1953–54 Yorkshire Cup

1953–54 Yorkshire Cup
Structure	Regional knockout championship
Teams	16
Winners	Bradford Northern
Runners-up	Hull
← 1952–53 1954–55 →

The 1953–54 Yorkshire Cup was the forty-sixth occasion on which the Yorkshire Cup competition had been held.

Bradford Northern won the trophy by beating Hull F.C. 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

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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	Att	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 Kingston Rovers	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	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 Kingston Rovers	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	Att	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	Att	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
Joe Phillips	1	Colin Hutton
Bob Hawes	2	Keith Bowman
Joe Mageen	3	Bill Riches
Bill Seddon	4	Carl Turner
Jack Mc Lean	5	Ivor Watts
Bill Jenkins	6	Bernard Conway
Roy Goddard	7	Albert Tripp
Barry Tyler	8	Mick Scott
Norman Haley	9	Tommy Harris
Wynn Jones	10	Bob Coverdale
Trevor Foster	11	Harry Markham
Tony Storey	12	Arthur Bedford
Ken Trail	13	Johnny Whiteley
Dai Rees	Coach	Roy Francis

7	score	2
7	HT	0

	Scorers
Bob Hawes	Tries
	T
Joe Phillips (2)	Goals	Colin Hutton
	G
	G
Referee		George Phillips (Widnes)

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		Semifinals		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 Kingston Rovers	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)

References

^ "Rugby League Project".
^ Jack Winstanley & Malcolm Ryding (1991). John Player Yearbook 1975-76. Queen Anne Press.
^ HC&AC committee (1954). Fartown Rugby League Year Book 1954. HC&AC Supporters' Club.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Fartown Rugby League Yearbook 1954" (PDF).
^ ^a ^b 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.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "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.