	38	23	0	15	46
9	Warrington	38	22	0	16	44
10	Bradford Northern	38	20	2	16	42
11	York	38	20	1	17	41
12	Halifax	38	19	2	17	40
13	Featherstone Rovers	38	18	3	17	39
14	Leeds	38	19	0	19	38
15	Keighley	38	18	1	19	37
16	Leigh	38	18	0	20	36
17	Barrow	38	18	0	20	36
18	Hull Kingston Rovers	38	18	0	20	36
19	Huddersfield	38	18	0	20	36
20	Workington Town	38	16	3	19	35
21	Whitehaven	38	17	0	21	34
22	Salford	38	16	1	21	33
23	Bramley	38	15	1	22	31
24	Blackpool Borough	38	15	0	23	30
25	Castleford	38	13	0	25	26
26	Rochdale Hornets	38	11	1	26	23
27	Batley	38	10	1	27	21
28	Liverpool City	38	8	0	30	16
29	Dewsbury	38	7	0	31	14
30	Doncaster	38	5	0	33	10

Play-offs

Semi-finals			Championship final

1	St. Helens	42

4	Oldham	4
			St. Helens	44

			Hunslet	22
2	Wigan	11

3	Hunslet	22

Final

16 May 1959

St Helens	44 – 22	Hunslet
Tries: Van Vollenhoven (3), Murphy (2), Prinsloo, Smith, Huddart Goals: Rhodes (10)		Tries: Stockdill, Doyle, Poole, Gunney Goals: Langton (5)

Odsal Stadium, Bradford
Attendance: 52,560
Referee: G. Wilson (Dewsbury)


FB	1	Austin Rhodes
RW	2	Tom Van Vollenhoven
RC	3	Duggie Greenall
LC	4	Brian McGinn
LW	5	Jan Prinsloo
SO	6	Wilf Smith
SH	7	Alex Murphy
PR	8	Abe Terry
HK	9	Tom McKinney
PR	10	Alan Prescott
SR	11	Brian Briggs
SR	12	Dick Huddart
LF	13	Vince Karalius
Coach:
Jim Sullivan


FB	1	Billy Langton
RW	2	Ron Colin
RC	3	Jim Stockdill
LC	4	Alan Preece
LW	5	Billy Walker
SO	6	Brian Gabbitas
SH	7	Kevin Doyle
PR	8	Don Hatfield
HK	9	Sam Smith
PR	10	Ken Eyre
SR	11	Harry Poole
SR	12	Geoff Gunney
LF	13	Brian Shaw
Coach:
Jack Walkington

Challenge Cup

Main article: 1958–59 Challenge Cup

Wigan reached the final by beating Leeds 12–5 at home on 21 Feb in Round 1; Hunslet 22–4 at home on 7 Mar in Round 2; Halifax 26–0 away on 21 Mar in the quarter-finals and Swinton 5–0 on 11 Apr in the semi-final played at Leigh. Captained by Eric Ashton, they then beat Hull 30–13 in the Challenge Cup Final played at Wembley Stadium before a crowd of 79,811 with tries from Boston (2), Bolton, Holden, McTigue and Sullivan and six goals from Griffiths.

This was Wigan's sixth Challenge Cup Final win in ten Final appearances and their second in successive years. Brian McTigue, their second-row forward, was awarded the Lance Todd Trophy for his man-of-the-match performance.

County cups

Main article: 1958–59 Lancashire Cup Main article: 1958–59 Yorkshire Cup

Oldham beat St. Helens 12–2 to win the Lancashire Cup, and Leeds beat Wakefield Trinity 24–20 to win the Yorkshire Cup.

References

"1958-59 season summary". Retrieved 2009-08-08.
Mather, Harold (18 May 1959). "St Helens Make No Mistake". The Manchester Guardian. p. 7. ProQuest 480343455.
news.bbc.co.uk (27 February 2004). "Cup heroes: Eric Ashton". BBC Sport. UK: BBC. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
"A complete history of Hull FC's Challenge Cup finals". Hull Daily Mail. 22 August 2013. Archived from the original on 3 February 2014. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
"RFL Challenge Cup Roll of Honour". Archived from the original on 2009-04-03. Retrieved 2009-08-07.

Sources

Saxton, Irvin (ed.). History of Rugby League: No.64 1958–1959. League Publications.
1958-59 Rugby Football League season at Wigan.rlfans.com
The Challenge Cup at The Rugby Football League website

Rugby Football League seasons

Rugby Football League era
(1895–1996)

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(1996–present)

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v t e St Helens RLFC squad – 1958–59 Championship Final Winners
1 Austin Rhodes 2 Tom van Vollenhoven 3 Doug Greenall 4 Brian McGinn 5 Jan Prinsloo 6 Wilf Smith 7 Alex Murphy 8 Abe Terry 9 Tom McKinney 10 Alan Prescott (c) 11 Brian Briggs 12 Dick Huddart 13 Vince Karalius Coach: Jim Sullivan

v t e St Helens R.F.C.
St Helens Rugby Football Club Est. 1873 in St Helens, England
The Club	History Records Honours Players International representatives Coaches Hall of Fame
Home grounds	City Ground Knowsley Road (1890–2010) Halton Stadium (2011) Totally Wicked Stadium (2012–present)
League	Super League
World Club Challenge (3)	2001 2007 2007
Championships (17)	1931–32 1952–53 1958–59 1965–66 1969–70 1970–71 1974–75 1996 1999 2000 2002 2006 2014 2019 2020 2021 2022
Challenge Cup (13)	1955–56 1960–61 1965–66 1971–72 1975–76 1996 1997 2001 2004 2006 2007 2008 2021
League Leaders Shield (9)	2002 2005 2006 2007 2008 2014 2018 2019 2022
Other honours	4—time Premiership Champions 1—time Western Division Champions 1—time Regal Trophy Champions 2—time BBC2 Floodlit Trophy Champions 11—time Lancashire County Cup Champions 11—time Lancashire League Champions 1—time Charity Shield Champions BBC Sports Team of the Year Award (2006)
Seasons	1895–96 1896–97 1897–98 1898–99 1899–1900 1900–01 1901–02 1902–03 1903–04 1904–05 1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Culture	NRFU Founder Super League Founding Member Rivalry with Wigan
Affiliation	Rugby Football League (1895) St Helens Ladies

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