1953 Yorkshire Cup

1953-54 Yorkshire Cup

Structure	Regional knockout championship
Number of teams	16
Winners	Bradford Northern
Runners-up	Hull
< 1952 Seasons 1954 >

1953 Yorkshire Cup

1953 was the forty-sixth occasion on which the Yorkshire Cup competition had been held.

Bradford Northern won the trophy by beating Hull by the score of 7-2
The match was played at Headingley, Leeds, now in West Yorkshire. The attendance was 22,147 and receipts were £3,833

Background

This season no junior/amateur clubs were invited to take part, there were no new additions and no club "dropped out", and so the number of entrants 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^[1][2]

^[3][4]

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 5 Sep 1953	Batley		10-34		Bradford Northern	Mount Pleasant
2	Sat 5 Sep 1953	Castleford		0-11		Halifax	Wheldon Road
3	Sat 5 Sep 1953	Featherstone Rovers		7-21		Leeds	Post Office Road
4	Sat 5 Sep 1953	Huddersfield		47-9		Wakefield Trinity	Fartown		16,137			[4][5]
5	Sat 5 Sep 1953	Hull		30-14		Bramley	Boulevard					[6]
6	Sat 5 Sep 1953	Hunslet		27-13		Hull KR	Parkside
7	Sat 5 Sep 1953	Keighley		11-6		Dewsbury	Lawkholme Lane
8	Mon 7 Sep 1953	York		19-2		Doncaster	Clarence Street

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	Wed 9 Sep 1953	Bradford Northern		15-18		Batley	Odsal	49-28
2	Mon 7 Sep 1953	Halifax		9-3		Castleford	Thrum Hall	20-3
3	Wed 9 Sep 1953	Leeds		32-7		Featherstone Rovers	Headingley	53-14
4	Wed 9 Sep 1953	Wakefield Trinity		20-7		Huddersfield	Belle Vue	29-54	6,222			[4][5]
5	Tue 8 Sep 1953	Bramley		9-17		Hull	Barley Mow	23-47				[6]
6	Wed 9 Sep 1953	Hull KR		7-11		Hunslet	Craven Park (1)	20-38
7	Tue 8 Sep 1953	Dewsbury		2-0		Keighley	Crown Flatt	8-11
8	Thu 10 Sep 1953	Doncaster		2-21		York	Bentley Road Stadium/Tattersfield	4-40			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 23 Sep 1953	Bradford Northern		27-9		Leeds	Odsal
2	Wed 23 Sep 1953	Huddersfield		19-7		York	Fartown		9,425			[4]
3	Wed 23 Sep 1953	Hunslet		11-2		Keighley	Parkside
4	Mon 28 Sep 1953	Hull		16-4		Halifax	Boulevard					[6]

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 30 Sep 1953	Huddersfield		10-11		Bradford Northern	Fartown		15,438			[4]
2	Wed 21 Oct 1953	Hunslet		2-3		Hull	Parkside				2	[6]

Round 3 – Semifinals - replay

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
R	Thu 22 Oct 1953	Hunslet		5-9		Hull	Parkside					[6]

Final

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	agg	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
	Saturday 31 October 1953	Bradford Northern		7-2		Hull	Headingley		22,147	£3,833	3	[6][7][8]

Teams and scorers

Bradford Northern	№	Hull
	teams
	1
	2
	3
	4
	5
	6
	7
	8
	9
	10
	11
	12
	13
Dai Rees	Coach	Roy Francis
7	score	2
7	HT	0
	Scorers
	Tries
	T
	Goals
	G
	G
Referee		unknown ()

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

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					Semi Finals					Final
	Huddersfield		54
	Wakefield Trinity		29
						Huddersfield		19
						York		7
	York		40
	Doncaster		4
											Huddersfield		10
											Bradford Northern		11
	Batley		28
	Bradford Northern		49
						Bradford Northern		27
						Leeds		9
	Featherstone Rovers		14
	Leeds		53
																Bradford Northern		7
																Hull		2
	Hunslet		38
	Hull KR		20
						Hunslet		11
						Keighley		2
	Keighley		11
	Dewsbury		8
											Hunslet		5
											Hull		9
	Hull		47
	Bramley		23
						Hull		16
						Halifax		4
	Castleford		3
	Halifax		20

Notes and comments

1 * The first Yorkshire Cup match played by Doncaster at their new Bentley Road Stadium - soon to be renamed "Tatters field" (ot Tattersfield) after the former chairman Len Tattersfield.
2 * Match abandoned after 32 minutes due to fog.
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

• 1953-54 Northern Rugby Football League season
• Rugby league county cups

References

External links

• Saints Heritage Society
• 1896–97 Northern Rugby Football Union season at wigan.rlfans.com
• Hull&Proud Fixtures & Results 1896/1897
• Widnes Vikings - One team, one passion Season In Review - 1896-97
• The Northern Union at warringtonwolves.org