1965–66 BBC2 Floodlit Trophy
# 1965–66 BBC2 Floodlit Trophy

The 1965–66 BBC2 Floodlit Trophy was the inaugural season of the BBC2 Floodlit Trophy competition. Castleford won the trophy by beating St. Helens with a score of 4–0. The match was played at Knowsley Road, Eccleston, St Helens, Merseyside. The attendance was 11,510 and receipts were £3,548. This was to be the first of Castleford's three victories in successive seasons in the first three Floodlit competitions.

## Background

This season there were only eight teams entering, all by invite, playing eleven matches for which the BBC paid the RFL a grand total of £9,000.00. The entrants included the seven clubs with permanent floodlights: Castleford, Leigh, Oldham, St Helens, Swinton, Warrington and Widnes together with Leeds, who installed floodlights in September 1966. The competition was played in the form of a mini-league with the semi-finals and final stages being on a knock out basis.

## Competition and results

### Qualifying rounds

Each team played two matches in the qualifying round. All teams played one home game each except Leeds, who played both games away from home as their floodlights still needed to be installed.

The four teams with the best points difference qualified for the semi-finals.

**Round 1**

| Game No | Fixture Date | Home Team | Score | Away Team | Venue | Att |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Tue 6 Oct 1965 | St. Helens | 25–19 | Leigh | Knowsley Road | 13000 |
| 2 | Tue 12 Oct 1965 | Warrington | 10–20 | Widnes | Wilderspool | |
| 3 | Tue 19 Oct 1965 | Swinton | 21–5 | Oldham | Station Road | |
| 4 | Tue 26 Oct 1965 | Castleford | 7–7 | Leeds | Wheldon Road | |

**Round 2**

| Game No | Fixture Date | Home Team | Score | Away Team | Venue | Att |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Tue 2 Nov 1965 | Leigh | 13–9 | Warrington | Hilton Park | |
| 2 | Tue 9 Nov 1965 | Widnes | 19–8 | Swinton | Naughton Park | |
| 3 | Tue 16 Nov 1965 | St. Helens | 21–9 | Leeds | Knowsley Road | 5600 |
| 4 | Tue 25 Nov 1965 | Oldham | 4–6 | Castleford | Watersheddings | |

**Table**

| Pos | Club | P | W | D | L | PF | PA | Pts | PD |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Widnes | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 39 | 18 | 4 | 21 |
| 2 | St. Helens | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 46 | 28 | 4 | 18 |
| 3 | Swinton | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 29 | 24 | 2 | 5 |
| 4 | Castleford | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 11 | 3 | 2 |
| 5 | Leigh | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 32 | 34 | 2 | -2 |
| 6 | Leeds | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 16 | 28 | 1 | -12 |
| 7 | Warrington | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 19 | 33 | 0 | -14 |
| 8 | Oldham | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 27 | 0 | -18 |

Pos = Finishing position P = Games played W = Wins D = Draw L = Lose PF = Points scored PA = Points against Pts = League points PD = Points scored difference

### Semi-finals

| Game No | Fixture Date | Home Team | Score | Away Team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Tue 30 Nov 1965 | Widnes | 9–12 | Castleford | Naughton Park | | | | |
| 2 | Tue 7 Dec 1965 | St. Helens | 9–5 | Swinton | Knowsley Road | 9000 | | | |

### Final

| Game No | Fixture Date | Home Team | Score | Away Team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| | Tuesday 14 December 1965 | St. Helens | 0–4 | Castleford | Knowsley Road | 11,510 | £3,548 | 1 | |

**Teams and scorers**

| Castleford | № | St. Helens |
| - | - | - |
| | teams | |
| Derek Edwards | 1 | Frank Barrow |
| Colin Battye | 2 | Tom van Vollenhoven |
| Malcolm Battye | 3 | David Wood |
| Ron Willett | 4 | Billy Benyon |
| Trevor Briggs | 5 | Len Killeen |
| Alan "Chuck" Hardisty | 6 | Alex Murphy |
| Roger Millward | 7 | Bob Prosser |
| Abe Terry | 8 | Ray French |
| John Ward | 9 | Robert "Bob" Dagnall |
| Clive Dickinson | 10 | Cliff Watson |
| Wiliam "Bill" Bryant | 11 | Merv Hicks |
| John Taylor | 12 | John Mantle |
| Peter Small | 13 | Doug Laughton |
| Trevor Bedford (unused?) | 14 | |
| John Walker (unused?) | 15 | |
| George Clinton | Coach | Joe Coen |
| 4 | score | 0 |
| 2 | HT | 0 |
| | Scorers | |
| | Goals | |
| Ron Willett (2) | G | |
| Referee | | Laurie Gant (Wakefield) |

Scoring - Try = three (3) points - Goal = two (2) points - Drop goal = two (2) points

### The play-offs

| Semi-Finals | Semi-Finals | Semi-Finals | Final | Final | Final |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 2 | St. Helens | 9 | | | |
| 3 | Swinton | 5 | | | |
| 3 | Swinton | 5 | St. Helens | St. Helens | 0 |
| | | | Castleford | Castleford | 4 |
| 1 | Widnes | 9 | Castleford | Castleford | 4 |
| 4 | Castleford | 12 | | | |

## Notes and comments

Knowsley Road was the home of St Helens R.F.C. from 1890 until its closure in 2010. The final capacity was 17,500 although the record attendance was 35,695 set on 26 December 1949 for a league game between St Helens and Wigan.

### General information

The Rugby League BBC2 Floodlit Trophy was a knock-out competition sponsored by the BBC and between rugby league clubs, entrance to which was conditional upon the club having floodlights. Most matches were played on an evening, and those of which the second half was televised, were played on a Tuesday evening.

Despite the competition being named as 'Floodlit', many matches took place during the afternoons and not under floodlights, and several of the entrants, including Barrow and Bramley, did not have adequate lighting. When in 1973, due to the world oil crisis, the government restricted the use of floodlights in sport, all of the matches, including the Trophy final, had to be played in the afternoon rather than at night. 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 taking place in December (the only exception to this was when disruption of the fixture list was caused by inclement weather).

