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1896–97 Northern Rugby Football Union season

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Field	Value
title	1896–97 Northern Rugby Football Union season
structure	County Championships
league
season	1896–97 Season
season_champs
season_champ_name
league_leaders
league_leaders_name
top_scorer	Rigg ( Halifax) 112
top try scorer	Hannah ( Hunslet) 19
join	Yorkshire Yorkshire
Bramley
Castleford
Heckmondwike
Holbeck
Leeds Parish Church
Lancashire Lancashire
Morecambe
Swinton
Salford
join_method	Joined League
season2	Lancashire Senior Competition
season_champs2	Broughton Rangers
season_champ_name2	Champions
second_place2	Oldham
season3	Yorkshire Senior Competition
season_champs3	Brighouse Rovers
season_champ_name3	Champions
second_place3	Manningham
prevseason_link	1895–96 Northern Rugby Football Union season
prevseason_year	1895–96
nextseason_link	1897–98 Northern Rugby Football Union season
nextseason_year	1897–98

Bramley Castleford Heckmondwike Holbeck Leeds Parish Church Lancashire Lancashire Morecambe Swinton Salford The 1896–97 Northern Rugby Football Union season was the second ever season of rugby league football. Following the success of the Northern Union's first season, several more clubs from the established Rugby Football Union joined the rebel competition. This resulted in the decision that for the 1896–97 season the competition should be split into two separate county championships: Lancashire and Yorkshire. This season also saw the introduction of the Challenge Cup, with Batley defeating St Helens in the inaugural final.

Season summary

Eight new teams joined the twenty-two teams already in the breakaway Northern Union, and so it was split into two county leagues for the 1896–97 season. The new teams were Bramley, Castleford, Heckmondwike, Holbeck, Leeds Parish Church, Morecambe, Swinton and Salford. Salford's first game was a 10-0 defeat away to Widnes on 5 September 1896.

Mr J.E. Warren of the Warrington club was elected as the new President of the Northern Union. Warren, previously Warrington's secretary, had played a key role in Warrington's involvement in the foundation of the Northern Union.

The leading try scorer overall this season was Hannah of Hunslet, who crossed the line 19 times. The leading goal kickers were Albert Goldthorpe of Hunslet and Sharpe of Liversedge who both successful 26 times. The leading points scorer was Archie Rigg of Halifax with 112 points.

Lancashire Senior Competition

After finishing second from the bottom of the competition in the previous season, Broughton Rangers made a remarkable turnaround to finish the 1896–97 competition at the top of the Lancashire division, just one competition point ahead of Oldham, who had won more matches and had a better points differential. Although participating in the Lancashire Senior Competition, Runcorn and Stockport were from Cheshire.

Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Broughton Rangers	26	19	5	2	201	52	+149
2	Oldham	26	20	2	4	243	59	+184
3	Tyldesley	26	15	2	9	159	80	+79
4	Runcorn	26	13	5	8	134	62	+72
5	Stockport	26	14	2	10	157	137	+20
6	Swinton	26	12	5	9	125	82	+43
7	Warrington	26	11	5	10	100	124	-24
8	Leigh	26	11	4	11	105	147	-42
9	St. Helens	26	10	4	12	122	160	-38
10	Widnes	26	10	3	13	113	164	-51
11	Wigan	26	8	7	11	73	118	-45
12	Rochdale Hornets	26	8	1	17	121	167	-46
13	Salford	26	3	5	18	76	191	-115
14	Morecambe	26	3	0	23	52	238	-186

Source: R.L.Yearbook 1995–96 cited in "The Vault".

League points: for win = 2; for draw = 1; for loss = 0.

Pld = Games played; W = Wins; D = Draws; L = Losses; PF = Match points scored; PA = Match points conceded; PD = Points difference; Pts = League points.

Yorkshire Senior Competition

The previous season's champions, Manningham continued their good form in the Northern Union's second season, finishing in second place. However Brighouse took the Yorkshire championship with one win more than Manningham.

Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Brighouse Rangers	30	22	4	4	213	68	145
2	Manningham	30	21	4	5	291	129	162
3	Halifax	30	18	4	8	219	112	107
4	Hunslet	30	16	4	10	211	138	73
5	Hull	30	15	6	9	152	125	27
6	Batley	30	15	5	10	164	126	38
7	Bradford	30	15	3	12	170	157	13
8	Wakefield Trinity	30	13	4	13	172	154	18
9	Castleford	30	11	6	13	178	161	17
10	Huddersfield	30	10	7	13	142	179	-37
11	Liversedge	30	13	0	17	176	233	-57
12	Leeds	30	10	4	16	115	123	-8
13	Leeds Parish Church	30	9	4	17	129	162	-33
14	Bramley	30	9	3	18	101	193	-92
15	Holbeck	30	7	4	19	86	223	-137
16	Heckmondwike	30	3	4	23	72	308	-236

Source: R.L.Yearbook 1995–96 cited in "The Vault".

League points: for win = 2; for draw = 1; for loss = 0.

Pld = Games played; W = Wins; D = Draws; L = Losses; PF = Match points scored; PA = Match points conceded; PD = Points difference; Pts = League points.

Challenge Cup

Main article: 1896–97 Challenge Cup

References

Warrington Wolves. "The Northern Union". Warrington Wolves.
"The History Of Rugby League". napit.co.uk.
"Salford first game". Salford City Reds Official Web Site, History page.
(1995). "Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1995-1996". Headline Book Publishing.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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