# 1938–39 Yorkshire Cup

The 1938–39 Yorkshire Cup, was the thirty-first occasion on which the Yorkshire County Cup competition was held.
The previous year's defeated finalists returned for a second year, but this year they were triumphant, Huddersfield winning the trophy by beating Hull F.C. by the score of 18–10.
The match was played at Odsal in the City of Bradford, now in West Yorkshire. The attendance was 28,714 and receipts were £1,534.
For the losers, Hull FC, it was to be their fifth defeat in six appearances in the Yorkshire Cup final.

## Background

This season there were no junior/amateur clubs taking part, no new entrants but Newcastle folded and so there is one less entrant, reducing the total number to fifteen.
This in turn resulted in one bye in the first round.

## Competition and results
### Round 1

Involved 7 matches (with one bye) and 15 clubs
| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue |
| 1 | Sat 10 Sep 1938 | Bradford Northern | 7-20 | Hunslet | Odsal |
| 2 | Sat 10 Sep 1938 | Featherstone Rovers | 4-43 | Leeds | Post Office Road |
| 3 | Sat 10 Sep 1938 | Halifax | 9-9 | Batley | Thrum Hall |
| 4 | Sat 10 Sep 1938 | Huddersfield | 32-8 | Dewsbury | Fartown |
| 5 | Sat 10 Sep 1938 | Hull | 17-10 | Bramley | Boulevard |
| 6 | Sat 10 Sep 1938 | Hull Kingston Rovers | 12-0 | Castleford | Craven Park (1) |
| 7 | Sat 10 Sep 1938 | York | 14-28 | Keighley | Clarence Street |
| 8 | | Wakefield Trinity | | bye | |

### Round 1 - replays

Involved 1 match and 2 clubs
| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref |
| R | Wed 14 Sep 1938 | Batley | 0-16 | Halifax | Mount Pleasant | | | | |

### Round 2 – quarterfinals

Involved 4 matches and 8 clubs
| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue |
| 1 | Mon 19 Sep 1938 | Halifax | 8-14 | Wakefield Trinity | Thrum Hall |
| 2 | Mon 19 Sep 1938 | Hunslet | 23-7 | Hull Kingston Rovers | Parkside |
| 3 | Tue 20 Sep 1938 | Hull | 8-0 | Keighley | Boulevard |
| 4 | Wed 21 Sep 1938 | Huddersfield | 8-6 | Leeds | Fartown |

### Round 3 – semifinals

Involved 2 matches and 4 clubs
| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref |
| 1 | Wed 5 Oct 1938 | Huddersfield | 6-2 | Wakefield Trinity | Fartown | | | | |
| 2 | Thu 6 Oct 1938 | Hull | 18-2 | Hunslet | Boulevard | | | | |

### Final

| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref |
| | Saturday 22 October 1938 | Huddersfield | 18-10 | Hull | Odsal | 28714 | 1534 | 1 | |

#### Teams and scorers

| Huddersfield | No. | Hull |
| taken from match programme | teams | taken from match programme |
| W. J. Taylor | 1 | Freddie Miller |
| Bill Johnson | 2 | Frank Hurley |
| Dennis Madden | 3 | J. R. "Bob" Corner |
| Alex Fiddes | 4 | Sydney Wilson |
| E. T. Markham | 5 | E. Overton |
| Stanley "Stan" V. Pepperell | 6 | Ernie Herbert |
| T. Grahame (or T. H. Royal) | 7 | A. Tom Johnson |
| H. Sherwood | 8 | Lawrence "Laurie" Thacker |
| H. Whitehead | 9 | G. H. "George" Barlow |
| David Morgan Evans | 10 | Lawrence Barlow |
| Emrys Hughes | 11 | Charles "Charlie" Booth |
| J. D. Shaw | 12 | J. R. P. "Jack" Dawson |
| K. Gronow (or Ron Bailey) | 13 | Harold Ellerington |
| ?? | Coach | ?? |
| 18 | score | 10 |
| 10 | HT | 2 |
| | Scorers | |
| | Tries | |
| E. T. Markham (3) | T | |
| Dennis Madden (1) | T | |
| | Goals | |
| Alex Fiddes (2) | G | |
| Dennis Madden (1) | G | |
| Referee | | unknown |
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 |
| Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 32 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Dewsbury | Dewsbury | 8 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Dewsbury | Dewsbury | 8 | Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 8 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Leeds | Leeds | 6 | | | | | | | |
| Featherstone Rovers | Featherstone Rovers | 4 | Leeds | Leeds | 6 | | | | | | | |
| Leeds | Leeds | 43 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Leeds | Leeds | 43 | | | | Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 6 | | | | |
| | | | | | | Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | 2 | | | | |
| Halifax | Halifax | 9 (16) | | | | | | | Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | 2 | | | | |
| Batley | Batley | 9 (0) | | | | | | | | | | |
| Batley | Batley | 9 (0) | Halifax | Halifax | 8 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | 14 | | | | | | | |
| Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | | Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | 14 | | | | | | | |
| bye | bye | | | | | | | | | | | |
| bye | bye | | | | | | | | | Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 18 |
| | | | | | | | | | | Hull | Hull | 10 |
| Hull | Hull | 17 | | | | | | | | | | | Hull | Hull | 10 |
| Bramley | Bramley | 10 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Bramley | Bramley | 10 | Hull | Hull | 8 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Keighley | Keighley | 0 | | | | | | | |
| York | York | 14 | Keighley | Keighley | 0 | | | | | | | |
| Keighley | Keighley | 28 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Keighley | Keighley | 28 | | | | Hull | Hull | 18 | | | | |
| | | | | | | Hunslet | Hunslet | 2 | | | | |
| Bradford Northern | Bradford Northern | 7 | | | | | | | Hunslet | Hunslet | 2 | | | | |
| Hunslet | Hunslet | 20 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Hunslet | Hunslet | 20 | Hunslet | Hunslet | 23 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Hull Kingston Rovers | Hull Kingston Rovers | 7 | | | | | | | |
| Hull Kingston Rovers | Hull Kingston Rovers | 12 | Hull Kingston Rovers | Hull Kingston Rovers | 7 | | | | | | | |
| Castleford | Castleford | 0 | | | | | | | | | | |

## Notes and comments

1 * Odsal is the home ground of Bradford Northern from 1890 to 2010 and the current capacity is in the region of 26,000, The ground is famous for hosting the largest attendance at an English sports ground when 102,569 (it was reported that over 120,000 actually attended as several areas of boundary fencing collapse under the sheer weight of numbers) attended the replay of the Challenge Cup final on 5 May 1954 to see Halifax v Warrington.

### 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.)