Independent Television Floodlit Trophy
| Structure | Floodlit knockout championship | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of teams | 8 | |||
| Winners | Warrington | |||
| Runners-up | Leigh | |||
| ||||
The Independent Television Floodlit Trophy or the Independent Television Floodlit Competition was a rugby league competition initiated and sponsored by ITV/ATV.
The competition was on a knock-out basis, between eight clubs, matches being played under floodlights on various London football grounds, and the second half of each game being shown live in the London Area only on Associated-Rediffusion's "Cavalcade of Sport" programme, which was aired between 8:30 and 9:30 PM.
The idea of playing sport under floodlights was still something of a novelty for most sports, and rugby league was no exception.
The second half of the matches were shown live in the London Area only and no one in the heartlands could watch. That competition only ran for this one season.
The tournament was won by Warrington, who defeated Leigh 43-18 at Loftus Road with Harry Bath, the second row forward, being the hero scoring 22 points from 2 tries and 8 goals. Each of the participating clubs received a payment £400.
Background
ITV was launched on 24 September 1955 and the new channel, wanting to make their mark from the start, were quick to add sport to the programmes.
At this time there were no ITV broadcasts to the North of England; the Winter Hill transmitter (between Chorley and Bolton) did not become operational until 3 May 1956 when Grenada TV started broadcasting.
The competition appeared to have been a little rushed as, although the Rugby League Council had been approached and negotiations had been proceeding, an agreement to run a competition was only finalised on 29 August.
The tournament
The tournament officially took place in October and November 1955, (the first match actually took place Wednesday 28 September) and the literature stated that the contestants comprised "the top four sides from each county", based on the previous seasons league positions. However, these rankings do not conform to the finishing positions in either the Championship or the county leagues from the 1954-55 season.
The first match to be played in Round 1 was between Wigan and Huddersfield,[1] with Wigan suffering a defeat by 33-11.
Competition and results[2]
Round 1 - First round
Involved 4 matches and 8 clubs
| Game No | Date | Home Team | Score | Away Team | Venue | Diff | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wed 28 Sep 1955 | Huddersfield | 33-11 | Wigan | Woolwich Stadium | 22 | 500 | 1 | [3][3] | |||
| 2 | Wed 19 Oct 1955 | Hunslet | 20-46 | Leigh | Loftus Road | 26 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | Wed 2 Nov 1955 | Oldham | 8-7 | Featherstone Rovers | Loftus Road | 1 | 2 | |||||
| 4 | Wed 9 Nov 1955 | Wakefield Trinity | 9-33 | Warrington | Loftus Road | 24 | 2 3 | [4][5] |
Qualifying league table
| Pos | Club | P | W | D | L | PF | PA | Pts | PD | Notes | Ref | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leigh | 1 | 1 | 46 | 20 | 2 | 26 | |||||
| 2 | Warrington | 1 | 1 | 33 | 9 | 2 | 24 | |||||
| 3 | Huddersfield | 1 | 1 | 0 | 33 | 11 | 2 | 22 | ||||
| 4 | Oldham | 1 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 7 | 2 | 1 | ||||
| 5 | Featherstone Rovers | 1 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 0 | -1 | ||||
| 6 | Wigan | 1 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 33 | 0 | -22 | ||||
| 7 | Wakefield Trinity | 1 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 33 | 0 | -24 | ||||
| 8 | Hunslet | 1 | 0 | 1 | 20 | 46 | 0 | -26 |
Pos = Finishing position P = Games played W = Wins D = Draw L = Lose
PF = Points scored PA = Points against Pts = League points PD = Points scored difference
To Progress to the final
The rules stated that the two clubs with the greatest winning margins were to qualify, and proceed, to the final.
The two clubs in this case were Leigh and Warrington
Final
| Game No | Date | Home Team | Score | Away Team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F | Wed 16 Nov 1955 | Warrington | 43-18 | Leigh | Loftus Road | 2 | [4] |
The road to success
| First Round | progress | Final | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Huddersfield | 33 | ||||||||||||
| 2 | Wigan | 11 | ||||||||||||
| Huddersfield | +22 | |||||||||||||
| Warrington | +24 | |||||||||||||
| 3 | Wakefield Trinity | 9 | ||||||||||||
| 4 | Warrington | 33 | ||||||||||||
| Warrington | 43 | |||||||||||||
| Leigh | 18 | |||||||||||||
| 5 | Hunslet | 20 | ||||||||||||
| 6 | Leigh | 46 | ||||||||||||
| Leigh | +26 | |||||||||||||
| Oldham | +1 | |||||||||||||
| 7 | Oldham | 8 | ||||||||||||
| 8 | Featherstone Rovers | 7 | ||||||||||||
Notes and comments
1 * Woolwich Stadium was constructed on Stadium Road on Woolwich Common to the south of Woolwich town centre, in the 1920s. The capacity was 45,000 and was mainly used for military tattoos, rugby Union, Athletics and Equestrian events (and by Charlton Athletic reserves in the 1950s). It was demolished (it is believed) in the 1990s. It was formerly the Garrison Athletic Ground and belonged to Woolwich Royal Artillery[6]
2 * Loftus Road is the home ground of Queens Park Rangers Football Club
3 * Jackie Edwards, the Warrington stand-off, made his debut in the win over Wakefield Trinity
See also
- 1955-56 Northern Rugby Football League season
- 1955 Lancashire Cup
- 1955 Yorkshire Cup
- BBC2 Floodlit Trophy
- Rugby league county cups
References
- ↑ HC&AC Committee (1956 price 1/-). Fartown Rugby League Year Book 1956. HC&AC Supporters' Club. Check date values in:
|date=(help) - ↑ "Rugby League Project".
- 1 2 "Fartown Rugby League Yearbook 1956" (PDF).
- 1 2 "Warrington Wolves - Results Archive - 1955".
- ↑ "I'm Wakefield 'til I die...".
- ↑ "Old London Venues".
External links
- Saints Heritage Society
- 1896–97 Northern Rugby Football Union season at wigan.rlfans.com
- Hull&Proud Fixtures & Results 1896/1897
- Widnes Vikings - One team, one passion Season In Review - 1896-97
- The Northern Union at warringtonwolves.org
- Huddersfield R L Heritage
- Trandiffusion
- Warrington Wolves 1940's and 1950's
- Wigan archives
- Huddersfield Yearbook 1956
- I'm Wakefield until I die
- Old London Sports Venues