# 1918–19 Yorkshire Cup

The 1918–19 Yorkshire Cup was the eleventh occasion on which the Yorkshire Cup competition had been held. This quickly arranged competition was won by the cup holder who would make it a hat trick of wins, taking up where they left off before the start of the World War. Huddersfield beat Dewsbury by the score of 14–8 in the final. The match was played at Headingley, Leeds, now in West Yorkshire. The attendance was 21,500 and receipts were £1,309.
The shortened 1918–19 (February–May) season began less than three months after the end of the hostilities and the armistice of Compiègne. The country was still suffering from the aftermath of the long and bitter struggle. The 1918–19 (January) Northern Rugby Football Union Wartime Emergency League season had been operating since September 1918. This was cancelled, and the programme started tailing off in January 1919. The only club to be "lost" to the Yorkshire League was Keighley who closed down for the duration of the War and did not recommence playing until the start of the 1919–20 season. This season saw an invitation to junior/amateur club Featherstone Rovers which, with the temporary loss of Keighley, resulted in the total entries remaining the same as in the previous competition held before the outbreak of the war at thirteen. This in turn resulted in three byes in the first round.
This was Huddersfield's sixth appearance in what would be seven appearances in eight consecutive finals between 1909 and 1919 (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 third of the four consecutive wins.

## 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 5 matches (with three byes) and 13 clubs
| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue |
| 1 | Sat 12 Apr 1919 | Hull Kingston Rovers | 18–0 | Halifax | Craven Street (off Holderness Road) |
| 2 | Sat 12 Apr 1919 | Wakefield Trinity | 18–9 | Bradford Northern | Belle Vue |
| 3 | Sat 26 Apr 1919 | Hull | 6–0 | Leeds | Boulevard |
| 4 | Sat 26 Apr 1919 | Hunslet | 5–16 | Huddersfield | Parkside |
| 5 | Sat 26 Apr 1919 | York | 0–2 | Bramley | Clarence Street |
| 6 | | Batley | 0 | bye | |
| 7 | | Dewsbury | 0 | bye | |
| 8 | | Featherstone Rovers | 0 | bye | |

### Round 2 – quarterfinals

Involved 4 matches and 8 clubs
| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue |
| 1 | Sat 3 May 1919 | Dewsbury | 7–2 | Batley | Crown Flatt |
| 2 | Sat 3 May 1919 | Hull | 31–4 | Bramley | Boulevard |
| 3 | Sat 3 May 1919 | Hull Kingston Rovers | 4–19 | Huddersfield | Craven Street (off Holderness Road) |
| 4 | Sat 3 May 1919 | Wakefield Trinity | 14–3 | Featherstone Rovers | Belle Vue |

### Round 3 – semifinals

Involved 2 matches and 4 clubs
| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Ref |
| 1 | Sat 10 May 1919 | Dewsbury | 3–2 | Wakefield Trinity | Crown Flatt | |
| 2 | Sat 10 May 1919 | Huddersfield | 23–13 | Hull | Fartown | |

### Final

| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Att | Rec | Ref |
| | Saturday 17 May 1919 | Huddersfield | 14–8 | Dewsbury | Headingley | 21500 | 1309 | |

#### Teams and scorers

| Huddersfield | № | Dewsbury |
| | teams | |
| Major Holland | 1 | Billy Rhodes |
| George Todd | 2 | Joe Lyman |
| Tom Gleeson | 3 | Wilfred Mosby |
| Albert Rosenfeld | 4 | Thomas Price |
| Stan Moorhouse | 5 | George Sharples |
| Johnny Rogers | 6 | Robert Birch |
| Robert Habron | 7 | Ernest Rodgers |
| Douglas Clark | 8 | Percy Brown |
| Ben Gronow | 9 | Albert Dixon |
| John Higson | 10 | John Leake |
| Aaron Lee | 11 | Thomas Craven |
| Herbert Sherwood | 12 | Reynor Robertshaw |
| Arthur Swinden | 13 | Frank Gallagher |
| ?? | Coach | ?? |
| 14 | score | 8 |
| 7 | HT | 0 |
| | Scorers | |
| | Tries | |
| Tom Gleeson (1) | T | Joe Lyman (1) |
| Robert Habron (1) | T | G. Sharples (1) |
| | Goals | |
| Ben Gronow (4) | G | Joe Lyman (1) |
| | Drop Goals | |
| | DG | |
| Referee | | F. Renton (Hunslet) |
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 |
| Hull Kingston Rovers | Hull Kingston Rovers | 18 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Halifax | Halifax | 0 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Halifax | Halifax | 0 | Hull Kingston Rovers | Hull Kingston Rovers | 4 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 19 | | | | | | | |
| Hunslet | Hunslet | 5 | Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 19 | | | | | | | |
| Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 16 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 16 | | | | Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 23 | | | | |
| | | | | | | Hull | Hull | 13 | | | | |
| Hull | Hull | 6 | | | | | | | Hull | Hull | 13 | | | | |
| Leeds | Leeds | 0 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Leeds | Leeds | 0 | Hull | Hull | 31 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Bramley | Bramley | 4 | | | | | | | |
| York | York | 0 | Bramley | Bramley | 4 | | | | | | | |
| Bramley | Bramley | 2 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Bramley | Bramley | 2 | | | | | | | | Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 14 |
| | | | | | | | | | | Dewsbury | Dewsbury | 8 |
| Dewsbury | Dewsbury | | | | | | | | | | | | Dewsbury | Dewsbury | 8 |
| bye | bye | | | | | | | | | | | |
| bye | bye | | Dewsbury | Dewsbury | 7 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Batley | Batley | 2 | | | | | | | |
| Batley | Batley | | Batley | Batley | 2 | | | | | | | |
| bye | bye | | | | | | | | | | | |
| bye | bye | | | | | Dewsbury | Dewsbury | 3 | | | | |
| | | | | | | Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | 2 | | | | |
| Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | 18 | | | | | | | Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | 2 | | | | |
| Bradford Northern | Bradford Northern | 9 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Bradford Northern | Bradford Northern | 9 | Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | 14 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Featherstone Rovers | Featherstone Rovers | 3 | | | | | | | |
| Featherstone Rovers | Featherstone Rovers | | Featherstone Rovers | Featherstone Rovers | 3 | | | | | | | |
| bye | bye | | | | | | | | | | | |