1981–82 John Player Trophy

This was the eleventh season for the rugby league League Cup, which was once again known as the John Player Trophy for sponsorship reasons.

Hull F.C. won the trophy, beating derby rivals Hull Kingston Rovers by the score of 12-4 in the final, which was played at Headingley, Leeds, West Yorkshire. The attendance was 25,245 and receipts were £42987.

This season saw two changes in the entrants. With the entry of Cardiff City and Carlisle into the league and also this competition, no junior team was invited, and the number of entrants increased to thirty-three.

To cater for the odd number, a preliminary round consisting of just one single match was introduced.

Involved 1 match and 2 Clubs

Involved 16 matches and 32 Clubs

Involved 1 match and 2 clubs

Involved 8 matches and 16 clubs

Involved 4 matches with 8 clubs

Involved 2 matches and 4 clubs

Scoring - Try = three points - Goal = two points - Drop goal = one point

As part of the sponsorship deal and funds, the prize money awarded to the competing teams for this season is as follows :-

This tree excludes any preliminary round fixtures.

1 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject gives the attendance as 957, but the Huddersfield Yearbook 1981 gives the attendance for this match as 931.

2 * Wigan official archives give the score as 12-10 (obviously incorrect as Hull proceeded to the Semi-finals) but RUGBYLEAGUEproject gives it as 12-14.

3 * Wigan official archives give the score as 0-8 but RUGBYLEAGUEproject gives it as 0-6.

4 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject gives the attendance as 25,165 but Rothmans' Yearbooks 1990-91 and 1991-92 give it as 25,245.

5 * The attendance was a new record for the final, easily beating last year's previous record of 12,820.

6 * Headingley, Leeds, is the home ground of Leeds RLFC with a capacity of 21,000. The record attendance was 40,175 for a league match between Leeds and Bradford Northern on 21 May 1947.

• 1981–82 Rugby Football League season

• 1981 Lancashire Cup

• 1981 Yorkshire Cup

• John Player Trophy

• Rugby league county cups

• Saints Heritage Society

• 1896–97 Northern Rugby Football Union season at wigan.rlfans.com Archived 2014-02-02 at the Wayback Machine

• Hull&Proud Fixtures & Results 1896/1897

• Widnes Vikings - One team, one passion Season In Review - 1896-97

• The Northern Union at warringtonwolves.org

• Huddersfield R L Heritage

• Wakefield until I die