1977–78 League Cup (rugby league)
This was the seventh season for the competition, from this season the League Cup was known as the John Player Trophy for sponsorship reasons.
Warrington won the trophy, beating Widnes in the final by the score of 9-4. The match was played at Knowsley Road, St Helens, Merseyside. The attendance was 10,258 and receipts were £8429.
Background
This season saw no changes in the entrants, no new members and no withdrawals, the number remaining at eighteen.This was the second successive season in which there were no drawn matches.
The title of the competition was changed from the previous "Players No 6 Trophy" to the "John Player Trophy"
Competition and Results
Round 1 - First Round
Involved 16 matches and 32 Clubs| Game No | Fixture Date | Home Team | Score | Away Team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref | ||
| 1 | Fri 21 Oct 1977 | National Dock Labour Board | 4-18 | New Hunslet | ??? | 3845 | 1, 2 | ||||
| 2 | Fri 21 Oct 1977 | Salford | 27-8 | Rochdale Hornets | The Willows | ||||||
| 3 | Sat 22 Oct 1977 | Leeds | 22-25 | Wigan | Headingley | ||||||
| 4 | Sun 23 Oct 1977 | Featherstone Rovers | 25-24 | Hull Kingston Rovers | Post Office Road | ||||||
| 5 | Sun 23 Oct 1977 | Keighley | 18-16 | Hull F.C. | Lawkholme Lane | ||||||
| 6 | Sun 23 Oct 1977 | Leigh | 31-15 | Doncaster | Hilton Park | ||||||
| 7 | Sun 23 Oct 1977 | Wakefield Trinity | 24-5 | Batley | Belle Vue | 3 | |||||
| 8 | Sun 23 Oct 1977 | Blackpool Borough | 10-31 | Warrington | Borough Park | ||||||
| 9 | Sun 23 Oct 1977 | Bradford Northern | 19-12 | Bramley | Odsal | ||||||
| 10 | Sun 23 Oct 1977 | Dewsbury | 0-13 | Castleford | Crown Flatt | ||||||
| 11 | Sun 23 Oct 1977 | Halifax | 8-9 | Cawoods | Thrum Hall | 1168 | 4, 5 | ||||
| 12 | Sun 23 Oct 1977 | Huddersfield | 33-13 | Whitehaven | Fartown | ||||||
| 13 | Sun 23 Oct 1977 | Oldham | 16-8 | Barrow | Watersheddings | ||||||
| 14 | Sun 23 Oct 1977 | Swinton | 11-28 | St. Helens | Station Road | 3000 | |||||
| 15 | Sun 23 Oct 1977 | Widnes | 22-6 | Huyton | Naughton Park | 6 | |||||
| 16 | Sun 23 Oct 1977 | York | 12-20 | Workington Town | Clarence Street |
Round 2 - Second Round
Involved 8 matches and 16 Clubs| Game No | Fixture Date | Home Team | Score | Away Team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref | ||
| 1 | Sat 5 Nov 1977 | Widnes | 26-19 | Castleford | Naughton Park | ||||||
| 2 | Sun 6 Nov 1977 | Bradford Northern | 22-18 | Workington Town | Odsal | ||||||
| 3 | Sun 6 Nov 1977 | Featherstone Rovers | 17-10 | St. Helens | Post Office Road | 5481 | |||||
| 4 | Sun 6 Nov 1977 | Huddersfield | 21-11 | Oldham | Fartown | ||||||
| 5 | Sun 6 Nov 1977 | Keighley | 5-14 | Leigh | Lawkholme Lane | ||||||
| 6 | Sun 6 Nov 1977 | Wakefield Trinity | 31-7 | Cawoods | Belle Vue | 4 | |||||
| 7 | Sun 6 Nov 1977 | Warrington | 19-10 | Salford | Wilderspool | ||||||
| 8 | Sun 6 Nov 1977 | Wigan | 9-7 | New Hunslet | Central Park | 5447 |
Round 3 -Quarter Finals
Involved 4 matches with 8 clubs| Game No | Fixture Date | Home Team | Score | Away Team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref | ||
| - | |||||||||||
| 1 | Sat 19 Nov 1977 | Huddersfield | 0-11 | Bradford Northern | Fartown | ||||||
| 2 | Sun 20 Nov 1977 | Featherstone Rovers | 11-14 | Warrington | Post Office Road | ||||||
| 3 | Sun 20 Nov 1977 | Wakefield Trinity | 12-9 | Leigh | Belle Vue | ||||||
| 4 | Sun 20 Nov 1977 | Widnes | 25-0 | Wigan | Naughton Park |
Round 4 – Semi-Finals
Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs| Game No | Fixture Date | Home Team | Score | Away Team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref | ||
| - | |||||||||||
| 1 | Sat 26 Nov 1977 | Wakefield Trinity | 5-15 | Warrington | Belle Vue | 7 | |||||
| 2 | Sat 3 Dec 1977 | Widnes | 14-10 | Bradford Northern | Naughton Park |
Final
Teams and Scorers
| Warrington | № | Widnes |
| teams | ||
| Derek Finnegan/Derek Finnigan | 1 | David Eckersley |
| Steve Hesford | 2 | Stuart Wright |
| Billy Benyon | 3 | Mal Aspey |
| Frank Wilson | 4 | Derek "Mick" George |
| John Bevan | 5 | Paul Woods |
| Ken Kelly | 6 | Eric Hughes |
| Parry Gordon | 7 | Reg Bowden |
| Roy Lester | 8 | Bill Ramsey |
| John Dalgreen | 9 | Keith Elwell |
| Mike Nicholas | 10 | Glyndwr "Glyn" Shaw |
| Tommy Martyn | 11 | Mick Adams |
| Barry Philbin | 12 | David Hull |
| Ian Potter | 13 | Doug Laughton |
| ? Not used | 14 | ? Not used |
| ? Not used | 15 | Alan Dearden |
| Coach | - | |
| - | ||
| 9 | score | 4 |
| 4 | HT | 0 |
| Scorers | ||
| Tries | ||
| John Bevan | T | |
| Goals | ||
| Steve Hesford | G | |
| Drop Goals | ||
| DG | Paul Woods | - |
| - | ||
| Referee | William "Billy" H. Thompson | |
| Man of the match | Steve Hesford - Warrington - | |
| Competition Sponsor | Player's №6 |
Scoring - Try = three points - Goal = two points - Drop goal = one point
Prize Money
As part of the sponsorship deal and funds, the prize money awarded to the competing teams for this season is as follows :-| Finish Position | Cash Prize | No. receiving prize | Total Cash |
| Winner | ? | 1 | ? |
| Runner-up | ? | 1 | ? |
| semi-finalist | ? | 2 | ? |
| loser in Rd 3 | ? | 4 | ? |
| loser in Rd 2 | ? | 8 | ? |
| Loser in Rd 1 | ? | 16 | ? |
| Grand Total |
Note - the author is unable to trace the award amounts for this season. Can anyone help ?
The road to success
This tree excludes any preliminary round fixturesGeneral information for those unfamiliar
The council of the Rugby Football League voted to introduce a new competition, to be similar to The Football Association and Scottish Football Association's "League Cup". It was to be a similar knock-out structure to, and to be secondary to, the Challenge Cup. As this was being formulated, sports sponsorship was becoming more prevalent and as a result John Player and Sons, a division of Imperial Tobacco Company, became sponsors, and the competition never became widely known as the "League Cup".The competition ran from 1971–72 until 1995–96 and was initially intended for the professional clubs plus the two amateur BARLA National Cup finalists. In later seasons the entries were expanded to take in other amateur and French teams. The competition was dropped due to "fixture congestion" when Rugby League became a summer sport.
The Rugby League season always ran from around August-time through to around May-time and this competition always took place early in the season, in the autumn, with the final usually taking place in late January.
The competition was variably known, by its sponsorship name, as the Player's No.6 Trophy, the John Player Trophy, the John Player Special Trophy, and the Regal Trophy in 1989.