# 1959–60 Yorkshire Cup

The 1959–60 Yorkshire Cup was the fifty-second occasion on which the Yorkshire Cup competition was held.
For the first time in fourteen years a new name appeared on the Yorkshire Cup. Featherstone Rovers who previously won the trophy in the spring 1940 wartime competition, could now lay claim to a genuine trophy; the wartime competitions were not counted officially in the records.
Featherstone Rovers won the trophy by beating Hull F.C. by a score of 15-14.
The match was played at Headingley, Leeds, now in West Yorkshire. The attendance was 23,983 and receipts were £4156.

## Background

This season there were no junior/amateur clubs taking part, no new entrants and no "leavers", 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

Round 1 involved eight matches (with no byes) and 16 clubs.
| Game no. | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Att |
| 1 | Fri 28 Aug 1959 | Leeds | 28-14 | Keighley | Headingley | |
| 2 | Sat 29 Aug 1959 | Bradford Northern | 10-23 | Hull F.C. | Odsal | |
| 3 | Sat 29 Aug 1959 | Bramley | 17-10 | York | Barley Mow | |
| 4 | Sat 29 Aug 1959 | Dewsbury | 27-14 | Castleford | Crown Flatt | |
| 5 | Sat 29 Aug 1959 | Featherstone Rovers | 24-9 | Hull Kingston Rovers | Post Office Road | |
| 6 | Sat 29 Aug 1959 | Halifax | 17-14 | Wakefield Trinity | Thrum Hall | |
| 7 | Sat 29 Aug 1959 | Huddersfield | 46-12 | Doncaster | Fartown | 3809 |
| 8 | Sat 29 Aug 1959 | Hunslet | 46-8 | Batley | Parkside | |

### Round 2 – quarterfinals

Round 2's quarterfinals involved four matches and eight clubs.
| Game no. | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Att |
| 1 | Mon 7 Sep 1959 | Leeds | 15-10 | Hunslet | Headingley | |
| 2 | Tue 8 Sep 1959 | Bramley | 14-17 | Hull F.C. | Barley Mow | |
| 3 | Wed 9 Sep 1959 | Featherstone Rovers | 32-18 | Dewsbury | Post Office Road | |
| 4 | Mon 14 Sep 1959 | Huddersfield | 9-16 | Halifax | Fartown | 11435 |

### Round 3 – semifinals

Round 3's semifinals involved two matches and four clubs.
| Game no. | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref |
| 1 | Thu 24 Sep 1959 | Hull F.C. | 18-9 | Halifax | Boulevard | | | | |
| 2 | Wed 30 Sep 1959 | Featherstone Rovers | 14-7 | Leeds | Post Office Road | | | | |

### Final

| Game no. | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref |
| | Saturday 31 October 1959 | Featherstone Rovers | 15-14 | Hull F.C. | Headingley | 23,983 | £4,156 | 1 | |

#### Teams and scorers

| Featherstone Rovers | No. | Hull F.C. |
| | Teams | |
| Jack "Jackie" Fennell | 1 | Peter Bateson |
| Frank "Cheyenne" Smith | 2 | Stan Cowan |
| Ken Greatorex | 3 | Brian Cooper |
| Jim Hunt | 4 | Brian Saville |
| Cyril Woolford | 5 | Dennis Nicholson |
| Joe Mullaney (c) | 6 | George Matthews |
| Don Fox | 7 | Tommy Finn |
| Joe Anderson | 8 | Mick Scott |
| Willis Fawley | 9 | Tommy Harris |
| Malcolm Dixon | 10 | Jim Drake |
| Mick Clamp | 11 | Cyril Sykes |
| Cliff Lambert | 12 | Bill Drake |
| Terry Clawson | 13 | Johnny Whiteley |
| Harold Moxon | Coach | Roy Francis |
| 15 | Score | 14 |
| 13 | HT | 7 |
| | Scorers | |
| | Tries | |
| Don Fox (1) | T | Johnny Whiteley (1) |
| Cliff Lambert (1) | T | Brian Saville (1) |
| Cyril Woolford (1) | T | |
| | Goals | |
| Terry Clawson (4) | G | Peter Bateson (4) |
| | G | |
| | Drop Goals | |
| | DG | |
| Referee | | Charlie Appleton (Warrington) |
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 |
| Featherstone Rovers | Featherstone Rovers | 24 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Hull Kingston Rovers | Hull Kingston Rovers | 9 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Hull Kingston Rovers | Hull Kingston Rovers | 9 | Featherstone Rovers | Featherstone Rovers | 32 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Dewsbury | Dewsbury | 18 | | | | | | | |
| Dewsbury | Dewsbury | 27 | Dewsbury | Dewsbury | 18 | | | | | | | |
| Castleford | Castleford | 14 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Castleford | Castleford | 14 | | | | Featherstone Rovers | Featherstone Rovers | 14 | | | | |
| | | | | | | Leeds | Leeds | 7 | | | | |
| Leeds | Leeds | 28 | | | | | | | Leeds | Leeds | 7 | | | | |
| Keighley | Keighley | 14 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Keighley | Keighley | 14 | Leeds | Leeds | 15 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Hunslet | Hunslet | 10 | | | | | | | |
| Hunslet | Hunslet | 46 | Hunslet | Hunslet | 10 | | | | | | | |
| Batley | Batley | 8 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Batley | Batley | 8 | | | | | | | | Featherstone Rovers | Featherstone Rovers | 15 |
| | | | | | | | | | | Hull F.C. | Hull F.C. | 14 |
| Bramley | Bramley | 17 | | | | | | | | | | | Hull F.C. | Hull F.C. | 14 |
| York | York | 10 | | | | | | | | | | |
| York | York | 10 | Bramley | Bramley | 14 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Hull F.C. | Hull F.C. | 17 | | | | | | | |
| Bradford Northern | Bradford Northern | 10 | Hull F.C. | Hull F.C. | 17 | | | | | | | |
| Hull F.C. | Hull F.C. | 23 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Hull F.C. | Hull F.C. | 23 | | | | Hull F.C. | Hull F.C. | 18 | | | | |
| | | | | | | Halifax | Halifax | 9 | | | | |
| Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 46 | | | | | | | Halifax | Halifax | 9 | | | | |
| Doncaster | Doncaster | 12 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Doncaster | Doncaster | 12 | Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 9 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Halifax | Halifax | 16 | | | | | | | |
| Halifax | Halifax | 17 | Halifax | Halifax | 16 | | | | | | | |
| Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | 14 | | | | | | | | | | |

## Notes and comments

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

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 through around May. 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 occurred during, and immediately after, the two world wars.