This was the twenty-first season of rugby league's

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

competition, known as the Regal Trophy for sponsorship purposes.

Widnes Widnes ( ) is an Industrial city, industrial town in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England, which at the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census had a population of 61,464. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it is on t ...

won the final, beating

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

by the score of 24–0. The match was played at

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

. The attendance was 15,070.

Background

This season saw two "name" changes and one of the three junior clubs being replaced by a new league club. The number of entrants remained the same at thirty-eight.
The changes were :-
1 Runcorn Highfield became Highfield and now played at

Hoghton Road Stadium Hoghton Road Stadium was a sports stadium on Hoghton Road, Sutton, a suburb of St. Helens (population approx 100,000), the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens in Merseyside, England. Brief history It was the ground u ...

Sutton Sutton (''south settlement'' or ''south town'' in Old English) may refer to: Places United Kingdom England In alphabetical order by county: * Sutton, Bedfordshire * Sutton, Berkshire, a List of United Kingdom locations: Stu-Sz#Su, location * S ...

, a suburb of St. Helens and home to

St Helens Town A.F.C. St Helens Town Association Football Club is an English football club based in St. Helens. The club are members of the , and as from season 2016–17 play their home matches at Ruskin Drive Sports Ground, which they share with local rivals Pil ...

(although signing a 99-year lease, the club moved on after 4½ years after a proposed rent increase made a stay unviable -

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

became London Crusaders but were still nomadic, although playing many home matches at

Crystal Palace National Sports Centre The National Sports Centre at Crystal Palace in south London, England is a large sports centre and outdoor athletics stadium. It was opened in 1964 in Crystal Palace Park, close to the site of the former Crystal Palace Exhibition building which ...

before settling at

Barnet Copthall Barnet Copthall is a sports venue on the Hendon-Mill Hill borders in London, which houses several complexes, including a local authority-owned swimming pool and gymnasium facilities, a golf-driving range with 9 hole pitch and putt run by Metro ...

for season 1993-94
2

Scarborough Pirates Scarborough Pirates RLFC were a rugby league club based in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England. They played their home games at Scarborough F.C.'s McCain Stadium. History In December 1990, Scarborough announced a ...

joined the league and the competition (albeit for a very brief one season stay before going into administration), taking the place of one of the junior teams-
The preliminary round involved twelve clubs, to reduce the numbers to entrants to the first round proper to thirty-two.

Competition and results

Preliminary round

Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs

Round 1 - First Round

Involved 16 matches and 32 Clubs

Round 1 - First Round Replays

Involved 1 match and 2 Clubs

Round 2 - Second Round

Involved 8 matches and 16 Clubs

Round 3 -Quarter Finals

Involved 4 matches with 8 clubs

Round 4 – Semi-Finals

Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs

Final

Teams

Prize money

As part of the sponsorship deal and funds, the prize money awarded to the competing teams for this season is as follows:

The road to success

This tree excludes any preliminary round fixtures

Notes and comments

1 * Saddleworth Rangers are a Junior (amateur) club from Oldham
2 *

Watersheddings Watersheddings was the site of a former rugby league stadium in the Watersheddings area of Oldham in Greater Manchester, England. Historically it was in Lancashire, lying on the A672 (Ripponden Road) approximately 2 miles north east of Oldham ...

was the home ground of Oldham
3 * Leigh East are a Junior (amateur) club from Leigh
4 * Hilton Park was the home ground of Leigh
5 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject gives the attendance as 1,874 but Widnes official archives gives it as 2,000
6 *

Valley Parade Valley Parade, known as the University of Bradford Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is an all-seater football stadium in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. Built in 1886, it was the home of Manningham Rugby Football Club until 1903, when they c ...

was originally the home of Manningham Rugby League Football Club until 1903, when they changed name and codes and became Bradford City A.F.C.
7 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject gives the attendance as 15,070 but Widnes official archives gives it as 15,023
8 *

was the home ground of

with a final capacity of 18,000, although the record attendance was 47,747 for Wigan v St Helens 27 March 1959

General information for those unfamiliar

The council of the

Rugby Football League The Rugby Football League is the governing body for professional rugby league in England, and until 1995 for the whole British Isles. The name Rugby Football League previously also referred to the main league competition run by the organisati ...

voted to introduce a new competition, to be similar to

The Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the ...

and

Scottish Football Association The Scottish Football Association (also known as the SFA and the Scottish FA; sco, Scots Fitba Association; Scottish Gaelic: ''Comann Ball-coise na h-Alba'') is the Sport governing body, governing body of association football, football in Scot ...

's "League Cup". It was to be a similar knock-out structure to, and to be secondary to, the Challenge Cup. As this was being formulated, sports sponsorship was becoming more prevalent and as a result John Player and Sons, a division of Imperial Tobacco Company, became sponsors, and the competition never became widely known as the "League Cup"
The competition ran from 1971-72 until 1995-96 and was initially intended for the professional clubs plus the two amateur

BARLA The British Amateur Rugby League Association (BARLA) is an association for social and recreational rugby league. It works jointly with the Rugby Football League through the RFL Community Board. History BARLA was created in 1973 in Huddersfiel ...

National Cup finalists. In later seasons the entries were expanded to take in other amateur and French teams. The competition was dropped due to "fixture congestion" when Rugby League became a summer sport The Rugby League season always (until the onset of "Summer Rugby" in 1996) ran from around August-time through to around May-time and this competition always took place early in the season, in the Autumn, with the final usually taking place in late January
The competition was variably known, by its sponsorship name, as the Player's No.6 Trophy (1971–1977), the John Player Trophy (1977–1983), the John Player Special Trophy (1983–1989), and the Regal Trophy in 1989.

References

External links

Saints Heritage Society1896–97 Northern Rugby Football Union season at wigan.rlfans.com

Hull&Proud Fixtures & Results 1896/1897Widnes Vikings - One team, one passion Season In Review - 1896-97The Northern Union at warringtonwolves.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:1991-92 Regal Trophy 1991 in English rugby league 1992 in English rugby league League Cup (rugby league)