1914–15 Yorkshire Cup


The 1914–15 Yorkshire Cup was the tenth occasion on which the Yorkshire Cup competition, a Rugby league competition, was held.
This year's competition was again the turn of the previous cup holder, Huddersfield, winning the trophy by beating Hull F.C. by the score of 31-0
The match was played at Headingley, Leeds, now in West Yorkshire. The attendance was 12,000 and receipts were £422
This was Huddersfield's fifth appearance of what would be seven appearances in eight consecutive finals between 1909 and 1919 It was also the second of the four consecutive wins.

Background

Britain had declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914 after they had attacked Luxemburg, Belgium and France. A month later the season proper started against this backdrop. The Yorkshire Cup competition started in October and it was to be the last until the end of the war. Tensions had been building across Britain and the rest of Europe for some time, but, despite this, the 1914–1915 season was played to its conclusion, albeit in some cases a little half-heartedly as evidenced in the lower attendances at matches and with several teams absent and many players already enlisted in the Armed Forces. In the middle of 1915 competitive sporting competition was finally suspended. 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 thirteen. This in turn resulted in three byes in the first round.

Competition and Results

Round 1

Involved 5 matches and 13 Clubs
Game NoFixture DateHome TeamScoreAway TeamVenueAttRecNotesRef
1Sat 17 Oct 1914Batley5-0DewsburyMount Pleasant
2Sat 17 Oct 1914Bramley0-25HalifaxBarley Mow
3Sat 17 Oct 1914Hull Kingston Rovers10-5Wakefield TrinityCraven Street
4Sat 17 Oct 1914Leeds11-13HunsletHeadingley
5Sat 17 Oct 1914York13-24HuddersfieldClarence Street
6Bradford Northernbye
7Hullbye
8Keighleybye

Round 2 - Quarter Finals

Involved 4 matches and 8 Clubs
Game NoFixture DateHome TeamScoreAway TeamVenueAttRecNotesRef
-
1Sat 31 Oct 1914Batley2-0Bradford NorthernMount Pleasant
2Sat 31 Oct 1914Halifax8-8HuddersfieldThrum Hall1
3Sat 31 Oct 1914Hull11-5Hull Kingston RoversBoulevard
4Sat 31 Oct 1914Hunslet12-7KeighleyParkside

Round 2 - Replays

Involved 1 match and 2 Clubs
Game NoFixture DateHome TeamScoreAway TeamVenueAttRecNotesRef
RThu 05 Nov 1914Halifax2-10HuddersfieldThrum Hall

Round 3 – Semi-Finals

Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs
Game NoFixture DateHome TeamScoreAway TeamVenueAttRecNotesRef
-
1Sat 14 Nov 1914Huddersfield64-3HunsletFartown
2Sat 14 Nov 1914Hull7-0BatleyBoulevard

Final

Teams and Scorers

Huddersfield№Hull
teams
Major Holland1E Rogers
George Todd2Alfred Francis
Albert "Rozzi" Rosenfeld3Billy Batten
Harold Wagstaff 4Jack Harrison
Stan Moorhouse5Jim Devereux
Johnny Rogers6Sid Deane
Robert Habron7Thomas "Tom" Milner
John Higson8Tom Herridge
Douglas Clark9William Holder
Ben Gronow10Joe Hammill
Fred Longstaff11Steve Darmody
H. Swinden 12Percy Oldham
H. Banks13Richard "Dick" Taylor
Arthur Bennett CoachSid Melville
-
31score0
15HT0
Scorers
Tries
Harold Wagstaff T
Stan Moorhouse T
Billy Banks T
George Todd T
Albert "Rozzi" Rosenfeld T
Johnny Rogers T
T-
Goals
Major Holland G
RefereeJ. F. May

Scoring - Try = three points - Goal = two points - Drop goal = two points

The road to success

General information for those unfamiliar

The Rugby League Yorkshire Cup competition was a knock-out competition between 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 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 December.