# 1951–52 Yorkshire Cup

The 1951–52 Yorkshire Cup was the forty-fourth occasion on which rugby league's Yorkshire Cup competition was held. Wakefield Trinity won the trophy by beating Keighley in the final.

## Background

This season no junior/amateur clubs were invited to take part, but newly elected to the league Doncaster were added to the competition, thus 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 | Notes |
| 1 | Sat 1 Sep 1951 | Dewsbury | 15-10 | Halifax | Crown Flatt | | |
| 2 | Sat 1 Sep 1951 | Hull Kingston Rovers | 19-13 | Huddersfield | Craven Park (1) | 6,404 | |
| 3 | Sat 1 Sep 1951 | Castleford | 14-11 | Keighley | Wheldon Road | | |
| 4 | Sat 1 Sep 1951 | Wakefield Trinity | 15-5 | Hull | Belle Vue | | |
| 5 | Sat 1 Sep 1951 | Doncaster | 4-9 | Hunslet | York Road Greyhound Stadium | | 1 |
| 6 | Sat 1 Sep 1951 | Featherstone Rovers | 4-2 | Bradford Northern | Post Office Road | | |
| 7 | Sat 1 Sep 1951 | Leeds | 18-8 | Bramley | Headingley | | |
| 8 | Sat 1 Sep 1951 | Batley | 7-8 | York | Mount Pleasant | | |

### 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 |
| 1 | Mon 3 Sep 1951 | Halifax | 9-3 | Dewsbury | Thrum Hall | 19-18 | |
| 2 | Mon 3 Sep 1951 | Huddersfield | 25-5 | Hull Kingston Rovers | Fartown | 38-24 | 12,198 |
| 3 | Tue 4 Sep 1951 | Keighley | 9-0 | Castleford | Lawkholme Lane | 20-14 | |
| 4 | Wed 5 Sep 1951 | Hull | 18-18 | Wakefield Trinity | Boulevard | 23-33 | |
| 5 | Wed 5 Sep 1951 | Hunslet | 12-2 | Doncaster | Parkside | 21-6 | |
| 6 | Mon 10 Sep 1951 | Bradford Northern | 11-9 | Featherstone Rovers | Odsal | 13-13 | |
| 7 | Mon 10 Sep 1951 | Bramley | 9-25 | Leeds | Barley Mow | 17-43 | |
| 8 | Mon 10 Sep 1951 | York | 5-21 | Batley | Clarence Street | 13-28 | |

### Round 1 - Replay

Involved 1 match and 2 clubs
| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | agg | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref |
| R | Wed 12 Sep 1951 | Featherstone Rovers | 9-17 | Bradford Northern | Post Office Road | | | | | |

### 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 | Mon 24 Sep 1951 | Hunslet | 27-8 | Batley | Parkside | |
| 2 | Tue 25 Sep 1951 | Keighley | 18-14 | Halifax | Lawkholme Lane | |
| 3 | Wed 26 Sep 1951 | Bradford Northern | 13-14 | Leeds | Odsal | |
| 4 | Wed 26 Sep 1951 | Wakefield Trinity | 14-5 | Huddersfield | Belle Vue | 15,400 |

### 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 | Mon 8 Oct 1951 | Leeds | 17-18 | Wakefield Trinity | Headingley | | | | | |
| 2 | Tue 16 Oct 1951 | Keighley | 15-9 | Hunslet | Lawkholme Lane | | | | | |

### Final

This was Keighley's only appearance in a Yorkshire Cup final (except for the 1943 Wartime final). Wakefield Trinity won the trophy by beating Keighley by the score of 17-3. The match was played at Fartown, Huddersfield, now in West Yorkshire. The attendance was 25,495 and receipts were £3,347
| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | agg | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref |
| | Saturday 27 October 1951 | Wakefield Trinity | 17-3 | Keighley | Fartown | | 25,495 | £3,347 | 2 3 | |

#### Teams and scorers

| Wakefield Trinity | № | Keighley |
| | teams | |
| Ernest Luckman | 1 | Gerry Lockwood |
| Johnny Duggan | 2 | Len Ward |
| Les Hirst | 3 | Taylor |
| Don Froggett | 4 | Martin Creeney |
| Denis "Dinny" Boocker | 5 | Bill Ivill |
| Glyn Meredith | 6 | Eric Redman |
| Arthur Fletcher | 7 | Freddie Barratt |
| Jack Booth | 8 | Chris Brereton |
| Dennis Horner | 9 | Joe Britton |
| Bill Hudson | 10 | J. Ramsden |
| Derek Howes | 11 | A. Mulhall |
| Don Robinson | 12 | Bob Kelly |
| Reg Hughes | 13 | Sanderson |
| James Croston (standing in for Harry Beverley) | Coach | ?? |
| 17 | score | 3 |
| 5 | HT | 3 |
| | Scorers | |
| | Tries | |
| Don Robinson (1) | T | Eric Redman (1) |
| Denis "Dinny" Boocker (1) | T | |
| Reg Hughes (1) | T | |
| | Goals | |
| Les Hirst (4) | G | |
| Referee | | F. Smith (Barrow) |
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 |
| Featherstone Rovers | Featherstone Rovers | 22 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Bradford Northern | Bradford Northern | 30 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Bradford Northern | Bradford Northern | 30 | Bradford Northern | Bradford Northern | 13 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Leeds | Leeds | 14 | | | | | | | |
| Leeds | Leeds | 43 | Leeds | Leeds | 14 | | | | | | | |
| Bramley | Bramley | 17 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Bramley | Bramley | 17 | | | | Leeds | Leeds | 17 | | | | |
| | | | | | | Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | 18 | | | | |
| Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | 33 | | | | | | | Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | 18 | | | | |
| Hull | Hull | 23 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Hull | Hull | 23 | Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | 14 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 5 | | | | | | | |
| Hull Kingston Rovers | Hull Kingston Rovers | 24 | Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 5 | | | | | | | |
| Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 38 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 38 | | | | | | | | Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | 17 |
| | | | | | | | | | | Keighley | Keighley | 3 |
| Castleford | Castleford | 14 | | | | | | | | | | | Keighley | Keighley | 3 |
| Keighley | Keighley | 20 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Keighley | Keighley | 20 | Keighley | Keighley | 18 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Halifax | Halifax | 14 | | | | | | | |
| Dewsbury | Dewsbury | 18 | Halifax | Halifax | 14 | | | | | | | |
| Halifax | Halifax | 19 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Halifax | Halifax | 19 | | | | Keighley | Keighley | 15 | | | | |
| | | | | | | Hunslet | Hunslet | 9 | | | | |
| Doncaster | Doncaster | 6 | | | | | | | Hunslet | Hunslet | 9 | | | | |
| Hunslet | Hunslet | 21 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Hunslet | Hunslet | 21 | Hunslet | Hunslet | 27 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Batley | Batley | 8 | | | | | | | |
| Batley | Batley | 28 | Batley | Batley | 8 | | | | | | | |
| York | York | 13 | | | | | | | | | | |

## Notes and comments

1 * The first Yorkshire Cup match to be played by newly elected to the league, Doncaster, and also at this stadium
2 * The receipts are given as £3,237 by the official Huddersfield 1952 Yearbook but given as £3,227 by "100 Years of Rugby. The History of Wakefield Trinity 1873-1973" and £3,347 by RUGBYLEAGUEproject and by the Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook of 1991-92 and 1990-91
3 * Fartown was the home ground of Huddersfield from 1878 to the end of the 1991-92 season to Huddersfield Town FC's Leeds Road stadium, and then to the McAlpine Stadium in 1994. Fartown remained as a sports/Rugby League ground but is now rather dilapidated, and is only used for staging amateur rugby league games.
Due to lack of maintenance, terrace closures and finally major storm damage closing one of the stands in 1986, the final ground capacity had been reduced to just a few thousands although the record attendance was set in a Challenge cup semi-final on 19 April 1947 when a crowd of 35,136 saw Leeds beat Wakefield Trinity 21-0

### 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)