# 1919–20 Yorkshire Cup

The 1919–20 Yorkshire Cup was the twelfth occasion on which the Yorkshire Cup competition had been held. This season saw the junior/amateur club Featherstone Rovers being invited again, and this, together with the restart-up of Keighley after the wartime close-down, resulted in an increase of one bringing the total entries up to fourteen. This in turn resulted in two byes in the first round.
This year saw the cup holders retain the trophy after winning for the fourth successive time, with Huddersfield winning the trophy by beating Leeds by the score of 24–5 in the final. The match was played at Thrum Hall, Halifax, now in West Yorkshire. The attendance was, 24,935 and receipts were ££2,096. This was Huddersfield's seventh appearance in what had been seven appearances in eight consecutive finals between 1909 and this season (which included four successive victories and six in total), and who knows, but for the intervention of the First World War and suspension of the competition, it may have been more. It was also the fourth consecutive win.

## Background

The Rugby Football League's 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 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)

## Competition and results
### Round 1

Involved 6 matches (with two byes) and 14 clubs
| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue |
| 1 | Sat 18 Oct 1919 | Bradford Northern | 3–5 | Batley | Birch Lane |
| 2 | Sat 18 Oct 1919 | Bramley | 18–5 | Hull Kingston Rovers | Barley Mow |
| 3 | Sat 18 Oct 1919 | Featherstone Rovers | 15–4 | Keighley | Post Office Road |
| 4 | Sat 18 Oct 1919 | Halifax | 4–9 | Huddersfield | Thrum Hall |
| 5 | Sat 18 Oct 1919 | Leeds | 8–5 | Dewsbury | Headingley |
| 6 | Sat 18 Oct 1919 | York | 10–5 | Hunslet | Clarence Street |
| 7 | | Hull | | bye | |
| 8 | | Wakefield Trinity | | bye | |

### Round 2 – quarterfinals

Involved 4 matches and 8 clubs
| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue |
| 1 | Sat 1 Nov 1919 | Batley | 12–2 | Featherstone Rovers | Mount Pleasant |
| 2 | Sat 1 Nov 1919 | Huddersfield | 33–8 | Hull | Fartown |
| 3 | Sat 1 Nov 1919 | Leeds | 14–4 | Bramley | Headingley |
| 4 | Sat 1 Nov 1919 | Wakefield Trinity | 4–3 | York | Belle Vue |

### Round 3 – semifinals

Involved 2 matches and 4 clubs
| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Ref |
| 1 | Sat 15 Nov 1919 | Huddersfield | 15–5 | Wakefield Trinity | Fartown | |
| 2 | Sat 15 Nov 1919 | Leeds | 16–5 | Batley | Headingley | |

### Final

| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Att | Rec | Ref |
| | Saturday 29 November 1919 | Huddersfield | 24–5 | Leeds | Thrum Hall | 24935 | £2,096 | |

#### Teams and scorers

| Huddersfield | № | Leeds |
| | teams | |
| Major Holland | 1 | J. H. Roberts |
| Albert Rosenfeld | 2 | Jim Bacon |
| Tom Gleeson | 3 | William Davies |
| Harold Wagstaff | 4 | John Campbell |
| Stan Moorhouse | 5 | Squire Stockwell |
| Johnny Rogers | 6 | Joe Brittain |
| Robert Habron | 7 | A. E. Jenkinson |
| Aaron Lee | 8 | F. Mirfield |
| Arthur Swinden | 9 | F. Godward |
| Herbert Sherwood | 10 | W. N. Whiting |
| Ben Gronow | 11 | Billy Ward |
| G. Naylor | 12 | Fred Webster |
| Douglas Clark | 13 | Fred Carter |
| ?? | Coach | ?? |
| 24 | score | 5 |
| 13 | HT | 0 |
| | Scorers | |
| | Tries | |
| Stan Moorhouse (4) | T | W. N. Whiting (1) |
| R Habron (1) | T | |
| Albert "Rozzi" Rosenfeld (1) | T | |
| | Goals | |
| Ben Gronow (3) | G | F. Mirfield (1) |
| | Drop Goals | |
| | DG | |
| Referee | | B. Ennion (Wigan) |
Scoring – Try = three (3) points – Goal = two (2) points – Drop goal = two (2) points

### The road to success

| First round | First round | First round | Second round | Second round | Second round | Semifinals | Semifinals | Semifinals | | Final | Final | Final |
| Halifax | Halifax | 4 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 9 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 9 | Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 33 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Hull | Hull | 8 | | | | | | | |
| Hull | Hull | | Hull | Hull | 8 | | | | | | | |
| bye | bye | | | | | | | | | | | |
| bye | bye | | | | | Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 15 | | | | |
| | | | | | | Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | 5 | | | | |
| Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | | | | | | | | Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | 5 | | | | |
| bye | bye | | | | | | | | | | | |
| bye | bye | | Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | 4 | | | | | | | |
| | | | York | York | 3 | | | | | | | |
| York | York | 10 | York | York | 3 | | | | | | | |
| Hunslet | Hunslet | 5 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Hunslet | Hunslet | 5 | | | | | | | | Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 24 |
| | | | | | | | | | | Leeds | Leeds | 5 |
| Leeds | Leeds | 8 | | | | | | | | | | | Leeds | Leeds | 5 |
| Dewsbury | Dewsbury | 5 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Dewsbury | Dewsbury | 5 | Leeds | Leeds | 14 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Bramley | Bramley | 4 | | | | | | | |
| Bramley | Bramley | 18 | Bramley | Bramley | 4 | | | | | | | |
| Hull Kingston Rovers | Hull Kingston Rovers | 5 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Hull Kingston Rovers | Hull Kingston Rovers | 5 | | | | Leeds | Leeds | 16 | | | | |
| | | | | | | Batley | Batley | 5 | | | | |
| Bradford Northern | Bradford Northern | 3 | | | | | | | Batley | Batley | 5 | | | | |
| Batley | Batley | 5 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Batley | Batley | 5 | Batley | Batley | 12 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Featherstone Rovers | Featherstone Rovers | 2 | | | | | | | |
| Featherstone Rovers | Featherstone Rovers | 15 | Featherstone Rovers | Featherstone Rovers | 2 | | | | | | | |
| Keighley | Keighley | 4 | | | | | | | | | | |