1955–56 Northern Rugby Football League season

1955–56 Rugby Football League season

League

Northern Rugby Football League

Champions

Hull

League Leaders

Warrington

Top point-scorer(s)

Harry Bath (Warrington) 344

Top try-scorer(s)

Jack McLean (Bradford Northern) 61

< 1954–55	Seasons	1956–57 >

The 1955–56 Rugby Football League season was the sixty first season of rugby league football.

1 Season summary
2 Championship
3 Play-offs
4 Challenge Cup
5 European Championship
- 5.1 Results
- 5.2 Final standings
6 References
7 Sources

Season summary[edit]

Belle Vue Rangers dropped out of the competition shortly before the start of the season. There was no time to reschedule and so percentages were used.^[1]

In 1955-56 Wigan took part in the Independent Television Association Trophy. This was a series of televised floodlit matches played in London and shown on the newly-launched ITV. It only lasted one year but the idea would be picked up again by the BBC in 1965.

ITV Floodlit Competition winners were Warrington who beat Leigh 43-18 in the final.

Hull won their fourth Rugby Football League Championship when they beat Halifax 10-9 in the play-off final. Warrington had finished the regular season as league leaders.

The Challenge Cup winners were St. Helens who beat Halifax 13-2 in the final.

Warrington won the Lancashire League, and Halifax won the Yorkshire League. Leigh beat Widnes 26–9 to win the Lancashire Cup, and Halifax beat Hull 10–10 (replay 7–0) to win the Yorkshire Cup.

Championship[edit]

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	Pts	Pct
1	Warrington	34	27	1	6	55	80.88
2	Halifax	36	28	2	6	58	80.55
3	St. Helens	34	27	0	7	54	79.41
4	Hull	36	25	1	10	51	70.83
5	Wigan	34	22	2	10	46	67.64
6	Featherstone Rovers	36	23	2	11	48	66.66
7	Barrow	34	21	2	11	44	64.70
8	Bradford Northern	36	22	2	12	46	63.88
9	Oldham	34	20	0	14	40	58.82
10	Swinton	34	19	2	13	40	58.82
11	Leigh	34	19	2	13	40	58.82
12	Leeds	36	21	0	15	42	58.33
13	York	36	20	0	16	40	55.55
14	Huddersfield	36	18	1	17	37	51.37
15	Workington Town	34	17	0	17	34	50.00
16	Keighley	36	18	0	18	38	50.00
17	Wakefield Trinity	36	17	0	19	34	47.22
18	Hunslet	36	17	0	19	34	47.22
19	Bramley	34	16	0	18	32	47.05
20	Rochdale Hornets	34	15	0	19	30	44.11
21	Whitehaven	34	14	1	19	29	42.64
22	Salford	34	13	1	20	27	39.70
23	Widnes	34	11	0	23	22	32.35
24	Hull Kingston Rovers	36	11	1	24	23	31.94
25	Doncaster	34	7	5	22	19	27.94
26	Blackpool Borough	34	9	0	25	18	26.47
27	Castleford	36	9	0	27	18	25.00
28	Liverpool City	34	8	0	26	16	23.52
29	Dewsbury	34	8	0	26	16	23.52
30	Batley	34	7	1	26	15	22.05

	Play-offs

Play-offs[edit]

Semi-finals			Championship Final

1	Warrington	0
4	Hull	17
			Hull	10
			Halifax	9
2	Halifax	23
3	St Helens	8

Challenge Cup[edit]

St Helens beat Halifax 13-2 in the Challenge Cup Final played at Wembley Stadium in front of a crowd of 79,341.

This was St Helens' first Challenge Cup final win in five final appearances.^[2] Alan Prescott, their prop forward was awarded the Lance Todd Trophy for man-of-the-match.

European Championship[edit]

This was the fifteenth European Championship and was won for the second time by the Other Nationalities.^[3]

Results[edit]

12 September	Other nationalities	33–16	England	Wigan
				Wigan

19 October	Other nationalities	32–19	France	Leigh
				Leigh

10 May	France	23–9	England	Lyon
				Lyon

Final standings[edit]

Team	Played	Won	Lost	For	Against	Diff	Points
Other nationalities	2	2	0	65	35	+30	4
France	2	1	1	42	41	+1	2
England	2	0	2	25	56	−31	0

References[edit]

^ "1955-56 Season summary". Retrieved 2009-08-08.
^ "RFL Challenge Cup Roll of Honour". Archived from the original on 2009-09-16. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
^ Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1995-1996. London: Headline Book Publishing. 1995. p. 425. ISBN 0-7472-7817-2.

Sources[edit]

1955-56 Rugby Football League season at Wigan.rlfans.com
The Challenge Cup at The Rugby Football League website

Rugby Football League Championship seasons

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(1895–1996)

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