1958–59 Northern Rugby Football League season

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.

1958–59 Rugby Football League season
LeagueNorthern Rugby Football League
League Leaders St. Helens
Top point-scorer(s) Fred Griffiths 394
Top try-scorer(s) Tom van Vollenhoven (62)

Season summary

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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.[1]

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

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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

Play-offs

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Semi-finals Championship final
      
1 St. Helens 42
4 Oldham 4
St. Helens 44
Hunslet 22
2 Wigan 11
3 Hunslet 22

Final

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16 May 1959
St Helens 44 – 22 Hunslet
Tries: Van Vollenhoven (3), Murphy (2), Prinsloo, Smith, Huddart
Goals: Rhodes (10)
[2]
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

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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,[3] 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.[4]

This was Wigan's sixth Challenge Cup Final win in ten Final appearances and their second in successive years.[5] Brian McTigue, their second-row forward, was awarded the Lance Todd Trophy for his man-of-the-match performance.

County cups

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

References

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  1. ^ "1958-59 season summary". Retrieved 2009-08-08.
  2. ^ Mather, Harold (18 May 1959). "St Helens Make No Mistake". The Manchester Guardian. p. 7. ProQuest 480343455.
  3. ^ news.bbc.co.uk (27 February 2004). "Cup heroes: Eric Ashton". BBC Sport. UK: BBC. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
  4. ^ "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.
  5. ^ "RFL Challenge Cup Roll of Honour". Archived from the original on 2009-04-03. Retrieved 2009-08-07.

Sources

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