Autumn 1941 Yorkshire Cup

Autumn 1941 Yorkshire Cup
Structure	Regional knockout championship
Teams	16
Winners	Bradford Northern
Runners-up	Halifax

The Autumn 1941 Yorkshire Cup took place in Autumn 1941.

The Yorkshire Cup was a knock-out competition between (mainly professional) rugby league clubs from the county of Yorkshire. The Autumn of 1941 was the thirty-fourth occasion on which the Yorkshire Cup competition had been held.

The final was played at Fartown, Huddersfield, now in West Yorkshire. The attendance was 5,989 and receipts were £635. Bradford Northern won the trophy by beating Halifax 24-0. This was the second consecutive victory for Bradford Northern

Change in Club participation

Historically, the Yorkshire Cup area had frequently changed to encompass other teams from outside the county The Second World War was continuing and the Yorkshire Cup was moved back to the early part of the 1941–42 Northern Rugby Football League Wartime Emergency League season i.e. the Autumn.

Hull Kingston Rovers – The club dropped out of the wartime Lancashire league after the ‘first (1939–40) season. They did not return to league competition until 1945–46 peacetime season.
Wigan - This club entered the Yorkshire Cup competition for the second successive season
Oldham - The club, as Wigan, also entered the Yorkshire Cup competition and for the second successive season
Dewsbury - had a relatively successful time during the war years. Managed by Eddie Waring, and with the side boosted by the inclusion of a number of big-name guest players, the club won the Wartime Emergency League in 1941–42 and again the following season 1942–43 (though that championship was declared null and void when it was discovered they had played an ineligible player). They were also runners-up in the Championship in 1943–44, Challenge Cup winners in 1943 and Yorkshire Cup Final appearances in this season 1940–41 and winners in 1942–43.

Background

This season there were no junior/amateur clubs taking part, no further withdrawals, and no additional "new entrants", which with the continued presence of the two Lancashire clubs, Wigan and Oldham resulted in the number of entrants remaining at last seasons total of sixteen.
This in turn resulted in no byes in the first round.
For the first time all the ties (with the exception of the actual final) were played on a two-legged home and away basis.

Competition and Results^[1]^[2]

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	Ref

1	Sat 25 Oct 1941	Batley	6-28	Bradford Northern	Mount Pleasant
2	Sat 25 Oct 1941	Castleford	18-2	Dewsbury	Wheldon Road
3	Sat 25 Oct 1941	Featherstone Rovers	7-18	Halifax	Post Office Road
4	Sat 25 Oct 1941	Hull	3-20	Huddersfield	Boulevard	^[3]
5	Sat 25 Oct 1941	Hunslet	28-6	Bramley	Parkside
6	Sat 25 Oct 1941	Keighley	2-14	Wigan	Lawkholme Lane	^[4]
7	Sat 25 Oct 1941	Leeds	3-8	Wakefield Trinity	Headingley
8	Sat 25 Oct 1941	York	2-5	Oldham	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	Notes	Ref

1	Sat 1 Nov 1941	Bradford Northern	36-0	Batley	Odsal	64-6
2	Sat 1 Nov 1941	Dewsbury	8-5	Castleford	Crown Flatt	10-23
3	Sat 1 Nov 1941	Halifax	16-5	Featherstone Rovers	Thrum Hall	34-12
4	Sat 1 Nov 1941	Huddersfield	5-13	Hull	Fartown	25-16		^[3]
5	Sat 1 Nov 1941	Bramley	3-34	Hunslet	Barley Mow	9-62
6	Sat 1 Nov 1941	Wigan	19-0	Keighley	Central Park	33-2		^[4]
7	Sat 1 Nov 1941	Wakefield Trinity	4-5	Leeds	Belle Vue	12-8
8	Sat 1 Nov 1941	Oldham	10-0	York	Watersheddings	15-2	1

Round 2 - Quarter Finals - First Leg

Involved 4 matches and 8 Clubs
All second round ties are played on a two-legged home and away basis

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Ref

1	Sat 8 Nov 1941	Halifax	13-7	Wakefield Trinity	Thrum Hall
2	Sat 8 Nov 1941	Huddersfield	14-6	Castleford	Fartown
3	Sat 8 Nov 1941	Hunslet	3-8	Wigan	Parkside	^[4]
4	Sat 8 Nov 1941	Oldham	0-10	Bradford Northern	Watersheddings

Round 2 - Second Leg

Involved 4 matches and 8 Clubs
All second round ties are played on a two-legged home and away basis

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

1	Sat 15 Nov 1941	Wakefield Trinity	3-17	Halifax	Belle Vue	10-27
2	Sat 15 Nov 1941	Castleford	6-5	Huddersfield	Wheldon Road	12-19
3	Sat 15 Nov 1941	Wigan	10-4	Hunslet	Central Park	18-7	^[4]
4	Sat 15 Nov 1941	Bradford Northern	5-9	Oldham	Odsal	15-9

Round 3 – Semi-Finals - First Leg

Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs
Both semi-final ties are played on a two-legged home and away basis

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Ref

1	Sat 22 Nov 1941	Halifax	11-8	Wigan	Thrum Hall	^[4]
2	Sat 22 Nov 1941	Huddersfield	11-10	Bradford Northern	Fartown

Semi-Final - Second Leg

Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs
Both semi-final ties are played on a two-legged home and away basis

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

1	Sat 29 Nov 1941	Wigan	2-2	Halifax	Central Park	10-13	^[4]
2	Sat 29 Nov 1941	Bradford Northern	9-3	Huddersfield	Odsal	19-14

Final

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

	Saturday 6 December 1941	Bradford Northern		24-0		Halifax	Fartown		5,989	£635	2	^[5]^[6]

Teams and Scorers

Bradford Northern	№	Halifax

	teams
George Carmichael	1
Walter Best	2
E. Billington	3
Ernest Ward	4
Emlyn Walters	5
Willie Davies	6
Donald Ward	7
Frank Whitcombe	8
Cliff Carter (wartime guest from Leeds)	9
Leonard Higson	10
Trevor Foster	11
xWilliam Smith	12
William Hutchinson	13
Dai Rees	Coach	??

24	score	0
5	HT	0

	Scorers
	Tries
	T
	T
	T
	T
	T
	Goals
	G
	G
	Drop Goals
	DG
Referee		unknown

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

The road to success

All the ties (excluding the final itself) were played on a two leg (home and away) basis.
Where the round was played on a two-leg (home and away) basis, the first club named in each of the ties played the first leg at home.
Where the round was played on a two-leg (home and away) basis, the scores shown are the aggregate score over the two legs.

First Round		Second Round		Semi Finals		Final


Hull	16

Huddersfield	25
		Huddersfield	19

		Castleford	12
Castleford	23

Dewsbury	10
				Huddersfield	14

				Bradford Northern	19
York	2

Oldham	15
		Oldham	9

		Bradford Northern	15
Batley	6

Bradford Northern	64
						Bradford Northern	24

						Halifax	0
Featherstone Rovers	12

Halifax	34
		Halifax	27

		Wakefield Trinity	10
Leeds	8

Wakefield Trinity	12
				Halifax	13

				Wigan	10
Hunslet	62

Bramley	9
		Hunslet	7

		Wigan	18
Keighley	2

Wigan	33

Notes and comments

1 * Oldham joined the Yorkshire Cup in season 1940–41. This was the first Yorkshire Cup match to be played at Watersheddings
2 * Fartown was the home ground of Huddersfield from 1878 to the end of the 1991-92 season to Huddersfield Town FC's Leeds Road stadium, and then to the McAlpine Stadium in 1994. Fartown remained as a sports/Rugby League ground but is now rather dilapidated, and is only used for staging amateur rugby league games.

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)

References

↑ "Rugby League Project".
↑ Jack Winstanley & Malcolm Ryding (1991). John Player Yearbook 1975-76. Queen Anne Press.
1 2 "HULL&PROUD - Stats - Fixtures & Results".
1 2 3 4 5 6 "Wigan "Cherry and White" archived 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.

External links

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