1944–45 Northern Rugby Football League Wartime Emergency League season

Season summary

The 1944–45 season began on Saturday 2 September 1944.
As in the previous season, there are still only the three Lancashire clubs who have not had to close down and withdrawn from the League. The Northern Rugby League continued with a single (now) 17 club single Competition. As the clubs are still playing different number of marches, the league positions and the title would be decided on a percentage basis...
At the completion of the regular season Bradford Northern were on top of the league on the percentage success (with 34 points from 20 games and a percentage success of 85.00%) with Halifax second (27 points from 16 games @ 84.38%).
Last season’s League Leaders Wakefield Trinity although with the same number of points as Bradford Northern had played more games and finished in third position with 34 points from 23 games – percentage success 73.91%
Wigan finished with one point more than Bradford Northern but had played 4 more games and finished fourth (with a record of played 24 points 35 points and 72.92%)
Castleford finished in a creditable 6th position in their first season back after an earlier withdrawal.
St. Helens, for the third consecutive season, finished (this time joint with York.) bottom (16th out of the 17 clubs) with only 9 points from 23 games and with a points difference of (minus) -217. The two clubs had almost identical records – but St. Helens avoided the wooden spoon as they had a better points record than York (points difference (minus)-273). .
Bradford Northern beat Halifax 26-20 on aggregate in the two legged play-off final.^[1] and win the Championship..
The Wartime Emergency League did not count as an official league championship.
In the Final of the Rugby league Challenge Cup, Huddersfield beat Bradford Northern 13-9 on aggregate over two legs in front of an aggregate crowd of 26,541.
The Lancashire County Cup, suspended for season 1940–41 remained so for the rest of the war and again Wigan competed in the Yorkshire Cup.
In the Final of the Yorkshire County Cup, Halifax beat Hunslet by 14-3 on aggregate in two low scoring legs before an aggregate crowd of 20,800.

Change in Club participation

Challenge Cup

The Challenge Cup Competition had been suspended for season 1939–40, but after being re-introduced for the following season 1940–41 continued again this season.
Each round including the final was played in two legs on a home and away basis

Below are given some of the fixtures and results from this year’s Challenge Cup competition. ^{[2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]}

In the Final of the Rugby league Challenge Cup, Huddersfield beat Bradford Northern 13-9 on aggregate over two legs in front of an aggregate crowd of 26,541.

Lancashire Cup

The Lancashire County Cup, suspended for season 1940–41 remained so for the rest of the war and again Wigan competed in the Yorkshire Cup.

Yorkshire Cup

Below are given some of the fixtures and results from this year’s Yorkshire Cup competition.

In the Final of the Yorkshire County Cup, Halifax beat Hunslet in two low scoring legs by 14-3 on aggregate before an aggregate crowd of 20,800.

Note on the first peacetime league programme which would take place in 1945–46

With the ending of the hostilities in Europe in May 1945 and the Far East in September 1945, a full league programme commences.
All of the clubs who took part in the last peacetime competition in 1938-39 re-joined the league with the exceptions of :-
St Helens Recs – who folded before the war started.
Leigh – who had lost their ground and would not re-join for a further season until 1946–47