# 1917–18 Northern Rugby Football Union Wartime Emergency League season

The 1917–18 Northern Rugby Football Union season was the third season of Rugby league's Wartime Emergency League football. Each club played a differing number of fixtures, depending upon the closeness of neighbours, ease of travel etc., with Rochdale Hornets playing (and losing) only 7 games and St. Helens 18 while Wigan played 35 and several other clubs 31.

## Season summary

The war was starting its fourth year and the Rugby League again continued with the Wartime Emergency League set up. This arrangement, as in other sports, meant that the sport could continue, which in turn would boost the public’s moral. The fixtures were usually quite local, thus cutting down on travelling time and costs, whilst not wasting precious war resources.
Several clubs did not participate during this season :-
    Huddersfield
    Oldham
    Wakefield Trinity withdrew again
    York withdrew
    Keighley again did not take part and in fact did not re-enter the league until the first peacetime League in 1919-20.
No clubs re-joined the League and no new clubs joined the league for this season.
Barrow (90.91%) finished the regular season top of the league (40 points) although only playing 22 games, with Dewsbury (87.10%) this time in second place (with 54 points from 31 games)..
Barrow took the title for the first time in their history.
There were no other trophies to play for during this season.

## Championship

| | Team | P | W | D | L | PF | PA | diff | Pts | % |
| 1 | Barrow | 22 | 20 | 0 | 2 | 425 | 59 | 366 | 40 | 90.91 |
| 2 | Dewsbury | 31 | 27 | 0 | 4 | 480 | 149 | 331 | 54 | 87.10 |
| 3 | Leeds | 31 | 21 | 3 | 7 | 479 | 214 | 265 | 45 | 72.58 |
| 4 | Hull | 24 | 17 | 0 | 7 | 318 | 261 | 57 | 34 | 70.83 |
| 5 | Broughton Rangers | 29 | 19 | 3 | 7 | 345 | 130 | 215 | 41 | 70.69 |
| 6 | Leigh | 31 | 19 | 2 | 10 | 343 | 106 | 237 | 40 | 64.52 |
| 7 | Halifax | 26 | 16 | 0 | 10 | 233 | 181 | 52 | 32 | 61.54 |
| 8 | St Helens Recs | 29 | 16 | 3 | 10 | 270 | 132 | 138 | 35 | 60.34 |
| 9 | Wigan | 35 | 21 | 0 | 14 | 331 | 210 | 121 | 42 | 60.00 |
| 10 | Warrington | 31 | 16 | 4 | 11 | 236 | 210 | 26 | 36 | 58.06 |
| 11 | Widnes | 20 | 9 | 4 | 7 | 189 | 146 | 43 | 22 | 55.00 |
| 12 | Swinton | 22 | 11 | 1 | 10 | 156 | 208 | -52 | 23 | 52.27 |
| 13 | Batley | 23 | 10 | 1 | 12 | 165 | 191 | -26 | 21 | 45.65 |
| 14 | Bradford Northern | 26 | 10 | 2 | 14 | 156 | 260 | -104 | 22 | 42.31 |
| 15 | Hunslet | 30 | 11 | 1 | 18 | 311 | 314 | -3 | 23 | 38.33 |
| 16 | Bramley | 25 | 6 | 2 | 17 | 186 | 262 | -76 | 14 | 28.00 |
| 17 | St. Helens | 18 | 4 | 2 | 12 | 94 | 261 | -167 | 10 | 27.78 |
| 18 | Brighouse Rangers | 20 | 4 | 2 | 14 | 75 | 302 | -227 | 10 | 25.00 |
| 19 | Hull Kingston Rovers | 25 | 1 | 1 | 23 | 125 | 501 | -376 | 3 | 6.00 |
| 20 | Salford | 28 | 1 | 1 | 26 | 54 | 499 | -445 | 3 | 5.36 |
| 21 | Runcorn | 19 | 1 | 0 | 18 | 51 | 277 | -226 | 2 | 5.26 |
| 22 | Rochdale Hornets | 7 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 156 | -149 | 0 | 0 |

## Challenge Cup

The Challenge Cup Competition was suspended for the duration of the war. The majority of the trophies, such as the County Leagues and County Cups were also suspended for the duration of the First World War.