1954–55 Yorkshire Cup

1954–55 Yorkshire Cup
Structure	Regional knockout championship
Teams	16
Winners	Halifax
Runners-up	Hull F.C.
← 1953–54 1955–56 →

1954–55 was the forty-seventh occasion on which the Yorkshire Cup competition had been held.

Halifax winning the trophy by beating Hull F.C. by the score of 22-14

The match was played at Headingley, Leeds, now in West Yorkshire. The attendance was 25,949 and receipts were £4,638

This was the first of Halifax's two successive victories, both against Hull FC, for whom it was their second of three successive Cup final 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.

Last season saw the end of the two-legged home and away ties, and reverted to the whole competition being based on a simple knock-out formulae

Competition and results

^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

Round 1

Involved 8 matches (with no byes) and 16 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team	Score	Away team	Venue	Att	Ref

1	Fri 10 Sep 1954	Bramley	12-12	Doncaster	Barley Mow
2	Fri 10 Sep 1954	Hunslet	17-10	Batley	Parkside
3	Sat 11 Sep 1954	Castleford	10-13	Bradford Northern	Wheldon Road
4	Sat 11 Sep 1954	Huddersfield	40-17	Keighley	Fartown	10,572	^[4]
5	Sat 11 Sep 1954	Hull F.C.	18-4	Featherstone Rovers	Boulevard		^[5]
6	Sat 11 Sep 1954	Leeds	57-13	Hull Kingston Rovers	Headingley
7	Sat 11 Sep 1954	Wakefield Trinity	30-16	Dewsbury	Belle Vue
8	Sat 11 Sep 1954	York	8-11	Halifax	Clarence Street

Round 1 - replays

Involved 1 match and 2 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref

R	Thu 16 Sep 1954	Doncaster		4-7		Bramley	Bentley Road Stadium/Tattersfield

Round 2 - quarterfinals

Involved 4 matches and 8 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team	Score	Away team	Venue	Att	Ref

1	Tue 21 Sep 1954	Bradford Northern	5-3	Hunslet	Odsal
2	Tue 21 Sep 1954	Huddersfield	7-7	Hull F.C.	Fartown	16,028	^[4]^[5]
3	Wed 22 Sep 1954	Leeds	27-17	Wakefield Trinity	Headingley
4	Thu 23 Sep 1954	Bramley	11-22	Halifax	Barley Mow

Round 2 - replays

Involved 1 match and 2 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref

R	Thu 23 Sep 1954	Hull F.C.		22-13		Huddersfield	Boulevard	17,000			^[4]^[5]

Round 3 – semifinals

Involved 2 matches and 4 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team	Score	Away team	Venue	Ref

1	Thu 30 Sep 1954	Hull F.C.	10-5	Bradford Northern	Boulevard	^[5]
2	Fri 01 Oct 1954	Halifax	10-0	Leeds	Thrum Hall

Final

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref

	Saturday 23 October 1954	Halifax		22-14		Hull F.C.	Headingley	25,949	£4,638	1	^[5]^[6]^[7]

Teams and scorers

Halifax	№	Hull F.C.

	teams
Tuss Griffiths	1	Colin Hutton
Arthur Daniels	2	Keith Bowman
Thomas Lynch	3	Roy Francis
Peter Todd	4	Carl Turner
Dai Bevan	5	Bill Riches
Ken Dean	6	Bernard Conway
Stan Kielty	7	Albert Tripp
John Thorley	8	Mick Scott
Alvin Ackerley (c)	9	Tommy Harris
Len Olsen	10	Bob Coverdale
Les Pearce	11	Harry Markham
Jack Wilkinson	12	Norman Hockley
Eric Callighan	13	Johnny Whiteley
??	Coach	Roy Francis

22	score	14
7	HT	4

	Scorers
	Tries
	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

First round		Second round		Semifinals		Final

Bramley	12 (7)

Doncaster	12 (4)
		Bramley	11

		Halifax	22
York	8

Halifax	11
				Halifax	10

				Leeds	0
Leeds	57

Hull Kingston Rovers	13
		Leeds	27

		Wakefield Trinity	17
Wakefield Trinity	30

Dewsbury	16
						Halifax	22

						Hull F.C.	14
Huddersfield	40

Keighley	17
		Huddersfield	7 (13)

		Hull F.C.	7 (22)
Hull F.C.	18

Featherstone Rovers	4
				Hull F.C.	10

				Bradford Northern	5
Castleford	10

Bradford Northern	13
		Bradford Northern	5

		Hunslet	3
Hunslet	17

Batley	10

Notes and comments

1 * 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 (1955). Fartown Rugby League Year Book 1955. HC&AC Supporters' Club.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Fartown Rugby League Yearbook 1954" (PDF).
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "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.