# 1948–49 Yorkshire Cup

1948–49 was the forty-first occasion on which the Yorkshire Cup competition had been held.
Bradford Northern won the trophy by beating Castleford by the score of 18-9
The match was played at Headingley, Leeds, now in West Yorkshire. The attendance was 31,393 and receipts were £5,053
The first of two successive wins for Bradford Northern

## Background

This season, junior/amateur clubs Yorkshire Amateurs were again invited to take part and the number of clubs who entered 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
### 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 | Notes |
| 1 | Sat 11 Sep 1948 | Castleford | 37-7 | Bramley | Wheldon Road | |
| 2 | Sat 11 Sep 1948 | Dewsbury | 5-3 | Bradford Northern | Crown Flatt | |
| 3 | Sat 11 Sep 1948 | Huddersfield | 79-5 | Yorkshire Amateurs | Fartown | 1 |
| 4 | Sat 11 Sep 1948 | Hull | 22-7 | Batley | Boulevard | |
| 5 | Sat 11 Sep 1948 | Keighley | 7-8 | Hunslet | Lawkholme Lane | |
| 6 | Sat 11 Sep 1948 | Leeds | 10-10 | Halifax | Headingley | |
| 7 | Sat 11 Sep 1948 | Wakefield Trinity | 20-5 | Hull Kingston Rovers | Belle Vue | |
| 8 | Sat 11 Sep 1948 | York | 12-14 | Featherstone Rovers | 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 | Notes |
| 1 | Wed 15 Sep 1948 | Bramley | 9-12 | Castleford | Barley Mow | 16-49 | |
| 2 | Wed 15 Sep 1948 | Bradford Northern | 20-5 | Dewsbury | Odsal | 23-10 | |
| 3 | Thu 16 Sep 1948 | Yorkshire Amateurs | 0-61 | Huddersfield | Crown Flatt | 5-140 | 1 |
| 4 | Tue 14 Sep 1948 | Batley | 5-12 | Hull | Mount Pleasant | 12-34 | |
| 5 | Wed 15 Sep 1948 | Hunslet | 9-5 | Keighley | Parkside | 17-12 | |
| 6 | Tue 14 Sep 1948 | Halifax | 5-11 | Leeds | Thrum Hall | 15-21 | |
| 7 | Wed 15 Sep 1948 | Hull Kingston Rovers | 14-4 | Wakefield Trinity | Craven Park (1) | 19-24 | |
| 8 | Wed 15 Sep 1948 | Featherstone Rovers | 17-9 | York | Post Office Road | 31-21 | |

### 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 |
| 1 | Mon 20 Sep 1948 | Bradford Northern | 19-12 | Huddersfield | Odsal |
| 2 | Mon 27 Sep 1948 | Featherstone Rovers | 5-19 | Wakefield Trinity | Post Office Road |
| 3 | Tue 28 Sep 1948 | Castleford | 11-0 | Hull | Wheldon Road |
| 4 | Thu 30 Sep 1948 | Leeds | 7-10 | Hunslet | Headingley |

### 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 | agg | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref |
| 1 | Wed 13 Oct 1948 | Bradford Northern | 7-7 | Hunslet | Odsal | | | | | |
| 2 | Wed 13 Oct 1948 | Castleford | 6-5 | Wakefield Trinity | Wheldon Road | | | | | |

### 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 | Mon 18 Oct 1948 | Hunslet | 5-12 | Bradford Northern | Parkside | | | | | |

### Final

| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | agg | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref |
| | Saturday 30 October 1948 | Bradford Northern | 18-9 | Castleford | Headingley | | 31,393 | £5,053 | 2 | |

#### Teams and scorers

| Bradford Northern | № | Castleford |
| | teams | |
| George Carmichael | 1 | Ronald Lewis |
| Eric Batten | 2 | Arthur Bastow |
| William "Bill" Leake | 3 | Leonard "Len" Skidmore |
| Ernest Ward (c) | 4 | Norman Guest |
| Alan Edwards | 5 | Reg Lloyd |
| Willie Davies | 6 | Arthur Fisher |
| Donald | 7 | George Langfield |
| Frank Whitcombe | 8 | Dyl Harris |
| Vic Darlison | 9 | Jimmy Jones |
| Ronald "Ron" Greaves | 10 | James Crossley |
| Trevor Foster | 11 | Desmond "Des" Foreman |
| Barry Tyler | 12 | Charles Staines |
| Ken Traill | 13 | Frank Mugglestone |
| Dai Rees | Coach | ?? |
| 18 | score | 9 |
| 2 | HT | 4 |
| | Scorers | |
| | Tries | |
| Allen Edwards (2) | T | Des Foreman (1) |
| Leake (1) | T | |
| Foster (1) | T | |
| | Goals | |
| Allen Edwards (3) | G | Des Foreman (1) |
| | G | Charlie Staines (1) |
| | Drop Goals | |
| | DG | George Langfield (1) |
| Referee | | G.S.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 | First round | First round | Second round | Second round | Second round | Semifinals | Semifinals | Semifinals | | Final | Final | Final |
| Dewsbury | Dewsbury | 10 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Bradford Northern | Bradford Northern | 23 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Bradford Northern | Bradford Northern | 23 | Bradford Northern | Bradford Northern | 19 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 12 | | | | | | | |
| Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 140 | Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 12 | | | | | | | |
| Batley | Batley | 5 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Batley | Batley | 5 | | | | Bradford Northern | Bradford Northern | 7 (5) | | | | |
| | | | | | | Hunslet | Hunslet | 7 (12) | | | | |
| Leeds | Leeds | 21 | | | | | | | Hunslet | Hunslet | 7 (12) | | | | |
| Halifax | Halifax | 15 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Halifax | Halifax | 15 | Leeds | Leeds | 7 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Hunslet | Hunslet | 10 | | | | | | | |
| Keighley | Keighley | 12 | Hunslet | Hunslet | 10 | | | | | | | |
| Hunslet | Hunslet | 17 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Hunslet | Hunslet | 17 | | | | | | | | Bradford Northern | Bradford Northern | 18 |
| | | | | | | | | | | Castleford | Castleford | 9 |
| Castleford | Castleford | 49 | | | | | | | | | | | Castleford | Castleford | 9 |
| Bramley | Bramley | 16 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Bramley | Bramley | 16 | Castleford | Castleford | 11 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Hull | Hull | 0 | | | | | | | |
| Hull | Hull | 34 | Hull | Hull | 0 | | | | | | | |
| Batley | Batley | 12 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Batley | Batley | 12 | | | | Castleford | Castleford | 6 | | | | |
| | | | | | | Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | 5 | | | | |
| York | York | 21 | | | | | | | Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | 5 | | | | |
| Featherstone Rovers | Featherstone Rovers | 31 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Featherstone Rovers | Featherstone Rovers | 31 | Featherstone Rovers | Featherstone Rovers | 6 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | 19 | | | | | | | |
| Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | 24 | Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | 19 | | | | | | | |
| Hull Kingston Rovers | Hull Kingston Rovers | 19 | | | | | | | | | | |

## Notes and comments

1 * Yorkshire Amateurs were a team from Yorkshire which appeared to have players selected from many both professional and amateur clubs - can anyone comment ? Yorkshire Amateurs played on many grounds, this match was played at Parkside, the ground of Hunslet
2 * 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)