RayCee Posted July 24, 2021 Share Posted July 24, 2021 Can anyone help me with information about the County leagues? I have known nothing about them until stumbling across this Wiki article on them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_league_county_leagues There is more detail a particular season toward the end of this page under county championships: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1962–63_Northern_Rugby_Football_League_season It finished at the end of the 1968-70 season it seems. My blog: https://rugbyl.blogspot.co.nz/ It takes wisdom to know when a discussion has run its course. It takes reasonableness to end that discussion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derwent Posted July 24, 2021 Share Posted July 24, 2021 The county leagues were merely a way of keeping costs and travelling down. They were essentially conferences. Every team played 36 fixtures, they had to play all the teams in their own region home and away then some fixtures against teams from the other region on a random basis to make up the required number of games. For example, if there were 16 teams in the Lancashire league they’d play 30 games against the other teams in that league and 6 against teams from the Yorkshire league. Although each county had their own league table, at the end of the season the 2 tables were merged to give an overall table. The top 4 in the combined table played off to determine the overall RL champions. 1st v 4th, 2nd v 3rd, winners into the Grand Final. I’m not prejudiced, I hate everybody equally Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RayCee Posted July 24, 2021 Author Share Posted July 24, 2021 47 minutes ago, Derwent said: The county leagues were merely a way of keeping costs and travelling down. They were essentially conferences. Every team played 36 fixtures, they had to play all the teams in their own region home and away then some fixtures against teams from the other region on a random basis to make up the required number of games. For example, if there were 16 teams in the Lancashire league they’d play 30 games against the other teams in that league and 6 against teams from the Yorkshire league. Although each county had their own league table, at the end of the season the 2 tables were merged to give an overall table. The top 4 in the combined table played off to determine the overall RL champions. 1st v 4th, 2nd v 3rd, winners into the Grand Final. Thanks for the reply but I'm still confused. The link below shows they played eight games and went into a finals series. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1962–63_Northern_Rugby_Football_League_season My blog: https://rugbyl.blogspot.co.nz/ It takes wisdom to know when a discussion has run its course. It takes reasonableness to end that discussion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derwent Posted July 24, 2021 Share Posted July 24, 2021 1 hour ago, RayCee said: Thanks for the reply but I'm still confused. The link below shows they played eight games and went into a finals series. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1962–63_Northern_Rugby_Football_League_season Different structure. Prior to then the game was divided as I explained above where the Yorkshire & Lancashire leagues were the main league fixtures. In 62/63 they abandoned that structure and went with a 2 tier system (1st and 2nd division) whereby teams were not geographically split and the 2 leagues were each a mixture of Lancashire & Yorkshire (and Cumberland) clubs. The 8 game competition was not part of the core season, it was a pre-season competition before the main league fixtures commenced. They were known as Western Division and Eastern Division rather than Lancashire and Yorkshire leagues. I’m not prejudiced, I hate everybody equally Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RayCee Posted July 25, 2021 Author Share Posted July 25, 2021 1 hour ago, Derwent said: Different structure. Prior to then the game was divided as I explained above where the Yorkshire & Lancashire leagues were the main league fixtures. In 62/63 they abandoned that structure and went with a 2 tier system (1st and 2nd division) whereby teams were not geographically split and the 2 leagues were each a mixture of Lancashire & Yorkshire (and Cumberland) clubs. The 8 game competition was not part of the core season, it was a pre-season competition before the main league fixtures commenced. They were known as Western Division and Eastern Division rather than Lancashire and Yorkshire leagues. Thank you for the explanation. I was doing some research and when reading about the 1962-63 RL season on Wiki, it gave a detailed summary of a pre-season divisional comp. I didn't know anything about it so looked around the 'Net for more information but I couldn't find anything. If anyone is able to shed light on where more detail for the divisional pre-season leagues can be found, I'd appreciate your help. I'm wondering if it was not considered of much importance or a case of I don't know where to look. My blog: https://rugbyl.blogspot.co.nz/ It takes wisdom to know when a discussion has run its course. It takes reasonableness to end that discussion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Frying Scotsman Posted July 25, 2021 Share Posted July 25, 2021 They were local leagues. For local people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerulean Posted July 25, 2021 Share Posted July 25, 2021 4 hours ago, The Frying Scotsman said: They were local leagues. For local people. An unhelpful contribution, probably with some ulterior intent. With a league of over 30 teams (impossible to play everyone twice), each team played the others from the same “county”, and some opponents from the other “county”. For numerical balance, sometimes a team would voluntarily change county. The league table was the single league table and that is what fans looked at. The single league was a sensible and successful format, the format for the sport for most of its existence, through years where Rugby League was acknowledged to be the country’s third sport. You enjoyed the local derbies, you looked forward to visits from teams from the “other side”. It was an arrangement that worked well. The county championship was an almost accidental by-product, an extra table derived from the results, which added another interest if you wanted to look at it. ‘62/’63 season was an experimental two division season, with a short county set-up at the beginning. It couldn’t be judged because ‘63 turned out to be a “big freeze” winter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yanto Posted July 26, 2021 Share Posted July 26, 2021 On 25/07/2021 at 03:36, RayCee said: Thank you for the explanation. I was doing some research and when reading about the 1962-63 RL season on Wiki, it gave a detailed summary of a pre-season divisional comp. I didn't know anything about it so looked around the 'Net for more information but I couldn't find anything. If anyone is able to shed light on where more detail for the divisional pre-season leagues can be found, I'd appreciate your help. I'm wondering if it was not considered of much importance or a case of I don't know where to look. https://www.rugbyleagueproject.org/competitions/western-divisional-championship-1962-63/results.html https://www.rugbyleagueproject.org/competitions/eastern-divisional-championship-1962-63/results.html A little bit more ..not a lot but hope it helps. https://www.rugbyleagueproject.org/calendar/results1962.html Scroll down to the bottom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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