1979–80 Yorkshire Cup

The 1979–80 Yorkshire Cup was the seventy-second occasion on which the Yorkshire Cup competition had been held.

1979–80 Yorkshire Cup
Structure	Regional knockout championship
Teams	16
Winners	Leeds
Runners-up	Halifax
← 1978–79 1980–81 →

Leeds winning the trophy by beating Halifax by the score of 15-6

The match was played at Headingley, Leeds, now in West Yorkshire. The attendance was 9,137 and receipts were £9,999

This was Leeds' seventh victory (and the first of two consecutive victories for the third time within the sequence) in what would be eight times in the space of thirteen seasons.

This would be Halifax's last appearance in a Yorkshire Cup final, giving them a total record of five wins and four defeats.

Background

This season there were no junior/amateur clubs taking part, no new entrants and no "leavers" and so the total of entries remained the same at sixteen.

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

Competition and results

^[1]

Round 1

Involved 8 matches (with no byes) and 16 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Fri 17 Aug 1979	Bramley		5-12		Halifax	McLaren Field
2	Sun 19 Aug 1979	Leeds		26-14		Castleford	Headingley
3	Sun 19 Aug 1979	Dewsbury		16-15		York	Crown Flatt
4	Sun 19 Aug 1979	Huddersfield		7-22		Bradford Northern	Fartown
5	Sun 19 Aug 1979	Hull F.C.		13-19		Featherstone Rovers	Boulevard				^[2]
6	Sun 19 Aug 1979	Hunslet		33-12		Keighley	Mount Pleasant			1
7	Sun 19 Aug 1979	Wakefield Trinity		28-16		Hull Kingston Rovers	Belle Vue
8	Sun 19 Aug 1979	Batley		26-14		Doncaster	venue unknown

Round 2 - Quarter-finals

Involved 4 matches and 8 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Sun 26 Aug 1979	Batley		6-29		Leeds	Mount Pleasant
2	Sun 26 Aug 1979	Bradford Northern		5-30		Wakefield Trinity	Odsal
3	Sun 26 Aug 1979	Featherstone Rovers		16-17		Dewsbury	Post Office Road
4	Sun 26 Aug 1979	Halifax		23-12		Hunslet	Thrum Hall

Round 3 – Semi-finals

Involved 2 matches and 4 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Wed 19 Sep 1979	Wakefield Trinity		7-12		Leeds	Belle Vue
2	Thu 20 Sep 1979	Halifax		5-3		Dewsbury	Thrum Hall

Final

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
	Saturday 27 October 1979	Leeds		15-6		Halifax	Headingley	9,137	£9,999	2 3	^[3]^[4]

Teams and scorers

^[4]

Leeds	№	Halifax
	teams
Neil Hague	1	Jimmy Birts
Alan Smith	2	Derek Howard
David Smith	3	Graham Garrod
Les Dyl	4	David Cholmondeley
John Atkinson	5	Keith Waites
John Holmes	6	Bob Blacker
Kevin Dick	7	Terry Langton
Roy Dickinson	8	Peter Jarvis
David Ward	9	Dean Raistrick
Steve Pitchford	10	Alan Wood
Graham Eccles	11	Mick Scott
David Heron	12	Greg Sharp
Phil Cookson	13	David "Buzzy" Busfield
John Sanderson	14	Mick Snee (for Derek Howard)
Bryan Adams (for David Heron)	15	David Callon (for Peter Jarvis)
Syd Hynes	Coach	Maurice Bamford
15	score	6
10	HT	6
	Scorers
	Tries
Alan Smith (2)	T
David Smith (1)	T
	Goals
Kevin Dick (3)	G	Jimmy Birts (3)
Referee		Michael "Mick" J. Naughton (Widnes)
White Rose Trophy for Man of the match		Alan Smith - Leeds - Wing
sponsored by
Competition Sponsor		Esso

Scoring - Try = three points - Goal = two points - Drop goal = one point

The road to success

	First round					Second round					Semi-finals					Final
	Huddersfield		7
	Bradford Northern		22
						Bradford Northern		5
						Wakefield Trinity		30
	Wakefield Trinity		28
	Hull Kingston Rovers		16
											Wakefield Trinity		7
											Leeds		12
	Batley		26
	Doncaster		14
						Batley		6
						Leeds		29
	Leeds		26
	Castleford		14
																Leeds		15
																Halifax		6
	Bramley		5
	Halifax		12
						Halifax		23
						Hunslet		12
	Hunslet		33
	Keighley		12
											Halifax		5
											Dewsbury		3
	Hull F.C.		13
	Featherstone Rovers		19
						Featherstone Rovers		16
						Dewsbury		17
	Dewsbury		16
	York		15

Notes and comments

1 * This was the first Yorkshire Cup match played by the renamed Hunslet at their "new" temporary home at Batley's Mount Pleasant after the owners of Elland Road Greyhound Stadium suddenly closed the previous ground

2 * The attendance is given as 9,134 by RUGBYLEAGUEproject^[1] but the Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook of 1991-92^[3] and 1990-91^[4] gives the attendance as three more at 9,137

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.

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

• 1979–80 Northern Rugby Football League season
• Rugby league county cups

References

1. "Rugby League Project".
2. "HULL&PROUD - Stats - Fixtures & Results".
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

• Saints Heritage Society
• 1896–97 Northern Rugby Football Union season at wigan.rlfans.com 2 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine
• Widnes Vikings - One team, one passion Season In Review - 1896-97