The 1951–52

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 ...

season was the 57th season of

rugby league football Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playing field, field measur ...

Season summary

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the 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 north-east and Warrington t ...

won their eighth Championship when they beat

Bradford Northern The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, playing in the Championship. They have won five Challenge Cups, six league championships and three World Club Challenges. The team jersey is pre ...

13-6 in the play-off final. Bradford had ended the regular season as the league leaders. The Challenge Cup Winners were

Workington Town Workington Town R.L.F.C. is a semi-professional rugby league club playing in Workington in west Cumbria. Their stadium is Derwent Park, which they share with Workington Comets, a speedway team. They became Rugby League Champions in 1951 and ...

who beat

Featherstone Rovers Featherstone Rovers are a professional rugby league club in Featherstone, West Yorkshire, England, who play in the Championship. Featherstone is a former coal mining town with a population of around 16,000 and Rovers are one of the last "smal ...

18-10 in the final.

Liverpool Stanley Liverpool Stanley was a semi-professional rugby league club from Liverpool, England. It was renamed Liverpool City in 1951, but was otherwise unrelated to the original Liverpool club of the same name. The club's origins date back to 1880 when i ...

was renamed Liverpool City, and

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

, and

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

joined the league.

won the Lancashire League, and

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...

won the Yorkshire League.

beat Leigh 14–6 to win the Lancashire Cup, and

Wakefield Trinity Wakefield Trinity is a professional rugby league club in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, that plays in the Super League. One of the original twenty-two clubs that formed the Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895, between 1999 and 2016 the ...

beat

Keighley Keighley ( ) is a market town and a civil parish in the City of Bradford Borough of West Yorkshire, England. It is the second largest settlement in the borough, after Bradford. Keighley is north-west of Bradford city centre, north-west of ...

17–3 to win the Yorkshire Cup.

Championship

Final standings

Source
''wigan.rlfans.com''

League points: for win = 2; for draw = 1; for loss = 0.
Pld = Games played; W = Wins; D = Draws; L = Losses; Pts = League points.

Play-offs

Challenge Cup

Workington Town beat Featherstone Rovers 18-10 in the Challenge Cup Final played at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 2002 to 2003. The stadium ...

on Saturday 19 April 1952 in front of a crowd of 72,093. Workington full-back and captain-coach Gus Risman became the oldest player to appear in a Cup final at age 41. Three Australians, Tony Paskins,

John Mudge John Mudge (1721 – 26 March 1793) was a British physician and amateur creator of telescope mirrors. He won the Copley Medal in 1777 for a paper on reflecting telescopes. Life He was the fourth and youngest son of the Rev. Zachariah Mudge, by ...

and

Bevan Wilson Bevan William Wilson (born 22 March 1956) is a former New Zealand rugby union player. A full-back, Wilson represented Otago at a provincial level, and was a member of the New Zealand national side, the All Blacks The New Zealand nationa ...

came up with decisive plays to help relative newcomers Workington to victory. It was the club's first Cup Final win in their first Final appearance.

Billy Ivison William Ivison (5 June 1920 – 12 March 2000) was an English professional association football and rugby league footballer who played in the 1940s and 1950s. He played club level association football (soccer), for Gillingham F.C., and represen ...

, Workington Town's loose forward, was awarded the

Lance Todd Trophy The Lance Todd Trophy is a trophy in rugby league, awarded to the annual Challenge Cup Final's man of the match. Introduced in 1945–46, the trophy was named in memory of Lance Todd, the New Zealand-born player and administrator, who was killed i ...

for man-of-the-match.

European Championship

This was the twelfth competition and was won for the fourth time by France on points difference.

Results

Final standings

References

Sources

1951-52 Rugby Football League season at wigan.rlfans.com

The Challenge Cup at The Rugby Football League website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rugby Football League season, 1951-52 1951 in English rugby league 1952 in English rugby league Northern Rugby Football League seasons