1958–59 Northern Rugby Football League season

The 1958–59 Northern Rugby Football League season was the 64th season of rugby league football. Thirty clubs from across Northern England competed for the Championship, culminating in a final between St. Helens and Hunslet.

1958–59 Rugby Football League season
League	Northern Rugby Football League
League Leaders	St. Helens
Top point-scorer(s)	Fred Griffiths 394
Top try-scorer(s)	Tom van Vollenhoven (62)
← 1957–58 1959–60 →

Season summary

St. Helens won their third Championship when they beat Hunslet 44–22 in the Championship Final. They had also finished the regular season as the league leaders.

The Challenge Cup winners were Wigan who beat Hull F.C. 30–13 in the final.^[1]

Wigan won the Lancashire League, and Wakefield Trinity won the Yorkshire League.

This season, St. Helens winger Tom van Vollenhoven set a new record for most tries in a season, with 62.

Championship

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	Pts
1	St. Helens	38	31	1	6	63
2	Wigan	38	29	0	9	58
3	Hunslet	38	27	3	8	57
4	Oldham	38	28	1	9	57
5	Wakefield Trinity	38	27	1	10	55
6	Swinton	38	27	1	10	55
7	Hull	38	25	1	12	51
8	Widnes	38	23	0	15	46
9	Warrington	38	22	0	16	44
10	Bradford Northern	38	20	2	16	42
11	York	38	20	1	17	41
12	Halifax	38	19	2	17	40
13	Featherstone Rovers	38	18	3	17	39
14	Leeds	38	19	0	19	38
15	Keighley	38	18	1	19	37
16	Leigh	38	18	0	20	36
17	Barrow	38	18	0	20	36
18	Hull Kingston Rovers	38	18	0	20	36
19	Huddersfield	38	18	0	20	36
20	Workington Town	38	16	3	19	35
21	Whitehaven	38	17	0	21	34
22	Salford	38	16	1	21	33
23	Bramley	38	15	1	22	31
24	Blackpool Borough	38	15	0	23	30
25	Castleford	38	13	0	25	26
26	Rochdale Hornets	38	11	1	26	23
27	Batley	38	10	1	27	21
28	Liverpool City	38	8	0	30	16
29	Dewsbury	38	7	0	31	14
30	Doncaster	38	5	0	33	10

Play-offs

Play-offs

	Semi-finals					Championship final
	1	St. Helens	42
	4	Oldham	4
						St. Helens		44
						Hunslet		22
	2	Wigan	11
	3	Hunslet	22

Final

St Helens	44 – 22	Hunslet
Tries: Van Vollenhoven (3), Murphy (2), Prinsloo, Smith, Huddart Goals: Rhodes (10)	[2]	Tries: Stockdill, Doyle, Poole, Gunney Goals: Langton (5)

16 May 1959

Odsal Stadium, Bradford Attendance: 52,560 Referee: G. Wilson (Dewsbury)

FB 1 Austin Rhodes RW 2 Tom Van Vollenhoven RC 3 Duggie Greenall LC 4 Brian McGinn LW 5 Jan Prinsloo SO 6 Wilf Smith SH 7 Alex Murphy PR 8 Abe Terry HK 9 Tom McKinney PR 10 Alan Prescott SR 11 Brian Briggs SR 12 Dick Huddart LF 13 Vince Karalius Coach: Jim Sullivan

FB 1 Billy Langton RW 2 Ron Colin RC 3 Jim Stockdill LC 4 Alan Preece LW 5 Billy Walker SO 6 Brian Gabbitas SH 7 Kevin Doyle PR 8 Don Hatfield HK 9 Sam Smith PR 10 Ken Eyre SR 11 Harry Poole SR 12 Geoff Gunney LF 13 Brian Shaw Coach: Jack Walkington

Challenge Cup

Main article: 1958–59 Challenge Cup

Wigan reached the final by beating Leeds 12–5 at home on 21 Feb in Round 1; Hunslet 22–4 at home on 7 Mar in Round 2; Halifax 26–0 away on 21 Mar in the quarter-finals and Swinton 5–0 on 11 Apr in the semi-final played at Leigh. Captained by Eric Ashton,^[3] they then beat Hull 30–13 in the Challenge Cup Final played at Wembley Stadium before a crowd of 79,811 with tries from Boston (2), Bolton, Holden, McTigue and Sullivan and six goals from Griffiths.^[4]

This was Wigan's sixth Challenge Cup Final win in ten Final appearances and their second in successive years.^[5] Brian McTigue, their second-row forward, was awarded the Lance Todd Trophy for his man-of-the-match performance.

County cups

Main article: 1958–59 Lancashire Cup

Main article: 1958–59 Yorkshire Cup

Oldham beat St. Helens 12–2 to win the Lancashire Cup, and Leeds beat Wakefield Trinity 24–20 to win the Yorkshire Cup.

References

1. "1958-59 season summary". Retrieved 2009-08-08.
2. Mather, Harold (18 May 1959). "St Helens Make No Mistake". The Manchester Guardian. p. 7. ProQuest 480343455.
3. news.bbc.co.uk (27 February 2004). "Cup heroes: Eric Ashton". BBC Sport. UK: BBC. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
4. "A complete history of Hull FC's Challenge Cup finals". Hull Daily Mail. 22 August 2013. Archived from the original on 3 February 2014. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
5. "RFL Challenge Cup Roll of Honour". Archived from the original on 2009-04-03. Retrieved 2009-08-07.

Sources

• Saxton, Irvin (ed.). History of Rugby League: No.64 1958–1959. League Publications.
• 1958-59 Rugby Football League season at Wigan.rlfans.com
• The Challenge Cup at The Rugby Football League website