1905 Yorkshire Cup

1905-06 Yorkshire Cup
Structure Regional knockout championship
Number of teams 20
Winners Hunslet
Runners-up Halifax
Seasons 1906 >

The 1905 Yorkshire Cup competition was a knock-out competition between (mainly professional) rugby league clubs from the county of Yorkshire. The actual area was at times increased to encompass other teams from outside the county such as Newcastle, Mansfield, Coventry, and even London (in the form of Acton & Willesden.
The Rugby League season always (until the onset of "Summer Rugby" in 1996) ran from around August-time through to around May-time and this competition always took place early in the season, in the Autumn, with the final taking place in (or just before) December (The only exception to this was when disruption of the fixture list was caused during, and immediately after, the two World Wars)
1905 was the inaugural year for the Rugby League "Yorkshire Cup" competition.

The cup was won by Hunslet who beat Halifax by a score of 13-3
The match was played at Park Avenue in the City of Bradford, now in West Yorkshire. The attendance was 18,500 and receipts were £465

The Competition

Following the great schism of 1895 which led to the formation of rugby league there appear to be very little interest in a competitive competition organised on a regional basis, at least between clubs based in Yorkshire. Prior to the breakaway from rugby union this was something that had been discouraged as it was feared that competition would lead to professionalism, as had happened in other sports like Association Football.
One of the exceptions was the trophy played for by the Yorkshire Rugby Union clubs. "T'owd Tin Pot", or officially, the Yorkshire Challenge Cup. The Governing body of the RFU were appalled at the idea, but turned a blind eye as all the proceeds from the final were distributed among various charities.
It was around 10 years after the "great schism" before the idea of a County Cup for the Rugby League game became a reality. There appears to be very little, if any, details of how the introduction of the county cup competitions came about, or any details of any of the instigators or of any campaign, but the County Cups became the last part of what would become known as the four cups.
The competitions were played on the same basis as was the Challenge Cup, i.e. a free draw with matches played on a sudden death straight knock-out basis, and with the final played (usually) on a neutral ground.
The county cups were last played for in the 1992-93 season, by which time, clubs were complaining about fixture congestion. The competition did continue in a revised form and for the junior (or amateur) part of the game and in the form of The Yorkshire Cup, The Lancashire Cup and The Cumbria County Cup.

Background

For this inaugural competition, a total of twenty clubs had entered, and so a preliminary round was introduced involving eight clubs, to reduce the number of clubs taking part in the main competition to sixteen, a full complement for a four round knock-out tournament.

Competition and Results[1]

Preliminary Round

Involved 4 matches and 8 clubs

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
P1Sat 16 Sep 1905Featherstone Rovers9-10Huddersfieldunknown1
P2Wed 04 Oct 1905York2-0PontefractClarence Street
P3Sat 07 Oct 1905Outwood Parish Church3-0Normantonunknown2
P4Sat 07 Oct 1905Saville Green10-0Brighouse Rangersunknown3

Round 1

Involved 5 matches (with three byes) and 13 Clubs

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
1Sat 14 Oct 1905Batley7-2Wakefield TrinityMount Pleasant
2Sat 14 Oct 1905Hull5-2BramleyBarley Mow4[2]
3Sat 14 Oct 1905Dewsbury0-0BradfordCrown Flatt
4Sat 14 Oct 1905Keighley30-8Castleford (1896)Lawkholme Lane
5Sat 14 Oct 1905Leeds5-7HalifaxHeadingley
6Sat 14 Oct 1905Outwood Parish Church0-24Hull KRunknown2
7Sat 14 Oct 1905York4-3HuddersfieldClarence Street
8Sat 21 Oct 1905Hunslet14-0Saville GreenParkside3

Round 1 - Replays

Involved 1 match and 2 Clubs

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
RTue 24 Oct 1905Bradford5-0DewsburyPark Avenue

Round 2 - Quarter Finals

Involved 4 matches and 8 Clubs

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
1Sat 28 Oct 1905Batley5-5Hull KRMount Pleasant
2Sat 28 Oct 1905Halifax10-0HullThrum Hall[2]
3Sat 28 Oct 1905Hunslet37-3KeighleyParkside
4Sat 28 Oct 1905York2-0BradfordClarence Street

Round 2 - Replays

Involved 1 match and 2 Clubs

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
RTue 07 Nov 1905Hull KR7-4BatleyCraven Street (off Holderness Road)

Round 3 – Semi-Finals

Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
1Sat 18 Nov 1905Halifax11-5YorkThrum Hall
2Sat 18 Nov 1905Hull KR3A12HunsletCraven Street (off Holderness Road)5

Semi-Final - Replays

Involved 1 match and 2 Clubs

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
RWed 22 Nov 1905Hunslet14-3Hull KRParkside6

Final

Game No Fixture Date Home Team Score Away Team Venue Att Rec Notes Ref
Saturday 2 December 1905Hunslet13-3HalifaxPark Avenue185004657[3][4]

Teams and Scorers

Hunslet № Halifax
teams
Herbert Place1William "Billy" B. Little
Charles "Charlie" Ward2H. Hartley
William "Billy" Eagers3William Williams
Walter Goldthorpe4W. Wedgewood
William Ward5W. Drummond
Albert Goldthorpe6Joe Riley
Albert Everson7James Hilton
J. Shooter8Ike Bartle
Bill Jukes9F. Hammond
Bill Brookes10George Langhorn
W. Wray11Walter Morton
Harry Wilson12R. Norton
H. Wilcox13Jack Riley
Tom Walsh14J. Swinbank
J. Glew15R. Winskill
Coaches
13score3
4HT3
Scorers
Tries
Charlie Ward (1)TW. Drummond (1)
T
T
Goals
Walter Goldthorpe (2)G
Albert Goldthorpe (3)G
Drop Goals
DG
RefereeW. McCutcheon (Oldham)

Scoring - Try = three (3) points - Goal = two (2) points - Drop goal = one (1) point

The road to success

The following chart excludes any preliminary round fixtures/results

First Round Second Round Semi Finals Final
            
Batley 7
Wakefield Trinity 2
Batley 5 (4)
Hull KR 5 (7)
Outwood Parish Church 0
Hull KR 24
Hull KR 3 (3)
Hunslet 12 (14)
Hunslet 14
Saville Green 0
Hunslet 37
Keighley 3
Keighley 30
Castleford (1896) 8
Hunslet 13
Halifax 3
Leeds 5
Halifax 7
Halifax 10
Hull 0
Hull 5
Bramley 2
Halifax 11
York 5
York 4
Huddersfield 3
York 2
Bradford 0
Dewsbury 0 (0)
Bradford 0 (5)

Notes and comments

1 * Featherstone Rovers were at the time a junior/amateur club from FeatherstonE
2 * Outwood Parish Church were a junior/amateur club from Outwood (a district to the North of Wakefield) who were playing in the Yorkshire Second Competition (Eastern Section)
3 * Saville Green were a junior/amateur club from the East Leeds area
4 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] gives Bramley as the home team (and playing at Barley Mow) but the official Hull archives give the venue as Boulevard, Hull's home ground.
5 * Match abandoned after 63 minutes due to "bad light"
6 * Unknown reason for replayed fixture being reversed instead at Craven Park.
7 * Park Avenue was the home ground of Bradford from 1880 until "The Great Betrayal", in 1907. Although the ground capacity is not known it is estimated to have been between 20,000-30,000

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Rugby League Project".
  2. 1 2 "HULL&PROUD - Stats - Fixtures & Results 1896/1897".
  3. ↑ Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1991). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991-1992. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617852 8.
  4. ↑ Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1990). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1990-1991. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617851 X.

External links

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