# 1951–52 Northern Rugby Football League season

The 1951–52 Rugby Football League season was the 57th season of rugby league football.

## Season summary

Wigan won their eighth Championship when they beat Bradford Northern 13-6 in the play-off final. Bradford had ended the regular season as the league leaders.
The Challenge Cup Winners were Workington Town who beat Featherstone Rovers 18-10 in the final.
Liverpool Stanley was renamed Liverpool City, and Cardiff, and Doncaster joined the league.
Wigan won the Lancashire League, and Huddersfield won the Yorkshire League.

## Championship

Final standings
| | Team | Pld | W | D | L | Pts |
| 1 | Bradford Northern | 36 | 28 | 1 | 7 | 57 |
| 2 | Wigan | 36 | 27 | 1 | 8 | 55 |
| 3 | Hull | 36 | 26 | 1 | 9 | 53 |
| 4 | Huddersfield | 36 | 26 | 0 | 10 | 52 |
| 5 | Oldham | 36 | 25 | 1 | 10 | 51 |
| 6 | Warrington | 36 | 24 | 1 | 11 | 49 |
| 7 | Leigh | 36 | 23 | 2 | 11 | 48 |
| 8 | Workington Town | 36 | 23 | 0 | 13 | 46 |
| 9 | Hunslet | 36 | 22 | 1 | 13 | 45 |
| 10 | Barrow | 36 | 21 | 2 | 13 | 44 |
| 11 | Doncaster | 36 | 21 | 1 | 14 | 43 |
| 12 | Widnes | 36 | 20 | 2 | 14 | 42 |
| 13 | Leeds | 36 | 19 | 2 | 15 | 40 |
| 14 | Swinton | 36 | 18 | 3 | 15 | 39 |
| 15 | Salford | 36 | 18 | 2 | 16 | 38 |
| 16 | Wakefield Trinity | 36 | 19 | 0 | 17 | 38 |
| 17 | Batley | 36 | 18 | 1 | 17 | 37 |
| 18 | Dewsbury | 36 | 18 | 0 | 18 | 36 |
| 19 | Whitehaven | 36 | 16 | 4 | 16 | 36 |
| 20 | St. Helens | 36 | 16 | 2 | 18 | 34 |
| 21 | Halifax | 36 | 16 | 2 | 18 | 34 |
| 22 | Featherstone Rovers | 36 | 14 | 2 | 20 | 30 |
| 23 | Belle Vue Rangers | 36 | 12 | 3 | 21 | 27 |
| 24 | York | 36 | 12 | 3 | 21 | 27 |
| 25 | Hull Kingston Rovers | 36 | 10 | 1 | 25 | 21 |
| 26 | Rochdale Hornets | 36 | 10 | 1 | 25 | 21 |
| 27 | Bramley | 36 | 10 | 1 | 25 | 21 |
| 28 | Castleford | 36 | 8 | 1 | 27 | 17 |
| 29 | Keighley | 36 | 8 | 1 | 27 | 17 |
| 30 | Cardiff | 36 | 5 | 0 | 31 | 10 |
| 31 | Liverpool City | 36 | 4 | 0 | 32 | 8 |
* Play-offs
Source: wigan.rlfans.com.
League points: for win = 2; for draw = 1; for loss = 0. Pld = Games played; W = Wins; D = Draws; L = Losses; Pts = League points.

### Play-offs

| Semi-finals | Semi-finals | Semi-finals | Championship final | Championship final | Championship final |
| 1 | Bradford Northern | 18 | | | |
| 4 | Huddersfield | 15 | | | |
| 4 | Huddersfield | 15 | Bradford Northern | Bradford Northern | 6 |
| | | | Wigan | Wigan | 13 |
| 2 | Wigan | 13 | Wigan | Wigan | 13 |
| 3 | Hull | 9 | | | |
* 10 May 1952
| Wigan | 13 – 6 | Bradford Northern |
| Tries: Ryan, Cunliffe, Silcock Goals: Gee (2) | | Goals: Phillips (3) |
* Leeds Road, Huddersfield Attendance: 48,684 Referee: C.F. Appleton (Warrington)
| Wigan | Number | Bradford Northern |
| | Teams | |
| Martin Ryan | 1 | Joseph Phillips |
| Jack Hilton | 2 | Bob Hawes |
| Jack Broome | 3 | Joe Mageen |
| George Roughley | 4 | Norman Hastings |
| Brian Nordgren | 5 | Jack McLean |
| Jack Cunliffe | 6 | Len Haley |
| Johnny Alty | 7 | Gwylfa Jones |
| Ken Gee | 8 | Bill Shreeve |
| Ronnie Mather | 9 | Norman Haley |
| George Woosey | 10 | Brian Radford |
| Nat Silcock Jr. | 11 | Barry Tyler |
| Jack Large | 12 | Trevor Foster |
| Harry Street | 13 | Ken Traill |
| | 0 | |
| Jim Sullivan | Coach | Dai Rees |

## Challenge Cup

Workington Town beat Featherstone Rovers 18-10 in the Challenge Cup Final played at Wembley Stadium on Saturday 19 April 1952 in front of a crowd of 72,093. Workington full-back and captain-coach Gus Risman became the oldest player to appear in a Cup final at age 41. Three Australians, Tony Paskins, John Mudge and Bevan Wilson came up with decisive plays to help relative newcomers Workington to victory. It was the club's first Cup Final win in their first Final appearance. Billy Ivison, Workington Town's loose forward, was awarded the Lance Todd Trophy for man-of-the-match.

## County cups

Wigan beat Leigh 14–6 to win the Lancashire Cup, and Wakefield Trinity beat Keighley 17–3 to win the Yorkshire Cup.

## European Championship

This was the twelfth competition and was won for the fourth time by France on points difference.

### Results

* 19 September
| England | 35–11 | Wales |
* St. Helens
* 3 November
| Other nationalities | 17–14 | France |
* Hull
* 25 November
| France | 42–13 | England |
* Marseilles
* 1 December
| Other nationalities | 22–11 | Wales |
* Abertillery
* 6 April
| France | 20–12 | Wales |
* Bordeaux
* 23 April
| England | 31–18 | Other nationalities |
* Wigan

### Final standings

| Team | Played | Won | Drew | Lost | For | Against | Diff | Points |
| France | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 76 | 42 | +34 | 4 |
| England | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 79 | 71 | +8 | 4 |
| Other nationalities | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 57 | 56 | +1 | 4 |
| Wales | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 34 | 77 | −43 | 0 |