# 1953–54 Yorkshire Cup

The 1953–54 Yorkshire Cup was the forty-sixth occasion on which the Yorkshire Cup competition had been held.
Bradford Northern won the trophy by beating Hull F.C. by the score of 7-2
The match was played at Headingley, Leeds, now in West Yorkshire. The attendance was 22,147 and receipts were £3,833

## Background

This season no junior/amateur clubs were invited to take part, there were no new additions and no club "dropped out", and so the number of entrants 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 | Att |
| 1 | Sat 5 Sep 1953 | Batley | 10-34 | Bradford Northern | Mount Pleasant | |
| 2 | Sat 5 Sep 1953 | Castleford | 0-11 | Halifax | Wheldon Road | |
| 3 | Sat 5 Sep 1953 | Featherstone Rovers | 7-21 | Leeds | Post Office Road | |
| 4 | Sat 5 Sep 1953 | Huddersfield | 47-9 | Wakefield Trinity | Fartown | 16,137 |
| 5 | Sat 5 Sep 1953 | Hull | 30-14 | Bramley | Boulevard | |
| 6 | Sat 5 Sep 1953 | Hunslet | 27-13 | Hull Kingston Rovers | Parkside | |
| 7 | Sat 5 Sep 1953 | Keighley | 11-6 | Dewsbury | Lawkholme Lane | |
| 8 | Mon 7 Sep 1953 | York | 19-2 | Doncaster | 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 | Att | Notes |
| 1 | Wed 9 Sep 1953 | Bradford Northern | 15-18 | Batley | Odsal | 49-28 | | |
| 2 | Mon 7 Sep 1953 | Halifax | 9-3 | Castleford | Thrum Hall | 20-3 | | |
| 3 | Wed 9 Sep 1953 | Leeds | 32-7 | Featherstone Rovers | Headingley | 53-14 | | |
| 4 | Wed 9 Sep 1953 | Wakefield Trinity | 20-7 | Huddersfield | Belle Vue | 29-54 | 6,222 | |
| 5 | Tue 8 Sep 1953 | Bramley | 9-17 | Hull | Barley Mow | 23-47 | | |
| 6 | Wed 9 Sep 1953 | Hull Kingston Rovers | 7-11 | Hunslet | Craven Park (1) | 20-38 | | |
| 7 | Tue 8 Sep 1953 | Dewsbury | 2-0 | Keighley | Crown Flatt | 8-11 | | |
| 8 | Thu 10 Sep 1953 | Doncaster | 2-21 | York | Bentley Road Stadium/Tattersfield | 4-40 | | 1 |

### 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 | Att |
| 1 | Wed 23 Sep 1953 | Bradford Northern | 27-9 | Leeds | Odsal | |
| 2 | Wed 23 Sep 1953 | Huddersfield | 19-7 | York | Fartown | 9,425 |
| 3 | Wed 23 Sep 1953 | Hunslet | 11-2 | Keighley | Parkside | |
| 4 | Mon 28 Sep 1953 | Hull | 16-4 | Halifax | Boulevard | |

### 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 30 Sep 1953 | Huddersfield | 10-11 | Bradford Northern | Fartown | | 15,438 | | | |
| 2 | Wed 21 Oct 1953 | Hunslet | 2-3 | Hull | Parkside | | | | 2 | |

### 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 | Thu 22 Oct 1953 | Hunslet | 5-9 | Hull | Parkside | | | | | |

### Final

| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | agg | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref |
| | Saturday 31 October 1953 | Bradford Northern | 7-2 | Hull | Headingley | | 22,147 | £3,833 | 3 | |

#### Teams and scorers

| Bradford Northern | № | Hull |
| | Teams | |
| Joe Phillips | 1 | Colin Hutton |
| Bob Hawes | 2 | Keith Bowman |
| Joe Mageen | 3 | Bill Riches |
| Bill Seddon | 4 | Carl Turner |
| Jack McLean | 5 | Ivor Watts |
| Bill Jenkins | 6 | Bernard Conway |
| Roy Goddard | 7 | Albert Tripp |
| Barry Tyler | 8 | Mick Scott |
| Norman Haley | 9 | Tommy Harris |
| Wynn Jones | 10 | Bob Coverdale |
| Trevor Foster | 11 | Harry Markham |
| Tony Storey | 12 | Arthur Bedford |
| Ken Traill | 13 | Johnny Whiteley |
| Dai Rees | Coach | Roy Francis |
| 7 | score | 2 |
| 7 | HT | 0 |
| | Scorers | |
| Bob Hawes | Tries | |
| | T | |
| Joe Phillips (2) | Goals | Colin Hutton |
| | G | |
| | G | |
| Referee | | George 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 |
| Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 54 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | 29 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | 29 | Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 19 | | | | | | | |
| | | | York | York | 7 | | | | | | | |
| York | York | 40 | York | York | 7 | | | | | | | |
| Doncaster | Doncaster | 4 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Doncaster | Doncaster | 4 | | | | Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 10 | | | | |
| | | | | | | Bradford Northern | Bradford Northern | 11 | | | | |
| Batley | Batley | 28 | | | | | | | Bradford Northern | Bradford Northern | 11 | | | | |
| Bradford Northern | Bradford Northern | 49 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Bradford Northern | Bradford Northern | 49 | Bradford Northern | Bradford Northern | 27 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Leeds | Leeds | 9 | | | | | | | |
| Featherstone Rovers | Featherstone Rovers | 14 | Leeds | Leeds | 9 | | | | | | | |
| Leeds | Leeds | 53 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Leeds | Leeds | 53 | | | | | | | | Bradford Northern | Bradford Northern | 7 |
| | | | | | | | | | | Hull | Hull | 2 |
| Hunslet | Hunslet | 38 | | | | | | | | | | | Hull | Hull | 2 |
| Hull Kingston Rovers | Hull Kingston Rovers | 20 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Hull Kingston Rovers | Hull Kingston Rovers | 20 | Hunslet | Hunslet | 11 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Keighley | Keighley | 2 | | | | | | | |
| Keighley | Keighley | 11 | Keighley | Keighley | 2 | | | | | | | |
| Dewsbury | Dewsbury | 8 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Dewsbury | Dewsbury | 8 | | | | Hunslet | Hunslet | 5 | | | | |
| | | | | | | Hull | Hull | 9 | | | | |
| Hull | Hull | 47 | | | | | | | Hull | Hull | 9 | | | | |
| Bramley | Bramley | 23 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Bramley | Bramley | 23 | Hull | Hull | 16 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Halifax | Halifax | 4 | | | | | | | |
| Castleford | Castleford | 3 | Halifax | Halifax | 4 | | | | | | | |
| Halifax | Halifax | 20 | | | | | | | | | | |

## Notes and comments

1 * The first Yorkshire Cup match played by Doncaster at their new Bentley Road Stadium - soon to be renamed "Tatters field" (ot Tattersfield) after the former chairman Len Tattersfield.
2 * Match abandoned after 32 minutes due to fog.
3 * 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)