1968 BBC2 Floodlit Trophy

1968 was the fourth occasion on which the BBC2 Floodlit Trophy competition had been held.
This year was a new name on the trophy after Castleford's three year winning streak came to an end.
Wigan won the trophy by beating St Helens by the score of 7-4
The match was played at Central Park, Wigan, (historically in the county of Lancashire). The attendance was 13,479 and receipts were £3,291
This was to be Wigan's only success in the competition.

Background

This season saw no changes in the entrants, no new members and no withdrawals, the number remaining at eighteen.
However the format was changed slightly with the games in the preliminary round being on a two-legged home and away basis.
This preliminary round now involved four clubs, to reduce the numbers to sixteen, followed by a straightforward knock out competition.

Competition and Results^[1]

Preliminary Round - First Leg

Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs

Preliminary Round -Second Leg

Involved 2 matches with the same 4 Clubs with reverse fixtures

Round 1 - First Round

Involved 8 matches and 16 Clubs

Round 2 -Quarter Finals

Involved 4 matches with 8 clubs

Round 3 – Semi-Finals

Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs

Final

Teams and Scorers^[4][5][11]

Scoring - Try = three (3) points - Goal = two (2) points - Drop goal = two (2) points

The road to success

This tree excludes any preliminary round fixtures

Notes and comments

1 * Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1990-91^[11] and 1991-1992^[10] and "100 Years of Rugby. The History of Wakefield Trinity 1873-1973"^[2] give the score as 18-0 but as obvious error in the woderfully detailed independent WEB "Wakefield 'till I die"^[3] gives the score as 13-0
2 * This match was televised
3 * Hull F.C. (who joined the competition in season 1967-68) play their first game at home in the competition
4 * Rochdale Hornets, who joined the competition in season 1966-67, win their first game in the competition
5 * Keighley (who joined the competition in season 1967-68) play their first game at home in the competition
6 * The attendance was a record at that time
7 * Central Park was the home ground of Wigan with a final capacity of 18,000, although the record attendance was 47,747 for Wigan v St Helens 27 March 1959

General information for those unfamiliar

The Rugby League BBC2 Floodlit Trophy was a knock-out competition sposored by the BBC and between rugby league clubs, entrance to which was conditional upon the club having floodlights. Most matches were played on an evening, and those of which the second half was televised, were played on a Tuesday evening.
Despite the competition being named as 'Floodlit', many matches took place during the afternoonns and not under floodlights, and several of the entrants, including Barrow and Bramley did not have adequate lighting. And, when in 1973, due to the world oil crisis, the government restricted the use of floodlights in sport, all the matches, including the Trophy final, had to be played in the afternoon rather than at night.
The Rugby League season always (until the onset of "Summer Rugby" in 1996) ran from around August-time through to around May-time and this competition always took place early in the season, in the Autumn, with the final taking place in December (The only exception to this was when disruption of the fixture list was caused by inclement weather)

See also

• 1968-69 Northern Rugby Football League season
• 1968 Lancashire Cup
• 1968 Yorkshire Cup
• BBC2 Floodlit Trophy
• Rugby league county cups

References

External links

• Saints Heritage Society
• 1896–97 Northern Rugby Football Union season at wigan.rlfans.com
• Hull&Proud Fixtures & Results 1896/1897
• Widnes Vikings - One team, one passion Season In Review - 1896-97
• The Northern Union at warringtonwolves.org
• Huddersfield R L Heritage