1949–50 Yorkshire Cup

1949–50 was the forty-second occasion on which the Yorkshire Cup competition had been held.

1949–50 Yorkshire Cup
Structure	Regional knockout championship
Teams	16
Winners	Bradford Northern
Runners-up	Huddersfield
← 1948–49 1950–51 →

Bradford Northern won the trophy by beating Huddersfield by the score of 11-4.

The match was played at Headingley, Leeds, now in West Yorkshire. The attendance was 36,000, a record never to be beaten, and receipts were £6,365.

This was the second of two successive wins for Bradford Northern

Background

This season, junior/amateur clubs Yorkshire Amateurs were again invited to take part and the number of clubs who entered remained at the same as last season's total number of sixteen.

This in turn resulted in no byes in the first round.

The competition again followed the original formula of a knock-out tournament, with the exception of the first round which was still played on a two-legged home and away basis.

Competition and results

Round 1 – first leg

Involved 8 matches (with no byes) and 16 clubs

All first round ties are played on a two-legged home and away basis

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	agg	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Sat 10 Sep 1949	Huddersfield		13-5		Leeds	Fartown
2	Sat 10 Sep 1949	Hunslet		7-10		Dewsbury	Parkside
3	Sat 10 Sep 1949	Batley		10-7		Halifax	Mount Pleasant
4	Sat 10 Sep 1949	Castleford		12-8		Hull	Wheldon Road					^[1]
5	Sat 10 Sep 1949	York		11-28		Bradford Northern	Clarence Street
6	Sat 10 Sep 1949	Hull Kingston Rovers		6-3		Bramley	Craven Park (1)
7	Sat 10 Sep 1949	Wakefield Trinity		19-12		Featherstone Rovers	Belle Vue
8	Sat 10 Sep 1949	Keighley		45-2		Yorkshire Amateurs	Lawkholme Lane				1

Round 1 – second leg

Involved 8 matches (with no byes) and 16 clubs

All first round ties are played on a two-legged home and away basis

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	agg	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Mon 12 Sep 1949	Leeds		8-16		Huddersfield	Headingley	13-29
2	Tue 13 Sep 1949	Dewsbury		19-0		Hunslet	Crown Flatt	29-7
3	Tue 13 Sep 1949	Halifax		2-7		Batley	Thrum Hall	9-17
4	Tue 13 Sep 1949	Hull		13-13		Castleford	Boulevard	21-25			2	^[1]
5	Wed 14 Sep 1949	Bradford Northern		25-11		York	Odsal	53-22
6	Wed 14 Sep 1949	Bramley		13-4		Hull Kingston Rovers	Barley Mow	16-10
7	Wed 14 Sep 1949	Featherstone Rovers		2-12		Wakefield Trinity	Post Office Road	14-31
8	Thu 15 Sep 1949	Yorkshire Amateurs		8-15		Keighley	Mount Pleasant	10-60			1

Round 2 - quarterfinals

Involved 4 matches and 8 clubs

All second round ties are played on a knock-out basis

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	agg	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Wed 21 Sep 1949	Bradford Northern		13-6		Castleford	Odsal
2	Wed 21 Sep 1949	Bramley		5-4		Keighley	Barley Mow
3	Wed 28 Sep 1949	Huddersfield		20-12		Wakefield Trinity	Fartown		21737			^[2]
4	Thu 29 Sep 1949	Dewsbury		12-5		Batley	Crown Flatt

Round 3 – semifinals

Involved 2 matches and 4 clubs

Both semi-final ties are played on a knock-out basis

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	agg	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Wed 12 Oct 1949	Bramley		6-8		Bradford Northern	Barley Mow
2	Wed 19 Oct 1949	Dewsbury		2-7		Huddersfield	Crown Flatt

Final

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	agg	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
	Saturday 29 October 1949	Bradford Northern		11-4		Huddersfield	Headingley		36,000	£6,365	3 4	^[3]^[4]

Teams and scorers

Bradford Northern	No.	Huddersfield
	teams
Billy Leake	1	E. Swallow
Eric Batten	2	George Wilson
Jack Kitching	3	Jeff Bawden
Ernest Ward	4	Pat Devery
Emlyn Walters	5	Lionel Cooper
Willie Davies	6	Russell Pepperell
Donald Ward	7	Billy Banks
Eric Day	8	John Maiden
Victor "Vic" Darlison	9	Mel Meek
Ron Greaves	10	John "Jack" Daly
Trevor Foster	11	Ike Owens
Barry Tyler	12	Bob Nicholson
Ken Traill	13	Dave Valentine (c)
Dai Rees	Coach	??
11	score	4
4	HT	2
	Scorers
	Tries
Willie Davies (1)	T
	Goals
Ernest Ward (4)	G	Jeff Bawden (2)
Referee		Mr. W. Hemmings (Halifax)

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

^[5][6][7]

The road to success

All the ties in the first round were played on a two leg (home and away) basis.

For the first round ties, the first club named in each of the ties played the first leg at home.

For the first round ties, the scores shown are the aggregate score over the two legs.

	First round					Second round					Semifinals					Final
	Hull Kingston Rovers		10
	Bramley		16
						Bramley		5
						Keighley		4
	Keighley		60
	Yorkshire Amateurs		10
											Bramley		6
											Bradford Northern		8
	York		22
	Bradford Northern		53
						Bradford Northern		13
						Castleford		6
	Castleford		25
	Hull		21
																Bradford Northern		11
																Huddersfield		4
	Hunslet		7
	Dewsbury		29
						Dewsbury		12
						Batley		5
	Batley		17
	Halifax		9
											Dewsbury		2
											Huddersfield		7
	Huddersfield		29
	Leeds		13
						Huddersfield		20
						Wakefield Trinity		12
	Wakefield Trinity		31
	Featherstone Rovers		14

^[8][9]

Notes and comments

1 * Yorkshire Amateurs were a team from Yorkshire which appeared to have players selected from many both professional and amateur clubs - can anyone comment ? Yorkshire Amateurs played on many grounds, this match was played at Parkside, the ground of Hunslet

2 * The date is given by RUGBYLEAGUEproject xx as Tuesday 13 September, but by the official Hull F.C. archives as Wednesday 14 September

3 * The attendance was a new record, never to be beaten, and beating the previous of 34,300 set in 1946

4 * 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.

General information for those unfamiliar

The Rugby League 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)

See also

• 1949–50 Northern Rugby Football League season
• Rugby league county cups

References

1. "HULL&PROUD - Stats - Fixtures & Results".
2. J C Lindley and D W Armitage (1973). 100 Years of Rugby. The History of Wakefield Trinity 1873-1973. Wakefield Trinity Centenary Committee. ISBN 0 35617852 8.
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.
5. "Huddersfield RL Heritage 1949–50" (PDF).
6. "Match Programme Yorkshire Cup Final 1949" (PDF).
7. Yorks RL Assos (1949). Match programme Bradford Northern v Huddersfield 1949 Yorkshire Cup Final. Yorkshire RL Association.
8. "Rugby League Project".
9. Jack Winstanley & Malcolm Ryding (1991). John Player Yearbook 1975-76. Queen Anne Press.

External links

• Saints Heritage Society
• 1896–97 Northern Rugby Football Union season at wigan.rlfans.com
• Widnes Vikings - One team, one passion Season In Review - 1896-97