1988–89 John Player Special Trophy

The 1988–89 John Player Special Trophy was the eighteenth season for the competition (named as such due to sponsorship from John Player & Sons).

Wigan won the final, beating Widnes by the score of 12-6. The match was played at Burnden Park, Bolton, Greater Manchester. The attendance was 20,709 and receipts were £94874.

Background
This season saw no changes in the entrants, no new members and no withdrawals, the number remaining at thirty-six

Huddersfield dropped the "Barracuda" suffix and the  ground reverted to the traditional Fartown name, much to the relief of most of the fans - and - Springfield Borough moved to Chorley after only one season and re-branded themselves Chorley Borough, playing at Victory Park, the home of Chorley FC

Preliminary round
Involved 4 matches and 8 Clubs

Round 1 - First Round
Involved 16 matches and 32 Clubs

Round 2 - Second Round
Involved 8 matches and 16 Clubs

Round 3 -Quarter Finals
Involved 4 matches with 8 clubs

Round 3 -Quarter Finals - Replays
Involved 1 match with 2 clubs

Round 4 – Semi-Finals
Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs

Teams and scorers
Scoring - Try = four 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 :- Note - the author is unable to trace the award amounts for this season. Can anyone help ?

The road to success
This tree excludes any preliminary round fixtures

Notes and comments
1 * Wigan St Patricks are a Junior (amateur) club from Wigan

2 * Elland are a Junior (amateur) club from the Halifax area of Yorkshire

3 * Runcorn Highfield forfeited home advantage for a larger gate. Runcorn Players were also in dispute and the club fielded a very reduced strength team comprised a number of trialists and reserves (and coach Bill Ashurst, (an ex Wigan player) who came out of retirement especially to play, and was disappointedly sent off 12 minutes after coming off the subs bench)

4 * A Wigan record victory in this tournament

5 * The highest score, highest score by home team and highest winning margin in the competition, between all clubs to date

6 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject and Widnes official archives give the score as 37-12 but Wigan official archives gives it as 37-2

7 * Burnden Park was the home of English football club Bolton Wanderers from 1895 to 1997. It hosted the 1900-01 FA Cup Final replay in which Tottenham Hotspur beat Sheffield United 3.1. The record attendance was for a 6th round F A Cup match with Stoke City (Stanley Matthews played for Stoke at the time) at which, although the ground capacity was set at 70,000, an estimated 85,000 fans crowded in, and when two crush barriers broke, the result was 33 fans killed and another 400 injured. The capacity at closure was a mere 25,000