1986–87 League Cup (rugby league)
This was the sixteenth season of the rugby league League Cup, again known as the John Player Special Trophy for sponsorship purposes. Wigan won the trophy, beating Warrington 18-4 in the final. The match was played at Burnden Park, Bolton, Greater Manchester. The attendance was 22,144 and receipts were £86041. Background. This season saw no changes in the entrants, no new members and no withdrawals, the number remaining at thirty-six. There were no drawn matches in this seasons tournament Competition and results. Preliminary round. Involved 4 matches and 8 Clubs Round 1  - First Round. Involved 16 matches and 32 Clubs Round 2 - Second Round. Involved 8 matches and 16 Clubs Round 3 -Quarter Finals. Involved 4 matches with 8 clubs Round 4 – Semi-Finals. Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs Final. Teams and scorers. Scoring - Try = four (4) points - Goal = two (2) points - Drop goal = one (1) point Prize money. As part of the sponsorship deal and funds, the prize money awarded to the competing teams for this season is as follows :- Note - the author is unable to trace the award amounts for this season. Can anyone help ? The  road to success. This tree excludes any preliminary round fixtures Notes and comments. 1 * Millom are a Junior (amateur) club from Cumbria, current home ground is the Coronation Field ground. 2 * Myson are a Junior (amateur) club from Hull 3 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject gives score as 36-10 but Wigan official archives gives it as 3-10 (which must be incorrect as Barrow progressed to Round 1) 4 * The highest score, highest score by home team, and highest winning margin between professional clubs, to date 5 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject and Wigan official archives gives the venue as Borough Park, the home of Blackpool Borough  but Hull F.C. official archives give the venue as Boulevard, home of Hull F.C. 6 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject gives the score as 8-14 but Wigan official archives gives it as 6-14 7 * The Rugby League Authorities were very unhappy with the television coverage of this final offered by the BBC. The broadcaster missed the first six minutes of the second half televising a horse race from Ireland. They also ignored the trophy presentation entirely and disrupted the pre match entertainment to interview Great Britain coach Malcolm Reilly, yet didn't show that interview anyway! 8 * Burnden Park was the home  of English football club Bolton Wanderers from 1895 to 1997. It hosted the 1900-01 FA Cup Final replay in which Tottenham Hotspur beat Sheffield United 3.1. The record attendance was for a 6th round F A Cup match with Stoke City (Stanley Matthews played for Stoke at the time) at which, although the ground capacity was set at 70,000, an estimated 85,000 fans crowded in, and when two crush barriers broke, the result was 33 fans killed and another 400 injured. The capacity at closure was a mere 25,000 General information for those unfamiliar. The council of the Rugby  Football League voted to introduce a new competition, to be similar to The Football Association and Scottish Football Association's "League Cup". It was to be a similar knock-out structure to, and to be secondary to, the Challenge Cup. As this was being formulated, sports sponsorship was becoming more prevalent and as a result John Player and Sons, a division of Imperial Tobacco Company, became sponsors, and the competition never became widely known as the "League Cup" The competition ran from 1971-72 until 1995-96 and was initially intended for the professional clubs plus the two amateur BARLA  National Cup finalists. In later seasons the entries were expanded to take in other amateur and French teams. The competition was dropped due to "fixture congestion" when Rugby League became a summer sport 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 usually taking place in late January The competition was variably known, by its sponsorship name, as the Player's No.6 Trophy (1971–1977), the John Player Trophy (1977–1983), the  John Player Special Trophy (1983–1989), and the Regal Trophy in 1989.