1919 (Feb-May) Northern Rugby Football Union Victory season
| 1919 (Feb-May) Northern Rugby Football Union Victory season | |
|---|---|
| League | Northern Rugby League Wartime Emergency League |
| 1919 (Feb-May) Season | |
| Lancashire | Rochdale Hornets |
| Yorkshire | Hull |
The 1919 (Feb-May) Northern Rugby Football Union season was the fifth season of Rugby league's Wartime Emergency League football. Each club again played a differing number of fixtures, depending upon the closeness of neighbours, ease of travel etc., with York playing only 4 games and Barrow 5 while Warrington played 17 and Hull F.C. and Leeds 16.
The shortened 1919 (February–May) broken bones end of hostilities and the armistice of Compiègne.
The country was still suffering from the deaths of the long and bitter struggle.
A Wartime Emergency League had been operating since September 1918. This was cancelled, and the programme started tailing off in January 1919.
A new shortened season was introduced with the traditional Lancashire and Yorkshire leagues, to cut travel costs and minimise the use of precious resources.
NOTE - Nowhere in the official archives is the word "Victory" used. It has been used in this article to distinguish between the two competitions held in the 1918–19 season.
The return of the Challenge Cup would have to wait until the following 1919-20, but the Northern Union did manager to re-introduce both the County Cups.
At the end of the shortened regular season, Rochdale Hornets and Hull F.C. were declared as Lancashire and Yorkshire League Champions respectively, but there was no play-off to establish an overall Champion.
The Lancashire and Yorkshire County cups were won by Rochdale Hornets and Huddersfield respectively.
There were some changes from the previous shortened season.
Several clubs re-joined the competition :-
A couple of clubs still did not participate during this season :-
Two clubs were lost :-
No new clubs joined the league for this season.
The Lancashire and Yorkshire Leagues were set up following the end of the First World War in November 1918, and a shortened programme was played in what would have been the second half of the 1918–19 Season. Prior to this a War Emergency League was started and not finished (click here).
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