1952–53 Northern Rugby Football League season

{{Infobox rugby football league season

| title = 1952–53 Rugby Football League season

| league = Northern Rugby Football League

| logo =

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| season =

| season_champs = {{leagueicon|st helens|16}} St. Helens

| season_champ_name = Champions

| league_leaders = {{leagueicon|st helens|16}} St. Helens

| league_leaders_name = League Leaders

| second_place =

| premiership_win =

| premiership_win_name=

| MVP =

| MVP_link =

| top_scorer = {{leagueicon|warrington|16}} Harry Bath 379

| top_scorer_link =

| top try scorer = {{leagueicon|warrington|16}} Brian Bevan 72

| top try scorer_link =

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| prevseason_link = 1951–52 Northern Rugby Football League season

| prevseason_year = 1951–52

| nextseason_link = 1953–54 Northern Rugby Football League season

| nextseason_year = 1953–54

}}

The 1952–53 Rugby Football League season was the 58th season of rugby league football.

Season summary

St. Helens won their second Rugby Football League Championship when they beat Halifax 24–14 in the play-off final. They also ended the regular season as league leaders.

The Challenge Cup Winners were Huddersfield who beat St. Helens 15–10 in the final.

Cardiff dropped out of the league.{{cite web|url=http://wigan.rlfans.com/fusion_pages/index.php?page_id=374|title=1952-53 Season summary|access-date=2009-08-08}}

St. Helens won the Lancashire League, and Halifax won the Yorkshire League. Leigh beat St. Helens 22–5 to win the Lancashire County Cup, and Huddersfield beat Batley 18–8 to win the Yorkshire County Cup.

Championship

width=20 abbr="Position" \| !width=175 \|Team !width=20 abbr="Played" \|Pld !width=20 abbr="Won" \|W !width=20 abbr="Drawn" \|D !width=20 abbr="Lost" \|L !width=20 abbr=”Points For”\|PF !width=20 abbr=”Points Against”\|PA !width=20 abbr="Points" \|Pts
class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
align=center style="background:#ccffcc;color:" \|1	St. Helens	36	32	2	2	769	273	66
align=center style="background:#ccffcc;color:" \|2	Halifax	36	29	2	5	620	309	60
align=center style="background:#ccffcc;color:" \|3	Bradford Northern	36	28	0	8	700	329	56
align=center style="background:#ccffcc;color:" \|4	Huddersfield	36	27	2	7	747	366	56
align=center style="background:" \|5	Barrow	36	27	1	8	585	322	55
align=center style="background:" \|6	Leeds	36	24	0	12	690	452	48
align=center style="background:" \|7	Leigh	36	23	2	11	556	377	48
align=center style="background:" \|8	Oldham	36	22	2	12	599	280	46
align=center style="background:" \|9	Warrington	36	20	1	15	733	486	41
align=center style="background:" \|10	Whitehaven	36	19	3	14	465	486	41
align=center style="background:" \|11	Wigan	36	19	2	15	673	414	40
align=center style="background:" \|12	Hunslet	36	20	0	16	485	358	40
align=center style="background:" \|13	Salford	36	20	0	16	508	441	40
align=center style="background:" \|14	Swinton	36	18	0	18	441	401	36
align=center style="background:" \|15	Hull	36	17	2	17	461	451	36
align=center style="background:" \|16	Workington Town	36	16	2	18	453	460	34
align=center style="background:" \|17	Keighley	36	16	1	19	465	547	33
align=center style="background:" \|18	Wakefield Trinity	36	16	0	20	410	595	32
align=center style="background:" \|19	Dewsbury	36	15	1	20	410	440	31
align=center style="background:" \|20	Castleford	36	15	0	21	392	502	30
align=center style="background:" \|21	Batley	36	14	2	20	405	579	30
align=center style="background:" \|22	Rochdale Hornets	36	13	3	20	443	536	29
align=center style="background:" \|23	Widnes	36	13	2	21	336	478	28
align=center style="background:" \|24	Featherstone Rovers	36	12	1	23	415	535	25
align=center style="background:" \|25	York	36	10	0	26	370	496	20
align=center style="background:" \|26	Doncaster	36	10	0	26	377	665	20
align=center style="background:" \|27	Belle Vue Rangers	36	10	0	26	301	705	20
align=center style="background:" \|28	Hull Kingston Rovers	36	9	1	26	337	646	19
align=center style="background:" \|29	Bramley	36	6	0	30	293	898	12
align=center style="background:" \|30	Liverpool City	36	4	0	32	225	837	8

class="wikitable" style="font-size: 95%"

|bgcolor="#ccffcc" width="20" |

|Play-offs

=Play-off=

{{4TeamBracket

| RD1=Semi-finals

| RD2=Championship final

| RD1-seed1=1

| RD1-team1=St. Helens

| RD1-score1=46

| RD1-seed2=4

| RD1-team2=Huddersfield

| RD1-score2=0

| RD1-seed3=2

| RD1-team3=Halifax

| RD1-score3=18

| RD1-seed4=3

| RD1-team4=Bradford Northern

| RD1-score4=16

| RD2-team1=St. Helens

| RD2-score1=24

| RD2-team2=Halifax

| RD2-score2=14

}}

{{Rugbyleaguebox

|date = 1 May 1953

|time =

|team1 = St Helens

|score = 24 – 14

|team2 = Halifax

|try1 = Blakemore (2), Moses, Greenall, Metcalfe, Cale

|goal1 = Metcalfe (3)

|drop1 =

|try2 = Lynch, Wilkinson

|goal2 = Griffiths (4)

|drop2 =

|stadium = Maine Road, Manchester

|attendance = 51,083

|referee = A. Hill (Dewsbury)

|manofmatch =

|report = {{cite web |title=St. Helens 24, Halifax 14 |url=http://www.saints.org.uk/saints/match.php?seq=2551 |website=Saints Heritage Society |access-date=16 March 2025}}{{cite web |title=St Helens 24-14 Halifax |url=https://stats.rugbyleaguerecords.com/matchdetails.php?tselect=116053 |website=Rugby League Records |access-date=16 March 2025}}

}}

width=240 abbr=winner\|St Helens !width=50 abbr="Number"\|Number !width=240 abbr=runner-up\|Halifax
class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size: 85%"
	Teams
Glyn Moses	1	Tuss Griffiths
Steve Llewellyn	2	Brian Vierod
Duggie Greenall	3	Tommy Lynch
Don Gullick	4	Martin Creeney
Stan McCormick	5	Terry Cook
Peter Metcalfe	6	Ken Dean
John Dickinson	7	Stan Kielty
Alan Prescott	8	Mike Condon
Reg Blakemore	9	Alvin Ackerley
George Parr	10	Jack Wilkinson
George Parsons	11	Harry Greenwood
Bill Bretherton	12	Albert Fearnley
Ray Cale	13	Des Clarkson
	{{0}}
Jim Sullivan	Coach

Challenge Cup

A club record 69,429 people watch the Challenge Cup 3rd Round tie at Odsal between Bradford Northern and Huddersfield. Larger crowds had watched matches at Odsal, but this was the largest involving the home side.{{cite web|url=http://www.bradfordbulls.co.uk/content/History/3560/1951%20-%201963:%20Decline%20&%20Fall|title=Bradford Bulls History|access-date=2009-10-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090425162738/http://www.bradfordbulls.co.uk/content/History/3560/1951%20-%201963%3A%20Decline%20%26%20Fall|archive-date=2009-04-25|url-status=dead}}

In the Final, Huddersfield beat St. Helens 15–10 at Wembley in front of a crowd of 89,588. This produced a record gate taking for a Challenge Cup final of £31,000.{{cite news|last=Goodman|first=Tom|title=St. Helen's hooted in R.L. Cup final|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=4J5VAAAAIBAJ&pg=3693,3547534|access-date=11 June 2011|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=27 April 1953}}

This was Huddersfield’s sixth Cup Final win in seven Final appearances, including one win during the Second World War.{{cite book |title=Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1995-1996 |author1=Raymond Fletcher |author2=David Howes|year=1995|publisher=Headline Book Publishing |location=London |isbn=0-7472-7817-2|page=191}} Peter Ramsden, their stand-off half, became the youngest player to win the Lance Todd Trophy for man-of-the-match at 19.{{Cite news

| last = news.bbc.co.uk

| title = Cup final facts

| work = BBC Sport

| place = UK

| publisher = BBC

| date = 11 May 2004

| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_league/challenge_cup/3705131.stm

| access-date = 6 March 2011}} the Huddersfield team also featured Australian Pat Devery and New Zealand's Peter Henderson.

County cups

References

Sources

[http://wigan.rlfans.com/fusion_pages/index.php?page_id=374 1952-53 Rugby Football League season] at Wigan.rlfans.com
[https://web.archive.org/web/20090403144113/http://www.therfl.co.uk/challengecup/page.php?areaid=65 The Challenge Cup at The Rugby Football League website]

Category:1952 in English rugby league

Category:1953 in English rugby league

Category:Northern Rugby Football League seasons