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.

Background
This season saw two change 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.

Preliminary round
Involved 1 match and 2 Clubs

First round
Involved 16 matches and 32 Clubs

First-round replays
Involved 1 match and 2 clubs

Second round
Involved 8 matches and 16 clubs

Quarter finals
Involved 4 matches with 8 clubs

Semi-finals
Involved 2 matches and 4 clubs

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

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

The road to success
This tree excludes any preliminary round fixtures

Notes and comments
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 Rothman's Yearbooks 1990-91 and 1991-92 give it as 25,245

5 * The attendance was a new record for the final, easily beating last years 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.