1901–02 Northern Rugby Football Union season

Hull Kingston Rovers felt unable to comply with the Yorkshire Senior Competition boycott and at the end of July the club was expelled from the Yorkshire Senior Competition.[6] Not having been invited to join the Northern Rugby Football League but still wishing to seek admission to the Northern Rugby Football League, Hull Kingston Rovers applied for membership of the Lancashire Senior Competition and were accepted in August.[7]

The expulsion of Hull Kingston Rovers left the Yorkshire Senior Competition with only seven clubs and this was reduced to six when Leeds Parish Church resigned from the competition after the club had to leave their Clarence Road ground.[8] To bring the numbers in the competition back up to 14, seven clubs were promoted from the Yorkshire No.2 competition; these clubs being Dewsbury, Goole, Heckmondwike, Keighley, Normanton, Sowerby Bridge and York.[9]

The Lancashire Senior Competition also promoted a number of teams from the second competition by adding Altrincham, Birkenhead Wanderers, Lancaster, Morecambe and Radcliffe; originally Tyldesley were offered one of the places but the offer was withdrawn and the place given to Radcliffe instead.[10][11]

To increase the number of games 12 of the Lancashire based clubs, including both Northern Rugby Football League & Lancashire Senior Competition teams, formed two additional leagues, the South East and South West Lancashire Leagues.[12] Where clubs played either an Northern Rugby Football League or Lancashire Senior Competition game and the teams were in the same Lancashire League then the result of the game counted for both competitions.[13]

In September 1901 the Athletic News reported on a number of players who comprised what the paper called "the rival poaching" i.e. players who had moved from Yorkshire Senior Competition to Northern Rugby Football League clubs and vice versa due to the lack of agreement between the two competitions.[14] Among these was James Lomas who joined Salford from Bramley and was subsequently the subject of the first three figure transfer fee when a tribunal assessed his value at £100.[15]

In early December 1901 representatives of the Northern Rugby Football League and Yorkshire Senior Competition met to see if the differences between them could be reconciled. No progress could be made as the Yorkshire Senior Competition was still advocating the abolition of the Northern Rugby Football League and the only compromise the Northern Rugby Football League was prepared to make was expanding the number of clubs in the Northern Rugby Football League to 15 and for a single club to be relegated each season.[16]

There was no further contact until April 1902 when the Northern Rugby Football League and Yorkshire Senior Competition met again, this time the Yorkshire Senior Competition proposed to lift its boycott of the Northern Rugby Football League, that transfer agreements the same as those between the Lancashire Senior Competition and the Northern Rugby Football League be adopted and finally that the Yorkshire Senior Competition would accept promotion between the Yorkshire Senior Competition and the Northern Rugby Football League save that the club eligible for promotion could decline it if they so wished.[17] The Northern Rugby Football League representatives met with the Lancashire Senior Competition a few days later. The Lancashire Senior Competition were concerned that if the Yorkshire proposals were accepted the Lancashire Senior Competition would be untenable due to a lack of clubs for a representative fixture list. The Lancashire Senior Competition and the Northern Rugby Football League therefore came up with a counter-proposal; that a second division of the Northern Rugby Football League be created, that all eligible teams be invited to join the second division and that promotion to the Northern Rugby Football League first division would only be from the second division.[18] A further meeting between the Northern Rugby Football League and the Yorkshire Senior Competition took place on 28 April at which the parties agreed that the Yorkshire Senior Competition boycott of the Northern Rugby Football League would be ended and an independent panel was established who would rule of transfer fees between clubs. The two sides were unable to agree on the establishment of a second division to the Northern Rugby Football League. The Northern Rugby Football League reiterated that they would establish a second division but noted the position of the Yorkshire Senior Competition that a second division was not in the best interests of the Yorkshire teams.[19]

Three weeks later, splits started to appear in the Yorkshire Senior Competition. On 20 May it was announced that Leeds had applied to join the Northern Rugby Football League having been informed that an application at this stage was likely to be accepted;[20] and before the end of the month similar applications had been made by York and Wakefield Trinity.[21] At the Northern Rugby Football League meeting on 17 June 1902 no fewer than 11 Yorkshire clubs applied to join the Northern Rugby Football League and all 11 applications were agreed.[22] Ten Lancashire clubs also applied to join the Northern Rugby Football League and nine were accepted (Radcliffe's application was refused); also accepted was the first club from the north-east, South Shields.[22]

These additions to the Northern Rugby Football League made the number of competing clubs 36. Brighouse, who finished bottom of the Northern Rugby Football League were re-elected to the league and Wigan, winners of the Lancashire Senior Competition were elected to the league making 15 teams in the first division. It was proposed that all 36 clubs vote on which three teams to promote immediately from the second division with the remaining 18 making up the second division for the next season.[22] The ballot was conducted on 1 July 1902 with Hull Kingston Rovers, St Helens and Widnes being elected.[23] With most of the senior clubs from both county competitions now being in the Northern Rugby Football League the committees in both counties took stock; on 29 July the Lancashire Senior Competition committee voted to wind up the competition with the trophy being donated to the Northern Rugby Football League as a trophy for the second division.[24] In Yorkshire it was decided to continue the competition but as a junior league only.[25]

Notes

Although participating in the Lancashire Senior Competition, Altrincham, Birkenhead Wanderers, and Stockport were from Cheshire; Hull Kingston Rovers were from Yorkshire; and Millom were from Cumberland.

Notes

Notes

Legend