1979–80 Yorkshire Cup
The 1979–80 Yorkshire Cup was the seventy-second occasion on which the Yorkshire Cup competition had been held.
Leeds winning the trophy by beating Halifax by the score of 15-6
The match was played at Headingley, Leeds, now in West Yorkshire. The attendance was 9,137 and receipts were £9,999
This was Leeds' seventh victory in what would be eight times in the space of thirteen seasons.
This would be Halifax's last appearance in a Yorkshire Cup final, giving them a total record of five wins and four 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.
Competition and Results
Round 1
Involved 8 matches and 16 Clubs| Game No | Fixture Date | Home Team | Score | Away Team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref | ||
| 1 | Fri 17 Aug 1979 | Bramley | 5-12 | Halifax | McLaren Field | ||||||
| 2 | Sun 19 Aug 1979 | Leeds | 26-14 | Castleford | Headingley | ||||||
| 3 | Sun 19 Aug 1979 | Dewsbury | 16-15 | York | Crown Flatt | ||||||
| 4 | Sun 19 Aug 1979 | Huddersfield | 7-22 | Bradford Northern | Fartown | ||||||
| 5 | Sun 19 Aug 1979 | Hull F.C. | 13-19 | Featherstone Rovers | Boulevard | ||||||
| 6 | Sun 19 Aug 1979 | Hunslet | 33-12 | Keighley | Mount Pleasant | 1 | |||||
| 7 | Sun 19 Aug 1979 | Wakefield Trinity | 28-16 | Hull Kingston Rovers | Belle Vue | ||||||
| 8 | Sun 19 Aug 1979 | Batley | 26-14 | Doncaster | venue unknown |
Round 2 - Quarter Finals
Involved 4 matches and 8 Clubs| Game No | Fixture Date | Home Team | Score | Away Team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref | ||
| - | |||||||||||
| 1 | Sun 26 Aug 1979 | Batley | 6-29 | Leeds | Mount Pleasant | ||||||
| 2 | Sun 26 Aug 1979 | Bradford Northern | 5-30 | Wakefield Trinity | Odsal | ||||||
| 3 | Sun 26 Aug 1979 | Featherstone Rovers | 16-17 | Dewsbury | Post Office Road | ||||||
| 4 | Sun 26 Aug 1979 | Halifax | 23-12 | Hunslet | Thrum Hall |
Round 3 – Semi-Finals
Involved 2 matches and 4 Clubs| Game No | Fixture Date | Home Team | Score | Away Team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref | ||
| - | |||||||||||
| 1 | Wed 19 Sep 1979 | Wakefield Trinity | 7-12 | Leeds | Belle Vue | ||||||
| 2 | Thu 20 Sep 1979 | Halifax | 5-3 | Dewsbury | Thrum Hall |
Final
Teams and Scorers
| Leeds | № | Halifax |
| teams | ||
| Neil Hague | 1 | Jimmy Birts |
| Alan Smith | 2 | Derek Howard |
| David Smith | 3 | Graham Garrod |
| Les Dyl | 4 | David Cholmondeley |
| John Atkinson | 5 | Keith Waites |
| John Holmes | 6 | Bob Blacker |
| Kevin Dick | 7 | Terry Langton |
| Roy Dickinson | 8 | Peter Jarvis |
| David Ward | 9 | Dean Raistrick |
| Steve Pitchford | 10 | Alan Wood |
| Graham Eccles | 11 | Mick Scott |
| David Heron | 12 | Greg Sharp |
| Phil Cookson | 13 | David "Buzzy" Busfield |
| John Sanderson | 14 | Mick Snee |
| Bryan Adams | 15 | David Callon |
| Syd Hynes | Coach | Maurice Bamford |
| - | ||
| 15 | score | 6 |
| 10 | HT | 6 |
| Scorers | ||
| Tries | ||
| Alan Smith | T | |
| David Smith | T | |
| Goals | ||
| Kevin Dick | G | Jimmy Birts |
| Referee | Michael "Mick" J. Naughton | |
| White Rose Trophy for Man of the match | Alan Smith - Leeds - | |
| sponsored by | ||
| Competition Sponsor | Esso |
Scoring - Try = three points - Goal = two points - Drop goal = one point
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.The Rugby League season always 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