1939–40 Northern Rugby Football League Wartime Emergency League season

League

Northern Rugby League Wartime Emergency League

1939–40 Season

Swinton

< 1938-39	Seasons	1940–41 >

The 1939–40 Northern Rugby Football League season was the first season of the rugby league’s Wartime Emergency League necessitated by the Second World War. In this first Wartime season the clubs each played the same number of fixtures (with just a few exceptions), unlike the following seasons when the clubs played literally as and when they could, with more and more clubs withdrawing.

Events leading up to World War Two

Prior to the declaration of war on 3 September 1939, most clubs had played three fixtures (on Saturday 26th, Thursday 31 August and Saturday 2 September).

During the following week, the Northern Rugby League decided, after publicity from the Government, to suspend the championship. They almost immediately inaugurated two regional (Lancashire and Yorkshire), Wartime Emergency Leagues, with the winner of each league meeting in a play-off final to decide the overall winner.

These competitions started (for most clubs) on 7 October 1939.

The Wartime Emergency Leagues did not count as an official league championship.

The Challenge Cup was suspended for season 1939–40.

Season summary

The 1939–40 Wartime Emergency season began just a month after Britain had declared War on Germany following their invasion of Poland in early September.

Bradford Northern finished the regular season as clear leaders on top of the Yorkshire League while Swinton finished on top of the Lancashire League, beating Salford on points difference (+220 to +157). In a two legged play-off between the two. Bradford Northern took the title.^[1]

The Challenge Cup was suspended for the season.

Swinton beat Widnes by an aggregate score of 24-15 over two ties to win the Lancashire Cup, and Featherstone Rovers beat Wakefield Trinity at Odsal, before a small crown of 7,077 by a score of 12-9 to win the Yorkshire Cup.

Yorkshire Section

	Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	diff	Pts
1	Bradford Northern	28	21	0	7	574	302	272	42
2	Huddersfield	28	19	1	8	545	340	205	39
3	Hull	26	18	0	8	378	265	113	36
4	Halifax	28	17	0	11	462	339	123	34
5	Hunslet	28	16	1	11	430	339	91	33
6	Castleford	28	16	1	11	364	300	64	33
7	Featherstone Rovers	28	15	0	13	373	365	8	30
8	Wakefield Trinity	28	14	0	14	479	314	165	28
9	Leeds	28	14	0	14	390	330	60	28
10	Hull Kingston Rovers	27	13	0	14	343	434	-91	26
11	Dewsbury	27	11	2	14	291	406	-115	24
12	York	28	10	3	15	349	467	-118	23
13	Batley	27	8	0	19	255	406	-151	16
14	Keighley	27	6	2	19	221	476	-255	14
15	Bramley	28	4	0	24	248	617	-369	8
		goal difference error of 2

Heading Abbreviations
RL = Single Division; Pl = Games Played: W = Win; D = Draw; L = Lose; PF = Points For; PA = Points Against; Diff = Points Difference (+ or -); Pts = League Points
% Pts = A percentage system was used to determine league positions due to clubs playing varying number of fixtures and against different opponents
League points: for win = 2; for draw = 1; for loss = 0.

Lancashire Section

Despite their success on the pitch, St Helens Recs played their last game on 29 April 1939. The game was away at Hull KR and Recs lost 25-12. The club had been suffering for a while on falling attendances and the economic depression and it appeared that it was not possible for the town to sustain two teams. On completion of the season 1938-39 the club folded and did not take part in the 1939–40 season.

	Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	diff	Pts
1	Swinton	22	17	0	5	378	158	220	34
2	Salford	22	16	2	4	328	171	157	34
3	Wigan	22	16	1	5	301	157	144	33
4	Widnes	22	15	2	5	305	176	129	32
5	Warrington	22	11	1	10	281	258	23	23
6	St Helens	22	11	1	10	288	224	64	23
7	Barrow	22	10	1	11	303	286	17	21
8	Oldham	21	8	2	11	241	242	-1	18
9	Rochdale Hornets	21	8	0	13	197	306	-109	16
10	Leigh	22	6	1	15	188	346	-158	13
11	Liverpool Stanley	22	4	3	15	152	350	-198	11
12	Broughton Rangers	22	2	0	20	153	441	-288	4
		St Helens Recs did not compete

Championship Play-Off

The Championship was decided by a two leg play-off between the Champions of the Yorkshire and Lancashire (the winners of the two leagues) on a home and away basis.

1st leg – Swinton lost to Bradford Northern 13-21 at Station Rd in front of a crowd of 4,800 (receipts £237.0.0)^[2]
2nd leg - Bradford Northern beat Swinton 16-9 at Odsal with an attendance of 11,721 (receipts £570.0.0)^[2]
Champions - Bradford Northern won 37-22 on aggregate.

Trophies

Challenge Cup

The Challenge Cup Competition was suspended for this season, but the Northern Union managed to fit in the two County Cups.

Lancashire Cup

Below are given some of the fixtures and results from this year’s Lancashire Cup competition. ^[3] ^[4] ^[5] ^[6] ^[7]

Date	Stage	Home Team	score	A way Team	Venue	agg	att	rcts	ref
1st Round
Sat 02-03-1940	LC R1 1st leg	Widnes	10-7	Warrington	Naughton Park				^[6]^[7]
Sat 02-03-1940	LC R1 1st leg	St Helens	26-7	Broughton Rangers	Knowsley Rd				^[3]
Sat 09-03-1940	LC R1 2nd leg	Warrington	2-4	Widnes	Wilderspool	9-14			^[6]^[7]
Sat 09-03-1940	LC R1 2nd leg	Broughton Rangers	10-3	St Helens	Belle Vue Stadium	17-29			^[3]
2nd Round
Sat 16-03-1940	LC R2 1st leg	Wigan	5-0	St Helens	Central Park				^[3]^[4]
Sat 29-03-1940	LC R2 2nd leg	St Helens	10-4	Wigan	Knowsley Rd	10-9			^[3]^[4]
Semi-Final
Sat 06-04-1940	LC SF 1st leg	St Helens	7-5	Widnes	Knowsley Rd				^[3]^[6]
Sat 13-04-1940	LC SF 2nd leg	Widnes	13-0	St Helens	Naughton Park	18-7			^[3]^[6]
Final
Sat 20-04-1940	LC F 1st leg	Widnes	4-5	Swinton	Station Rd		5500	269	^[2]^[6]
Sat 27-04-1940	LC F 2nd leg	Swinton	16-11	Widnes	Naughton Park	24-15	9000	446	^[2]^[6]
Swinton are winners of Lancashire Cup 24-15 on aggregate

Yorkshire Cup

In the 2nd round, on Saturday 8 June 1940, Wakefield Trinity beat Hull at Belle Vue 27-3^[5]

In the final of the Yorkshire County Cup, Featherstone Rovers| beat Wakefield Trinity at Odsal, Bradford, by 12 points to 9^[2]

References

↑ "Cherry and White".
1 2 3 4 5 Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1990). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1990-91. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0-356-17851-X.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Saints Heritage Society".
1 2 3 "Cherry and white".
1 2 <"Hull&Proud".
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Widnes Vikings - One team, one passion Season In Review".
1 2 3 "Warrington History".

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