1908–09 Northern Rugby Football Union season
| League | Northern Rugby League | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1908–09 Season | ||||
| Champions | File:Wigancolours.svg Wigan | |||
| League Leaders | File:Wigancolours.svg Wigan | |||
| Top point-scorer(s) |  James Lomas 272 |
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| Top try-scorer(s) | File:Wigancolours.svg Joe Miller 44 Frank Williams 44 |
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The 1908–09 Northern Rugby Football Union season was the fourteenth season of rugby league football.
Contents
Season summary
Wigan won their first Championship this season beating Oldham 7-3 in the play-off final. They had ended the regular season as the league leaders too. It was the first time that a team from outside the top two in the league had got to the Championship final.
Wakefield Trinity beat Hull 17-0 to win their first Challenge Cup in their first final.
Aberdare, Barry, Mid-Rhondda and Treherbert joined, taking the competition to 31 teams.
Bradford disbanded and became Bradford Northern.[1] They also moved for the second time in as many seasons to their new ground at Birch Lane.[2]
Wigan won the Lancashire League, and Halifax won the Yorkshire League. Wigan beat Oldham 10–9 to win the Lancashire Cup, and Halifax beat Hunslet 9–5 to win the Yorkshire Cup.
Championship
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | Pts | Pct | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wigan | 32 | 28 | 0 | 4 | 706 | 207 | 56 | 87.50 |
| 2 | Halifax | 34 | 28 | 1 | 5 | 526 | 174 | 57 | 83.82 |
| 3 | Oldham | 32 | 26 | 0 | 6 | 488 | 176 | 52 | 81.25 |
| 4 | Batley | 32 | 23 | 3 | 6 | 412 | 176 | 49 | 76.56 |
| 5 | Huddersfield | 34 | 21 | 3 | 10 | 504 | 292 | 45 | 66.17 |
| 6 | Wakefield Trinity | 31 | 20 | 1 | 10 | 471 | 318 | 41 | 66.12 |
| 7 | Salford | 32 | 20 | 1 | 11 | 455 | 309 | 41 | 64.06 |
| 8 | Merthyr Tydfil | 18 | 11 | 1 | 6 | 184 | 156 | 23 | 63.88 |
| 9 | Broughton Rangers | 32 | 19 | 1 | 12 | 420 | 330 | 39 | 60.93 |
| 10 | Warrington | 32 | 18 | 2 | 12 | 473 | 266 | 38 | 59.37 |
| 11 | Runcorn | 28 | 16 | 1 | 11 | 271 | 191 | 33 | 58.92 |
| 12 | Hunslet | 32 | 18 | 1 | 13 | 361 | 299 | 37 | 57.81 |
| 13 | Hull | 34 | 19 | 1 | 14 | 487 | 366 | 39 | 57.35 |
| 14 | Ebbw Vale | 24 | 12 | 1 | 11 | 249 | 269 | 25 | 52.08 |
| 15 | Leeds | 32 | 15 | 1 | 16 | 398 | 355 | 31 | 48.43 |
| 16 | Hull Kingston Rovers | 32 | 14 | 1 | 17 | 429 | 423 | 29 | 45.31 |
| 17 | St Helens | 28 | 11 | 3 | 14 | 312 | 421 | 25 | 44.64 |
| 18 | York | 32 | 13 | 1 | 18 | 394 | 510 | 27 | 42.18 |
| 19 | Dewsbury | 30 | 12 | 1 | 17 | 350 | 324 | 25 | 41.66 |
| 20 | Keighley | 30 | 12 | 1 | 17 | 338 | 355 | 25 | 41.66 |
| 21 | Leigh | 28 | 11 | 0 | 17 | 214 | 308 | 22 | 39.28 |
| 22 | Swinton | 32 | 11 | 1 | 20 | 258 | 440 | 23 | 35.93 |
| 23 | Bradford Northern | 32 | 11 | 0 | 21 | 324 | 451 | 22 | 34.37 |
| 24 | Mid-Rhondda | 18 | 5 | 1 | 12 | 111 | 214 | 11 | 30.55 |
| 25 | Rochdale Hornets | 30 | 8 | 2 | 20 | 195 | 384 | 18 | 30.00 |
| 26 | Barrow | 32 | 9 | 1 | 22 | 245 | 507 | 19 | 29.69 |
| 27 | Widnes | 28 | 6 | 3 | 19 | 197 | 359 | 15 | 26.78 |
| 28 | Treherbert | 18 | 4 | 1 | 13 | 81 | 212 | 9 | 25.00 |
| 29 | Barry | 18 | 3 | 0 | 15 | 76 | 445 | 6 | 16.66 |
| 30 | Bramley | 26 | 3 | 0 | 23 | 162 | 582 | 6 | 11.53 |
| 31 | Aberdare | 17 | 1 | 0 | 16 | 134 | 406 | 2 | 5.88 |
|
Champions |
Play-offs |
Play-Offs
| Semi-finals | Championship Final | ||||||||
| 1 | Wigan | 18 | |||||||
| 4 | Batley | 2 | |||||||
| Wigan | 7 | ||||||||
| Oldham | 3 | ||||||||
| 2 | Halifax | 3-2 | |||||||
| 3 | Oldham | 3-8 | |||||||
Final
The Championship final was played on a rainy afternoon of 1 May 1909 before a crowd of around 12,000 at The Willows in Salford.
Wigan:
1 Jim Sharrock, 2 Jim Leytham, 3 Bert Jenkins, 4 Lance Todd, 5 Joe Miller, 6 Johnny Thomas, 7 Ned Jones
8 Jack Barton, 9 Walter Cheetham, 10 Howell de Francis, 11 Dick Ramsdale, 12 Dick Silcock, 13 Tom Whittaker
Oldham:
1 Alf Wood, 2 George Tyson, 3 Sid Deane, 4 Tom Llewellyn, 5 George Smith, 6 Billy Dixon, 7 Arthur Anlezark
8 Bert Avery, 9 Joe Ferguson, 10 Bill Jardine, 11 Joe Owens, 12 Arthur Smith, 13 Harry Topham
In the third minute, Wigan took the lead through a penalty goal by Jim Leytham. Oldham however scored the first try when Bill Jardine crossed in the fifteenth minute. Wigan's Dick Ramsdale took his side back into the lead with a try in the thirtieth minute. Leytham converted to give Wigan a 7-3 lead at half time. No further points were scored during the match.[3]
Challenge Cup
Wakefield Trinity beat Hull 17-0 in the final to win their first Cup in their first final. This was Hull’s second successive defeat in a Challenge Cup final, having failed to score a point in either final.[4][5]
Wakefield Trinity Tries: Thomas "Tommy" 'Trapper' Newbould, Ezra Sidwell, Arthur Kenealy "Nealy" Crosland, Ernest W. Bennett, William 'Billie ' G. Simpson
Wakefield Trinity Goals: James "Jimmy" D. Metcalfe
Half-time: 6-0
Attendance: 23,587 (at Headingley Stadium, Leeds)
Teams:
Wakefield Trinity: James "Jimmy" D. Metcalfe, Ernest W. Bennett, William "Billy" Lynch, Ezra Sidwell, William 'Billie ' G. Simpson, Harry Slater, Thomas "Tommy" 'Trapper' Newbould, Arthur Kenealy "Nealy" Crosland, James Auton, Joseph Taylor, John "Jack" Walton, Herbert Kershaw, Harry 'Dickie' Beaumont
Hull FC: Harry Taylor, J. Dechan, G. Connell, G. T. Cottrell, (E. or Ned) Rogers, Harry Wallace, Billie Anderson, Tom Herridge, William Holder, Frank Boylen, F. Britton, H. Havelock, W. J. Carroll
Sources
- 1908-09 Rugby Football League season at wigan.rlfans.com
- The Challenge Cup at The Rugby Football League website
References
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