1964–65 Northern Rugby Football League season
The 1964–65 Rugby Football League season was the 70th season of rugby league football.
| 1964–65 Rugby Football League season | |
|---|---|
| League | Northern Rugby Football League |
| Champions |  Halifax |
| League Leaders |  St. Helens |
| Top point-scorer(s) | Len Killeen 360 |
| Top try-scorer(s) |  Trevor Lake 40 |
Rule change
- Substitutes were introduced.[1] They were initially only for players injured in the time up to and including half time.
Season summary
1964-65 saw the two divisions of rugby league merge back into one single league. The championship play-offs returned to decide the champions. A new top 16 play-off format was introduced rather than top four system used between 1905–06 and 1962-63. A Bottom 14 Championship was also introduced for the remaining clubs who finished below the top 16, although some clubs declined to take part.
St. Helens had finished the regular season as league leaders. Halifax won their third Championship when they beat St. Helens 15-7 in the play-off final. Terry Fogerty was awarded the Harry Sunderland Trophy as man-of-the-match.
Challenge Cup winners were Wigan who beat Hunslet 20-16 in the final.
Bradford Northern are resurrected and accepted back into the League.[2]
St. Helens won the Lancashire League, and Castleford won the Yorkshire League. St. Helens beat Swinton 12–4 to win the Lancashire County Cup, and Wakefield Trinity beat Leeds 18–2 to win the Yorkshire County Cup.
Championship
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | St. Helens | 34 | 28 | 0 | 6 | 56 |
| 2 | Wigan | 34 | 26 | 0 | 8 | 52 |
| 3 | Castleford | 34 | 25 | 1 | 8 | 51 |
| 4 | Wakefield Trinity | 34 | 24 | 2 | 8 | 50 |
| 5 | Warrington | 34 | 24 | 1 | 9 | 49 |
| 6 | Workington Town | 34 | 23 | 1 | 10 | 47 |
| 7 | Halifax | 34 | 22 | 1 | 10 | 47 |
| 8 | Hull Kingston Rovers | 34 | 22 | 0 | 12 | 44 |
| 9 | Oldham | 34 | 20 | 1 | 13 | 41 |
| 10 | Leeds | 34 | 20 | 0 | 14 | 40 |
| 11 | Swinton | 34 | 19 | 1 | 14 | 39 |
| 12 | Leigh | 34 | 19 | 1 | 14 | 39 |
| 13 | Hull F.C. | 34 | 19 | 0 | 15 | 38 |
| 14 | Hunslet | 34 | 19 | 0 | 15 | 38 |
| 15 | Featherstone Rovers | 34 | 18 | 0 | 16 | 36 |
| 16 | Barrow | 34 | 18 | 0 | 16 | 36 |
| 17 | Bradford Northern | 34 | 15 | 1 | 18 | 31 |
| 18 | Huddersfield | 34 | 15 | 0 | 19 | 30 |
| 19 | Widnes | 34 | 14 | 2 | 18 | 30 |
| 20 | Whitehaven | 34 | 14 | 1 | 19 | 29 |
| 21 | Dewsbury | 34 | 13 | 2 | 18 | 28 |
| 22 | Salford | 34 | 11 | 2 | 21 | 24 |
| 23 | Liverpool City | 34 | 10 | 2 | 22 | 22 |
| 24 | Bramley | 34 | 10 | 1 | 23 | 21 |
| 25 | York | 34 | 10 | 0 | 24 | 20 |
| 26 | Batley | 34 | 9 | 1 | 24 | 19 |
| 27 | Keighley | 34 | 9 | 0 | 25 | 18 |
| 28 | Doncaster | 34 | 9 | 0 | 25 | 18 |
| 29 | Rochdale Hornets | 34 | 7 | 1 | 26 | 15 |
| 30 | Blackpool Borough | 34 | 6 | 2 | 26 | 14 |
Play-offs
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Semi-final | Championship Final | ||||||||||||||||
| St. Helens | 23 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Barrow | 7 | ||||||||||||||||||
| St. Helens | 24 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Hull Kingston Rovers | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Hull Kingston Rovers | 18 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Oldham | 14 | ||||||||||||||||||
| St. Helens | 10 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Wakefield Trinity | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Wakefield Trinity | 15 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Hull F.C. | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Wakefield Trinity | 17 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Warrington | 8 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Warrington | 10 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Leigh | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||
| St. Helens | 7 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Halifax | 15 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Castleford | 18 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Hunslet | 7 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Castleford | 11 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Workington Town | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Swinton | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Workington Town | 29 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Castleford | 18 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Halifax | 26 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Featherstone Rovers | 15 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Wigan | 8 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Featherstone Rovers | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Halifax | 31 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Halifax | 28 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Leeds | 11 | ||||||||||||||||||
Challenge Cup
| Wigan | Posit. | Hunslet |
|---|---|---|
| Ray Ashby | 1. FB | Bill Langton |
| Billy Boston | 2. WG | John Griffiths |
| Eric Ashton (c) | 3. CE | Geoff Shelton |
| Keith Holden | 4. CE | Alan Preece |
| Trevor Lake | 5. WG | Barry Lee |
| Cliff Hill | 6. SO | Brian Gabbitas |
| Frank Parr | 7. SH | Alan Marchant |
| Danny Gardiner | 8. PR | Dennis Hartley |
| Colin Clarke | 9. HK | Bernard Prior |
| Brian McTigue | 10. PR | Ken Eyre |
| Tony Stephens | 11. SR | Bill Ramsey |
| Roy Evans | 12. SR | Geoff Gunney |
| Laurie Gilfedder | 13. LF | Fred Ward (c) |
| Kevin O'Loughlin | Sub. | Arthur Render |
| Geoff Lyon | Sub. | Colin Taylor (original substitute Billy Baldwinson injured) |
Captain-coached by Eric Ashton,[3] Wigan beat Hunslet 20-16 in the final played at Wembley in front of a crowd of 89,016.
This was Wigan’s seventh Cup Final win in thirteen Final appearances.
To date, this was Hunslet’s last Challenge Cup Final appearance.[4]
References
- de la Riviere, Richard, ed. (2009), "Top ten: Rugby league rules", Rugby League World, Brighouse: League Publications (published August 2009) (340), p. 61, ISSN 1466-0105
- "1964-65 Season summary". Archived from the original on 2009-09-16. Retrieved 2009-08-08.
- news.bbc.co.uk (27 February 2004). "Cup heroes: Eric Ashton". BBC Sport. UK: BBC. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
- "RFL Challenge Cup Roll of Honour". Archived from the original on 2009-09-16. Retrieved 2009-08-07.