1919 (Feb-May) Northern Rugby Football Union Victory season

League

Northern Rugby League Wartime Emergency League

1919 (Feb-May) Season

Rochdale Hornets

Hull

< 1918-19 (January)	Seasons	1919-20 >

The 1919 (Feb-May) Northern Rugby Football Union season was the fifth season of Rugby league's Wartime Emergency League football. Each club again played a differing number of fixtures, depending upon the closeness of neighbours, ease of travel etc., with York playing only 4 games and Barrow 5 while Warrington played 17 and Hull and Leeds 16.

Season summary

The shortened 1919 (February-May) broken bones end of hostilities and the armistice of Compiègne.
The country was still suffering from the deaths of the long and bitter struggle.

A Wartime Emergency League had been operating since September 1918. This was cancelled, and the programme started tailing off in January 1919.
A new shortened season was introduced with the traditional Lancashire and Yorkshire leagues, to cut travel costs and minimise the use of precious resources.
NOTE - Nowhere in the official archives is the word "Victory" used. It has been used in this article to distinguish between the two competitions held in the 1918-19 season.

The return of the Challenge Cup would have to wait until the following 1919-20, but the Northern Union did manager to re-introduce both the County Cups.

At the end of the shortened regular season, Rochdale Hornets and Hull were declared as Lancashire and Yorkshire League Champions respectively, but there was no play-off to establish an overall Champion.

The Lancashire and Yorkshire County cups were won by Rochdale Hornets and Huddersfield respectively.

There were some changes from the previous shortened season.
Several clubs re-joined the competition :-

Oldham after missing the last two seasons

Wakefield Trinity after missing the last two seasons

Widnes after missing the last season

York after missing the last two seasons

A couple of clubs still did not participate during this season :-

Huddersfield missed the third successive season. They re-joined for the first peacetime League in 1919-20.

Keighley again did not take part and in fact did not compete in any of the Wartime Leagues, and not re-entering until the first peacetime League in 1919-20.

Two clubs were lost :-

Runcorn, one of the founder members after the great schism of 1895. They withdrew and folded.

Brighouse Rangers, the re-formed team, who only re-joined the league in 1915-16 season, also folded.

No new clubs joined the league for this season.

Championship

The Lancashire and Yorkshire Leagues were set up following the end of the First World War in November 1918, and a shortened programme was played in what would have been the second half of the 1918-19 Season. Prior to this a War Emergency League was started and not finished (click here).

Lancashire League

	Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	diff	Pts	%	ref
1	Rochdale Hornets	13	10	0	3	109	53	56	20	76.92
2	Leigh	12	8	2	2	99	31	68	18	75.00
3	Wigan	11	7	1	3	164	87	77	15	68.18
4	Warrington	17	10	1	6	145	105	40	21	61.76
5	Barrow	5	3	0	2	52	66	-14	6	60.00
6	Widnes	12	7	0	5	120	83	37	14	58.33	1
7	Salford	15	7	0	8	107	95	12	14	46.66
8	Oldham	14	6	1	7	159	121	38	13	46.42	1
9	St Helens	9	3	0	6	29	109	-80	6	33.33
10	St Helens Recs	13	3	2	8	75	134	-59	8	30.77
11	Broughton Rangers	14	4	0	10	80	144	-64	8	28.57
12	Swinton	15	3	1	11	64	179	-115	7	23.33

Yorkshire League

	Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	diff	Pts	%	ref
1	Hull	16	13	0	3	392	131	261	26	81.25
2	Leeds	16	10	1	5	183	112	71	21	65.62
3	Bramley	14	8	1	5	140	89	51	17	60.71
4	Halifax	15	8	1	6	187	82	105	17	56.66
5	Dewsbury	13	5	4	4	150	100	50	14	53.84
6	Batley	15	7	1	7	77	117	-40	15	50.00
7	Hull Kingston Rovers	14	5	2	7	129	139	-10	12	42.85
8	Wakefield Trinity	14	4	2	8	73	156	-83	10	35.71	1
9	York	4	1	0	3	18	141	-123	2	25.00	1
10	Hunslet	13	3	0	10	97	262	-165	6	23.07
11	Bradford Northern	10	2	0	8	51	168	-117	4	20.00

Notes and Comments

1 - re-joined after missing the previous season

Trophies

Challenge Cup

The Challenge Cup Competition was still suspended due to the aftermath of war, but the Northern Union managed to fit in the two County Cups.

Lancashire Cup

In the 1st round, on Saturday 5 April 1919, Leigh beat Widnes at Mather Lane 12–5, St Helens beat Warrington at Knowsley Road 11–5, and Wigan were given a bye.
In the 2nd round, on Saturday 12 April 1919, Oldham beat St Helens at Watersheddings 16–8 (before a crowd of approx 3,000), Barrow beat Widnes at Little Park, Roose 6–0 and Wigan beat Swinton at Central Park 18–0.
and in the semi-final Rochdale Hornets beat Wigan at Athletic Grounds 40–0 to set up a meeting with near rivals Oldham

In the Final of the Lancashire County Cup, Rochdale Hornets, already Lancashire League Champions beat Oldham 22–0

Yorkshire Cup

In the 1st round, on Saturday 26 April 1919, Hull beat Leeds at Boulevard 6–0
In the 2nd round, on Saturday 3 May 1919, Hull beat Bramley at Boulevard 31–4
and in the semi-final, on Saturday 10 May 1919, Huddersfield beat Hull at Fartown 23–13

In the Final of the Yorkshire County Cup, Huddersfield, who had not taken part in the league programme beat Dewsbury 14–8

References

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