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Rugby League in Lancashire refers to the sport of rugby league in relation to its participation and history within the traditional county of Lancashire, England. The county has since been split up for administrative purposes with parts of traditional Lancashire forming parts of Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire and Cumbria as well as the current borders of Lancashire.
Rugby league was founded in Yorkshire in 1895 at the George Hotel in Huddersfield when 22 clubs broke away from the Rugby Football Union to form the Northern Rugby Football Union which later changed its name to the Rugby Football League. Of those 22 founding clubs, 9 were from Lancashire.
The first Lancashire winners of the newly formed league, the NRFU Championship were Oldham, with Wigan being the most successful with 22 titles. Between 1896 and 1900 teams either played in the Lancashire or Yorkshire League depending on geographical location but still competed in the Challenge Cup. Wigan are the most successful club in the competition with 19 titles.
In the Super League era St Helens R.F.C. are the most successful Lancashire club, and second most of all (behind Leeds Rhinos), with seven Super League titles.
The Lancashire League was founded in 1895 for teams in Lancashire to compete in. Wigan and St Helens dominated the league before it was abandoned in 1970 due to the amount of fixtures being played.
The Lancashire Cup was a cup competition for teams in Lancashire. The competition ran from 1905-1992 when it folded due to the amount of fixtures in the calendar and the Rugby Football League (RFL) not seeing it as being a part of the future of modern rugby league.
The table below lists clubs located within the traditional borders of Lancashire: from the top division (the Super League), down to tier 3 of the British rugby league system.
| Club | Stadium | Founded | County Subdivision | Honours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Super League - tier 1 | ||||
| Leigh Leopards | Leigh Sports Village | 1878 | Greater Manchester | League: 1905-06, 1981-82 (2) Challenge Cup: 1920-21, 1979-71 (2) |
| Salford Red Devils | AJ Bell Stadium | 1873 | Greater Manchester | League: 1913-14, 1932–33, 1936–37, 1938–39, 1973–74, 1975-76 (6) Challenge Cup: 1937-38 (1) |
| St. Helens | Totally Wicked Stadium | 1873 | Merseyside | League: 1931/32, 1952/53, 1958/59, 1965/66, 1969/70, 1970/71, 1974/75, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2014, 2019, 2020, 2021 (16) Challenge Cup: 1955-56, 1960–61, 1965–66, 1971–72, 1975–76, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2021 (13) |
| Warrington Wolves | Halliwell Jones | 1876 | Cheshire | League: 1947–48, 1953–54, 1954–55 (3) Challenge Cup: 1904–05, 1906–07, 1949–50, 1953–54, 1973–74, 2009, 2010, 2012 (8) |
| Wigan Warriors | DW Stadium | 1872 | Greater Manchester | League: 1908/09, 1921/22, 1925/26, 1933/34, 1945/46, 1946/47, 1949/50, 1951/52, 1959/60, 1986/87, 1989/90, 1990/91, 1991/92, 1992/93, 1993/94, 1994/95, 1995/96, 1998, 2010, 2013 (20) Challenge Cup: 1923–24, 1928–29, 1947–48, 1950–51, 1957–58, 1958–59, 1964–65, 1985, 1987–88, 1988–89, 1989–90, 1990–91, 1991–92, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1994–95, 2002, 2011, 2013. (19) |
| Championship - tier 2 | ||||
| Widnes Vikings | Halton Stadium | 1875 | Cheshire | League: 1977–78, 1987–88, 1988–89 (3) Challenge Cup: 1929–30, 1936–37, 1963–64, 1974–75, 1978–79, 1980–81, 1983–84 (7) |
| League 1 - tier 3 | ||||
| Barrow Raiders | Craven Park | 1875 | Cumbria | Challenge Cup: 1954-5 (1) |
| Oldham | Whitebank Stadium | 1876 | Greater Manchester | League: 1904-05, 1909–10, 1910–11, 1956-57 (4) Challenge Cup: 1898-99, 1924–25, 1926-27 (3) |
| Swinton Lions | Park Lane | 1866 | Greater Manchester | League: 1926-27, 1927–28, 1930–31, 1934–35, 1962–63, 1963–64 (6) Challenge Cup: 1899–1900, 1925–26, 1927–28 (3) |
| Rochdale Hornets | Spotland | 1866 | Greater Manchester | Challenge Cup: 1922 (1) |
Greater Manchester has the strongest concentration of rugby league teams within the traditional boundaries of Lancashire. The most notable team is Wigan Warriors.
Cheshire had its own rugby league tradition with Runcorn being one of the founder members of the Northern Union in 1895 but this died out. Boundary changes to England's counties in the 1970s brought the formerly Lancastrian towns of Widnes and Warrington into Cheshire.
Merseyside was a county formed in 1974 from parts of Lancashire and Cheshire. Currently St. Helens are the only professional side within Merseyside, but other sides have also existed, notably Liverpool Stanley and Prescott Panthers.
Cumbria is a county that was created in the 1970s composing of the former counties of Cumberland, Westmorland and parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire. Barrow Raiders are the oldest side in what is now Cumbria and are based in what was part of Lancashire. Other Cumbrian sides exist and have existed in the traditional county of Cumberland, namely Whitehaven, Workington Town and at one time Carlisle. These sides played in the Lancashire cup despite playing outside the boundaries of traditional Lancashire.
Within the current borders of Lancashire there are currently no professional rugby league sides. The most recent side to play is Blackpool Panthers which folded in 2010.
Lancashire is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west.
North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of 7,417,397 in 2021. It is the third-most-populated region in the United Kingdom, after the South East and Greater London. The largest settlements are Manchester and Liverpool.
Newton-le-Willows is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, Merseyside, England. The population at the 2021 census was 24,642. Newton-le-Willows is on the eastern edge of St Helens, south of Wigan and north of Warrington, equidistant to Liverpool and Manchester.
The Warrington Wolves are a professional rugby league club based in Warrington, England. They play home games at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, and compete in Super League, the top tier of British rugby league.
The Widnes Vikings are an English rugby league club in Widnes, Cheshire, which competes in the Betfred Championship. The club plays home matches at DCBL Stadium. Founded as Widnes Football Club, they are one of the original twenty-two rugby clubs that formed the Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895. Their historic nickname is "The Chemics" after the main industry in Widnes, but now they use their modern nickname, "The Vikings".
James Leonard "Len" McIntyre was an English professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. He played at representative level for Great Britain, Rugby League XIII and Lancashire, and at club level for St Helens, Barrow, Oldham, Liverpool City, Wigan, Warrington and Widnes, as a hooker, after retiring from playing he became the Warrington colts coach.
The 1982–83 Rugby Football League season was the 88th ever season of professional rugby league football in Britain. Sixteen teams competed from August, 1982 until May, 1983 for the Slalom Lager Championship.
The 1963–64 Northern Rugby Football League season was the 69th season of rugby league football.
The 1976–77 Northern Rugby Football League season was the 82nd season of rugby league football. Sixteen English clubs competed for the Championship, with Featherstone Rovers claiming the title.
The 1977–78 Northern Rugby Football League season was the 83rd season of rugby league football. Sixteen English clubs competed for the Northern Rugby Football League Championship with Widnes claiming the title by finishing the season on top of the League.
The 1986–87 Rugby Football League season was the 92nd season of rugby league football. Sixteen clubs competed for the Championship which was determined by League position.
The Lancashire County Rugby Football Union is the society responsible for rugby union in the county of Lancashire, England, and is one of the constituent bodies of the national Rugby Football Union having been formed in 1881. In addition it is the county that has won the County Championship on most occasions
Stockport RFC was a Rugby League club in Stockport, Cheshire, England.
The 1943–44 Northern Rugby Football Union season was the fifth season of the rugby league’s 'Wartime Emergency League necessitated by the Second World War.
As in the previous (fourth) Wartime season, the clubs each played a different number of games, but this season clubs re-joined the league and there were now 16 of the original clubs taking part in the Competition.
The League remained as one single amalgamated Championship.
Lancs/Cheshire Division 1 was a regional English Rugby Union league for teams from Cheshire, Merseyside, Lancashire and Greater Manchester, ranked at tier 8 of the English league system. The top two clubs are promoted to North 2 West and the bottom two clubs are relegated to Lancs/Cheshire 2. Each season two teams from Lancs/Cheshire 1 are picked to take part in the RFU Senior Vase - one affiliated with the Cheshire RFU, the other with the Lancashire RFU.
Runcorn FC was a rugby league club. Having formed in 1876 and played rugby union as members of the RFU, they joined the Northern Union in 1895, just several days after it was founded, and played in the league from 1895–96 to 1917–18.
The 1918–19 Lancashire Cup was the eleventh competition for this regional rugby league tournament and the first since 1914–15. This quickly arranged competition was won by the holders Rochdale Hornets who beat local rivals Oldham in the final at The Willows, Salford by a score of 22–0. The attendance at the final was 18,617 and receipts £1,365.
The 1986–87 Lancashire Cup, known as the Grunhalle Lager Lancashire Cup for sponsorship reasons, was the 74th occasion on which the Lancashire Cup competition had been held.
The 1989–90 Lancashire Cup was the 77th occasion on which the Lancashire Cup competition had been held. Warrington won the trophy by beating Oldham by the score of 24-16 in the final. The match was played at Knowsley Road, Eccleston, St Helens, Merseyside,. The attendance was 9.990 and receipts were £41,804.
Whilst the sport of rugby league is played across Great Britain, it is most popular in its heartlands, the traditional counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire with the majority of professional and semi-professional clubs coming from this area of the country. Many fixtures are considered to be local derbies, where both teams come from the same town or city, or two that are very close to each other.
