1905–06 Yorkshire Cup

The 1905 Yorkshire Cup competition was a knock-out competition between rugby league clubs from the county of Yorkshire. 1905 was the inaugural year for the Rugby League Yorkshire Cup competition. The cup was won by Hunslet who beat Halifax by a score of 13–3.

Background

Following the great schism of 1895 which led to the formation of rugby league there appear to be very little interest in a competitive competition organised on a regional basis, at least between clubs based in Yorkshire. Prior to the breakaway from rugby union this was something that had been discouraged as it was feared that competition would lead to professionalism, as had happened in other sports like Association Football.

One of the exceptions was the trophy played for by the Yorkshire Rugby Union clubs. "T'owd Tin Pot", or officially, the Yorkshire Challenge Cup. The Governing body of the RFU were appalled at the idea, but turned a blind eye as all the proceeds from the final were distributed among various charities.
It was around 10 years after the "great schism" before the idea of a County Cup for the Rugby League game became a reality. There appears to be very little, if any, details of how the introduction of the county cup competitions came about, or any details of any of the instigators or of any campaign, but the County Cups became the last part of what would become known as the four cups.
The competitions were played on the same basis as was the Challenge Cup, i.e. a free draw with matches played on a sudden death straight knock-out basis, and with the final played on a neutral ground.

Competition and results

For this inaugural competition, a total of twenty clubs had entered, and so a preliminary round was introduced involving eight clubs, to reduce the number of clubs taking part in the main competition to sixteen, a full complement for a four round knock-out tournament.

Preliminary round

Involved 4 matches and 8 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team	Score	Away team	Venue	Ref
P1	Sat 16 Sep 1905	Featherstone Rovers	9–10	Huddersfield	unknown
P2	Wed 04 Oct 1905	York	2–0	Pontefract	Clarence Street
P3	Sat 07 Oct 1905	Outwood Parish Church	3–0	Normanton	unknown
P4	Sat 07 Oct 1905	Saville Green	10–0	Brighouse Rangers	unknown

Round 1

Involved 5 matches and 13 Clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team	Score	Away team	Venue	Ref
1	Sat 14 Oct 1905	Batley	7–2	Wakefield Trinity	Mount Pleasant
2	Sat 14 Oct 1905	Hull	5–2	Bramley	Barley Mow
3	Sat 14 Oct 1905	Dewsbury	0–0	Bradford	Crown Flatt
4	Sat 14 Oct 1905	Keighley	30–8	Castleford (1896)	Lawkholme Lane
5	Sat 14 Oct 1905	Leeds	5–7	Halifax	Headingley
6	Sat 14 Oct 1905	Outwood Parish Church	0–24	Hull Kingston Rovers	unknown
7	Sat 14 Oct 1905	York	4–3	Huddersfield	Clarence Street
8	Sat 21 Oct 1905	Hunslet	14–0	Saville Green	Parkside

Round 1 - Replays

Involved 1 match and 2 Clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team	Score	Away team	Venue	Ref
R	Tue 24 Oct 1905	Bradford	5–0	Dewsbury	Park Avenue

Round 2 - Quarterfinals

Involved 4 matches and 8 Clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team	Score	Away team	Venue	Ref
1	Sat 28 Oct 1905	Batley	5–5	Hull Kingston Rovers	Mount Pleasant
2	Sat 28 Oct 1905	Halifax	10–0	Hull	Thrum Hall
3	Sat 28 Oct 1905	Hunslet	37–3	Keighley	Parkside
4	Sat 28 Oct 1905	York	2–0	Bradford	Clarence Street

Round 2 - Replays

Involved 1 match and 2 Clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team	Score	Away team	Venue	Ref
R	Tue 07 Nov 1905	Hull Kingston Rovers	7–4	Batley	Craven Street

Round 3 – semifinals

Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team	Score	Away team	Venue	Ref
1	Sat 18 Nov 1905	Halifax	11–5	York	Thrum Hall
2	Sat 18 Nov 1905	Hull Kingston Rovers	3A12	Hunslet	Craven Street

Semifinal - Replays

Involved 1 match and 2 Clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team	Score	Away team	Venue	Ref
R	Wed 22 Nov 1905	Hunslet	14–3	Hull Kingston Rovers	Parkside

Final

The match was played at Park Avenue in the City of Bradford, now in West Yorkshire. The attendance was 18,500 and receipts were £465.

Game No	Fixture date	Home team	Score	Away team	Venue	Att	Rec	Ref
	Saturday 2 December 1905	Hunslet	13–3	Halifax	Park Avenue	18500	465

Teams and scorers

Points Value: Try = 3 points; Goal = 2 points

The road to success

The following chart excludes any preliminary round fixtures/results