1980–81 Lancashire Cup

1980–81 Lancashire Cup
Structure	Regional knockout championship
Teams	14
Winners	Warrington
Runners-up	Wigan

The 1980–81 Lancashire Cup (known as the Forshaws Lancashire Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 68th staging of the rugby league knockout competition, the Lancashire Cup.

Warrington won the trophy with a 26–10 victory over Second Division side Wigan.

Background

The total number of teams entering the competition remained at last season’s total of 14 with no junior/amateur clubs taking part.

Competition and results

First Round

Involved six matches and 12 clubs. Barrow and Whitehaven received byes into the next round. Huyton's match against Warrington was moved to Wilderspool due to vandalism at Huyton's home ground, Alt Park.^[1]

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Att	Ref
1	15 August 1980	Swinton	5–11	Oldham	Station Road	2026
2	17 August 1980	Blackpool Borough	2–31	Widnes	Borough Park	2200	[2]
3	17 August 1980	Huyton	2–31	Warrington	Wilderspool	1937	[3]
4	17 August 1980	Salford	23–12	Leigh	The Willows	3579
5	17 August 1980	Wigan	25–10	Rochdale Hornets	Central Park	3562	[4]
6	17 August 1980	Workington Town	5–15	St. Helens	Derwent Park	2957	[5]

Second Round

Involved four matches and eight clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Att	Ref
1	24 August 1980	Barrow	9–16	Warrington	Craven Park	3328	[3]
2	24 August 1980	Oldham	15–13	Salford	Watersheddings	3445
3	24 August 1980	Whitehaven	10–13	Wigan	Recreation Ground	3910	[4]
4	24 August 1980	Widnes	22–20	St. Helens	Naughton Park	8427	[2][5]

Semi-finals

Involved two matches and four clubs.

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Att	Ref
1	10 September 1980	Oldham	2–11	Warrington	Watersheddings	3963	[3]
2	10 September 1980	Widnes	10–14	Wigan	Naughton Park	6563	[2][4]

Final

The final was played at Knowsley Road, St Helens, with an attendance of 6,279 and gate receipts of £8,629.^[6] This was Warrington's seventh Lancashire Cup win, and their first since 1965.^[7]

4 October 1980

Warrington	26 – 10	Wigan
Tries: Martyn, Bevan, Thackray, Hesford Goals: Hesford (7)		Tries: Fairbairn, Ramsdale Goals: Fairbairn (2)

Knowsley Road, St Helens Attendance: 6,279[8] Referee: Gerry Kershaw (Easingwold) Player of the Match: Tony Waller

Teams

^[3][4]

Warrington	№	Wigan
Derek Finnegan	1	George Fairbairn (c)
Richard Thackray	2	Dennis Ramsdale
Ian Duane	3	Dave Willicombe
John Bevan	4	Steve Davies
Steve Hesford	5	Jimmy Hornby
Ken Kelly (c)	6	Martin Foy
Alan Gwilliam	7	Les Bolton
Neil Courtney	8	Steve Breheny
Tony Waller	9	John Pendlebury
Brian Case	10	Steve O'Neill
Tommy Martyn	11	Bill Melling
Bob Eccles	12	John Clough
Edwin Hunter	13	Terry Hollingsworth
Tony Worrall	14	Bernard Coyle (for Les Bolton)
Ian Potter (for Bob Eccles)	15	Malcolm Smith (for John Pendlebury)
Billy Benyon	Coach	George Fairbairn

The road to success

	First round					Second round					Semi-finals					Final
	Swinton		5
	Oldham		11
						Oldham		15
						Salford		13
	Salford		23
	Leigh		12
											Oldham		2
											Warrington		11
	Barrow
	bye
						Barrow		9
						Warrington		16
	Huyton		2
	Warrington		31
																Warrington		26
																Wigan		10
	Blackpool Borough		2
	Widnes		31
						Widnes		22
						St. Helens		20
	Workington Town		5
	St. Helens		15
											Widnes		10
											Wigan		14
	Whitehaven
	bye
						Whitehaven		10
						Wigan		13
	Wigan		25
	Rochdale Hornets		10

See also

• 1980–81 Rugby Football League season
• Rugby league county cups

Notes

1. "Ground Switch". Liverpool Echo. 11 August 1980. p. 14 – via British Newspaper Archive.
2. "Widnes Vikings - History - Season In Review - 1896-97".
3. "Warrington Wolves - Results Archive - 1897". Archived from the original on 2 February 2014.
4. "Wigan "Cherry and White" archived results". Archived from the original on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 16 February 2014.
5. "Saints Heritage Society - History - Season 1896-97".
6. Fletcher, Raymond; Howes, David, eds. (1991). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991-92. London: Queen Anne Press. p. 177. ISBN 978-0-356-17852-3.
7. Fletcher & Howes (1981), p. 196.
8. Attendance figure in Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991-92 is given as 6,442

References

• Fletcher, Raymond; Howes, David, eds. (1981). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1981-82. Rothmans Publications. ISBN 978-0-907574-07-1.

External links

• "Lancashire Cup 1980/81 - Results". Rugby League Project.