1916–17 Northern Rugby Football Union Wartime Emergency League season

1916–17 Northern Rugby Football Union Wartime Emergency League season
LeagueNorthern Rugby League Wartime Emergency League
1916–17 Season
ChampionsDewsbury
Runners-upLeeds

The 1916–17 Northern Rugby Football Union season was the second 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 Brighouse Rangers and Barrow playing 17 games each while Broughton Rangers played 35 and several other clubs 32.

Season summary

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The war was starting its third year and the Rugby League decided to continue with the Wartime Emergency League. 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 :-

The Featherstone Rovers who joined for the previous season 1915–16 left the league and the name did not appear in the (semi) professional ranks until they joined the Northern Rugby Football League for the 1921–22 season.
Keighley again did not take part and in fact did not re-enter the league until the first peacetime League in 1919–20.

Several of the clubs who had not participated in the competition in the previous season, now re-joined the League :-

Wakefield Trinity
Warrington
Widnes

No new clubs joined the league for this season.

Dewsbury (81.25%) again finished the regular season top of the league, with Leeds (80.65%) again second.
Dewsbury had played one game more, winning this and gaining two points more than Leeds, thus ending the season with a better win percentage.
Dewsbury again took the title.[1]

There were no other trophies to play for during this season.

Championship

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Team P W D L PF PA diff Pts % Note ref
1 Dewsbury 32 26 0 6 542 170 372 52 81.25
2 Leeds 31 23 4 4 452 107 345 50 80.65
3 Leigh 28 20 2 6 317 143 174 42 75
4 Barrow 17 12 0 5 225 57 168 24 70.59
5 Wigan 32 21 0 11 340 168 172 42 65.63
6 Batley 29 16 6 7 309 176 133 38 65.52
7 Hull 31 18 1 12 439 319 120 37 59.68
8 Swinton 32 17 1 14 252 197 55 35 54.69
9 Hull Kingston Rovers 25 12 3 10 180 241 -61 27 54
10 Halifax 28 14 2 12 182 226 -44 30 53.57
11 Widnes 21 10 2 9 145 122 23 22 52.38 1
12 Warrington 30 14 2 14 258 205 53 30 50 1
13 St Helens Recs 30 14 1 15 228 211 17 29 48.33
14 Bradford Northern 26 12 1 13 190 226 -36 25 48.08
15 Bramley 24 9 5 10 150 156 -6 23 47.92
16 Wakefield Trinity 18 7 3 8 119 141 -22 17 47.22 1
17 Oldham 23 10 1 12 138 221 -83 21 45.65
18 Hunslet 30 12 3 15 266 297 -31 27 45
19 Broughton Rangers 35 15 1 19 228 266 -38 31 44.29
20 Salford 30 12 1 17 194 228 -34 25 41.67
21 St. Helens 23 8 0 15 138 266 -128 16 34.78
22 Runcorn 18 5 0 13 56 265 -209 10 27.78
23 Huddersfield 26 4 4 18 129 368 -239 12 23.08
24 Rochdale Hornets 26 5 1 20 73 283 -210 11 21.15
25 Brighouse Rangers 17 1 0 16 59 311 -252 2 5.88
26 York 18 1 0 17 81 320 -239 2 5.56

Challenge Cup

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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.

Notes and Comments

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1 - re-joined the League

See also

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British rugby league system
1915–16 Northern Rugby Football Union Wartime Emergency League season
1917–18 Northern Rugby Football Union Wartime Emergency League season
1918–1919 (January) Northern Rugby Football Union Wartime Emergency League season
1919 (Feb-May) Northern Rugby Football Union Victory season
The Great Schism – Rugby League View
The Great Schism – Rugby Union View
List of defunct rugby league clubs

References

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  1. ^ "1914–15 Season summary". Archived from the original on 2009-08-26. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
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