Spring 1919 Yorkshire Cup

Structure

Regional knockout championship

Number of teams

Winners

Runners-up

< 1914	Seasons	1919 (Autumn) >

The Spring 1919 Yorkshire Cup was the eleventh occasion on which the Yorkshire Cup competition had been held. This quickly arranged competition was won by the cup holder who would make it a hat trick of wins, taking up where they left off before the start of the World War. Huddersfield beat Dewsbury by the score of 14-8 in the final. The match was played at Headingley, Leeds, now in West Yorkshire. The attendance was 21,500 and receipts were £1,309.

The shortened Spring 1919 (February–May) season began less than three months after the end of the hostilities and the armistice of Compiègne. The country was still suffering from the aftermath of the long and bitter struggle. The 1918–19 (January) Northern Rugby Football Union Wartime Emergency League season had been operating since September 1918. This was cancelled, and the programme started tailing off in January 1919. The only club to be "lost" to the Yorkshire League was Keighley who closed down for the duration of the War and did not recommence playing until the start of the 1919-20 season. This season saw an invitation to junior/amateur club Featherstone Rovers which, with the temporary loss of Keighley, resulted in the total entries remaining the same as in the previous competition held before the outbreak of the war at thirteen. This in turn resulted in three byes in the first round.

This was Huddersfield's sixth appearance in what would be seven appearances in eight consecutive finals between 1909 and 1919 (which included four successive victories and six in total), and who knows, but for the intervention of the First World War and suspension of the competition, it may have been more. It was also the third of the four consequertive wins.

Background

The Rugby Football League's 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 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).

Competition and Results^[1]^[2]

Round 1

Involved 5 matches (with three byes) and 13 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Notes	Ref

1	Sat 12 Apr 1919	Hull KR	18-0	Halifax	Craven Street (off Holderness Road)
2	Sat 12 Apr 1919	Wakefield Trinity	18-9	Bradford Northern	Belle Vue
3	Sat 26 Apr 1919	Hull	6-0	Leeds	Boulevard		^[3]
4	Sat 26 Apr 1919	Hunslet	5-16	Huddersfield	Parkside
5	Sat 26 Apr 1919	York	0-2	Bramley	Clarence Street	1
6		Batley	0	bye
7		Dewsbury	0	bye
8		Featherstone Rovers	0	bye		2

Round 2 - Quarter Finals

Involved 4 matches and 8 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Notes	Ref

1	Sat 3 May 1919	Dewsbury	7-2	Batley	Crown Flatt
2	Sat 3 May 1919	Hull	31-4	Bramley	Boulevard		^[3]
3	Sat 3 May 1919	Hull KR	4-19	Huddersfield	Craven Street (off Holderness Road)
4	Sat 3 May 1919	Wakefield Trinity	14-3	Featherstone Rovers	Belle Vue	2

Round 3 – Semi-Finals

Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Ref

1	Sat 10 May 1919	Dewsbury	3-2	Wakefield Trinity	Crown Flatt
2	Sat 10 May 1919	Huddersfield	23-13	Hull	Fartown	^[3]

Final

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref

	Saturday 17 May 1919	Huddersfield		14-8		Dewsbury	Headingley	21500	1309	3	^[4]^[5]

Teams and Scorers^[6]

Huddersfield	№	Dewsbury

actual position unsure	teams	team unknown
	1
	2
	3
	4
R Habron	5
	6
Johnny Rogers	7
	8
Douglas Clark	9
Ben Gronow	10
	11
Gleeson	?
	13
??	Coach	??

14	score	8
7	HT	0

	Scorers
	Tries
Gleeson (1)	T
R Habron (1)	T
	Goals
Ben Gronow (4)	G
	Drop Goals
	DG
Referee		unknown

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

The road to success

First Round		Second Round		Semi Finals		Final


Hull KR	18

Halifax	0
		Hull KR	4

		Huddersfield	19
Hunslet	5

Huddersfield	16
				Huddersfield	23

				Hull	13
Hull	6

Leeds	0
		Hull	31

		Bramley	4
York	0

Bramley	2
						Huddersfield	14

						Dewsbury	8
Dewsbury

bye
		Dewsbury	7

		Batley	2
Batley

bye
				Dewsbury	3

				Wakefield Trinity	2
Wakefield Trinity	18

Bradford Northern	9
		Wakefield Trinity	14

		Featherstone Rovers	3
Featherstone Rovers

bye

Notes

1 * Bramley entered the Yorkshire Cup competition in the inaugural year of 1905, and have competed in each tournament since, but this was the first cup match won by them.
2 * Featherstone Rovers were at the time a junior/amateut club. They eventually joined the League for season 1921-22
3 * 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.

References

↑ "Rugby League Project".
↑ Jack Winstanley & Malcolm Ryding (1991). John Player Yearbook 1975-76. Queen Anne Press.
1 2 3 "HULL&PROUD - Stats - Fixtures & Results".
↑ Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1991). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991-1992. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617852 8.
↑ Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1990). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1990-1991. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617851 X.
↑ "Huddersfield RL Heritage 1918-19" (PDF).

External links

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