1965–66 BBC2 Floodlit Trophy explained

1965–66 BBC2 Floodlit Trophy
Structure:Floodlit knockout championship
Season Champs:Castleford
Season Champ Name:Winners
Runner-Up Name:Runner-up
Second Place:St. Helens
Prevseason Link:1955 Independent Television Floodlit Trophy
Prevseason Year:1955 (ITV)
Nextseason Link:1966–67 BBC2 Floodlit Trophy
Nextseason Year:1966–67
No Of Teams:8

The 1965–66 BBC2 Floodlit Trophy was the inaugural season of the BBC2 Floodlit Trophy competition. Castleford won the trophy by beating St. Helens with a score of 4–0. The match was played at Knowsley Road, Eccleston, St Helens, Merseyside. The attendance was 11,510 and receipts were £3,548. This was to be the first of Castleford's three victories in successive seasons in the first three Floodlit competitions.

Background

This season there were only eight teams entering, all by invite, playing eleven matches for which the BBC paid the RFL a grand total of £9,000.00. The entrants included the seven clubs with permanent floodlights: Castleford, Leigh, Oldham, St Helens, Swinton, Warrington and Widnes together with Leeds, who installed floodlights in September 1966. The competition was played in the form of a mini-league with the semi-finals and final stages being on a knock out basis.

Competition and results

Qualifying rounds

Each team played two matches in the qualifying round. All teams played one home game each except Leeds, who played both games away from home as their floodlights still needed to be installed.[1]

The four teams with the best points difference qualified for the semi-finals.

Round 1

width=20 abbr="No" Game Nowidth=100 abbr="Date"Fixture Datewidth=150 abbr="Home Team"Home Teamwidth=40 abbr="Score" Scorewidth=150 abbr="Away Team" Away Teamwidth=150 abbr="Venue" Venuewidth=30 abbr="Att" Attwidth=30 abbr="Rec" Recwidth=20 abbr="Notes" Noteswidth=30 abbr="Ref" Ref
1Tue 6 Oct 1965St. Helens25–19LeighKnowsley Road13000[2] [3]
2Tue 12 Oct 1965Warrington10–20WidnesWilderspool[4] [5]
3Tue 19 Oct 1965Swinton21–5OldhamStation Road
4Tue 26 Oct 1965Castleford7–7Leeds

Round 2

width=20 abbr="No" Game Nowidth=100 abbr="Date"Fixture Datewidth=150 abbr="Home Team"Home Teamwidth=40 abbr="Score" Scorewidth=150 abbr="Away Team" Away Teamwidth=150 abbr="Venue" Venuewidth=30 abbr="Att" Attwidth=30 abbr="Rec" Recwidth=20 abbr="Notes" Noteswidth=30 abbr="Ref" Ref
1Tue 2 Nov 1965Leigh13–9WarringtonHilton Park
2Tue 9 Nov 1965Widnes19–8SwintonNaughton Park
3Tue 16 Nov 1965St. Helens21–9LeedsKnowsley Road5600
4Tue 25 Nov 1965Oldham4–6CastlefordWatersheddings

Table

width=20 abbr="Seed No" Poswidth=100 abbr="Club"Clubwidth=20 abbr="Games played"Pwidth=20 abbr="WIN" Wwidth=20 abbr="Draw" Dwidth=20 abbr="Lose" Lwidth=20 abbr="Points for" PFwidth=20 abbr="Points against" PAwidth=20 abbr="Points" Ptswidth=20 abbr="Points difference" PD
1Widnes22003918421
2St. Helens22004628418
3Swinton2101292425
4Castleford2110131132
5Leigh210132342-2
6Leeds201116281-12
7Warrington200219330-14
8Oldham20029270-18
Pos = Finishing position P = Games played W = Wins D = Draw L = Lose
PF = Points scored PA = Points against Pts = League points PD = Points scored difference

Semi-finals

width=20 abbr="No" Game Nowidth=100 abbr="Date"Fixture Datewidth=150 abbr="Home Team"Home Teamwidth=20 abbr="Score" Scorewidth=150 abbr="Away Team" Away Teamwidth=150 abbr="Venue" Venuewidth=30 abbr="Att" Attwidth=30 abbr="Rec" Recwidth=20 abbr="Notes" Noteswidth=30 abbr="Ref" Ref
1Tue 30 Nov 1965Widnes9–12CastlefordNaughton Park
2Tue 7 Dec 1965St. Helens9–5SwintonKnowsley Road9000

Final

width=20 abbr="No" Game Nowidth=100 abbr="Date"Fixture Datewidth=150 abbr="Home Team"Home Teamwidth=20 abbr="Score" Scorewidth=150 abbr="Away Team" Away Teamwidth=150 abbr="Venue" Venuewidth=45 abbr="Att" Attwidth=60 abbr="Rec" Recwidth=20 abbr="Notes" Noteswidth=30 abbr="Ref" Ref
Tuesday 14 December 1965St. Helens0–4CastlefordKnowsley Road11,510£3,5481[6] [7]

Teams and scorers

width=280 abbr=winnerCastlefordwidth=60 abbr="Number"№width=280 abbr=runner-upSt. Helens
teams
Derek Edwards1Frank Barrow
Colin Battye2Tom van Vollenhoven
Malcolm Battye3David Wood
Ron Willett4Billy Benyon
Trevor Briggs5Len Killeen
Alan "Chuck" Hardisty6Alex Murphy
Roger Millward7Bob Prosser
Abe Terry8Ray French
John Ward9Robert "Bob" Dagnall
Clive Dickinson10Cliff Watson
Wiliam "Bill" Bryant11Merv Hicks
John Taylor12John Mantle
Peter Small13Doug Laughton
Trevor Bedford (unused?)14
John Walker (unused?)15
George ClintonCoachJoe Coen
4score0
2HT0
Scorers
Goals
Ron Willett (2)G
RefereeLaurie Gant (Wakefield)
Scoring - Try = three (3) points - Goal = two (2) points - Drop goal = two (2) points

[2] [7]

The play-offs

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Rugby League Project.
  2. Web site: Saints Heritage Society - History - Season 1896-97.
  3. Book: Club Programme dept. Match Programme. St Helens RLFC.
  4. Web site: Warrington Wolves - Results Archive - 1897 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100706043029/http://www.warringtonwolves.org/results-archive?y=1897 . 6 July 2010 . dmy .
  5. Web site: Widnes Vikings - History - Season In Review - 1896-97.
  6. Book: Raymond Fletcher and David Howes. Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991-1992. 1991. Queen Anne Press. 0 35617852 8.
  7. Book: Raymond Fletcher and David Howes. Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1990-1991. 1990. Queen Anne Press. 0 35617851 X.

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