SL Minor Premiership : 1961-2017

The league title is less important when a competition then goes on to a finals series afterward. So let's celebrate success in that area, who have done well through the weekly grind of a league competition. How I have done that is I scored only the top four finishers each year going back to 1961. Points were allocated as follows: 6 points for 1st, 3 for 2nd, 2 for 3rd, 1 for 4th.

The result: Two teams stood out, Wigan and St Helens, both near each other geographically (in Lancashire) and fierce rivals as you could imagine. 18 teams have been able to be a top four side, 15 of them have gone all the way.

Now for some trivia:

Most wins: Wigan with 14.
Most consecutive wins: Wigan with 7 from 1990 to 1996.
Longest run in the top four: Wigan 21 years from 1985 to 2004.
Latest winner: Castleford in 2017, with its first ever win.
Longest time since being in the top 4: Swinton in 1966 (came 2nd).
Wigan/Saints miss out: 2017 is the first time since 1984 that neither of these sides has been in the top four.

I couldn't put each year on the blog as the chart would be too big. If you want some individual data for a team of any questions, please leave a comment and I will reply asap.

	Rk	Club	Tot	1st	2nd	3rd	4th
	1	Wigan Warriors	136	14	9	9	7
	2	St Helens RFC	133	10	15	8	12
	3	Leeds Rhinos	104	9	9	9	5
	4	Bradford Bulls	64	6	5	5	3
	5	Warrington Wolves	41	2	6	4	3
	6	Widnes Vikings	34	3	2	4	2
	7	Hull FC	33	2	3	5	2
	8	Hull KR	32	3	2	2	4
	9	Castleford Tigers	24	1	1	4	7
	10	Swinton Lions	17	2	1	1
	11	Featherstone Rov	16	1	2	1	2
	12	Salford Red Devils	13	2			2
	13	Huddersfield Giants	14	1		2	3
	14	Wakefield Trinity	11		2	1	3
	15	Halifax RLFC	10	1		2
	16	Leigh Centurions	7	1			1
	17	London Broncos	4		1		1
	18	Catalans Dragons	3			1	1