1952–53 Yorkshire Cup

The 1952–53 Yorkshire Cup was the forty-fifth occasion on which the Yorkshire Cup competition had been held.

1952–53 Yorkshire Cup
Structure	Regional knockout championship
Teams	16
Winners	Huddersfield
Runners-up	Batley

Huddersfield won the trophy by beating Batley by the score of 18-8

The match was played at Headingley, Leeds, now in West Yorkshire. The attendance was 15,500 and receipts were £2,471

This was Huddersfield's second appearance in the Yorkshire Cup final in the last three years, winning in 1950

Background

This season there were no junior/amateur clubs invited, no new entrants 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

[1][2][3][4][5]

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	agg	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Sat 30 Aug 1952	Huddersfield		19-14		Hunslet	Fartown		14,780			[3]
2	Sat 30 Aug 1952	Halifax		35-2		Bramley	Thrum Hall
3	Sat 30 Aug 1952	Keighley		16-7		Castleford	Lawkholme Lane
4	Sat 30 Aug 1952	Wakefield Trinity		15-22		Hull Kingston Rovers	Belle Vue
5	Sat 30 Aug 1952	Featherstone Rovers		25-6		York	Post Office Road
6	Sat 30 Aug 1952	Batley		12-10		Dewsbury	Mount Pleasant
7	Sat 30 Aug 1952	Hull		7-8		Leeds	Boulevard					[6]
8	Sat 30 Aug 1952	Doncaster		12-11		Bradford Northern	York Road Greyhound Stadium

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	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Tue 2 Sep 1952	Hunslet		2-18		Huddersfield	Parkside	16-37	15,199			[3]
2	Wed 3 Sep 1952	Bramley		12-20		Halifax	Barley Mow	14-55
3	Wed 3 Sep 1952	Castleford		8-6		Keighley	Wheldon Road	15-22
4	Wed 3 Sep 1952	Hull Kingston Rovers		16-11		Wakefield Trinity	Craven Park (1)	38-26
5	Wed 3 Sep 1952	York		16-8		Featherstone Rovers	Clarence Street	22-33
6	Fri 5 Sep 1952	Dewsbury		4-16		Batley	Crown Flatt	14-28
7	Fri 5 Sep 1952	Leeds		2-10		Hull	Headingley	10-17				[6]
8	Mon 8 Sep 1952	Bradford Northern		9-11		Doncaster	Odsal	20-23

Round 2 - Quarter Finals

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	agg	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Mon 22 Sep 1952	Hull		9-29		Huddersfield	Boulevard		13,630			[3][6]
2	Tue 23 Sep 1952	Batley		20-11		Keighley	Mount Pleasant
3	Wed 24 Sep 1952	Featherstone Rovers		14-4		Hull Kingston Rovers	Post Office Road
4	Wed 24 Sep 1952	Halifax		4-3		Doncaster	Thrum Hall

Round 3 – Semi-Finals

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 8 Oct 1952	Featherstone Rovers		4-8		Batley	Post Office Road
2	Mon 13 Oct 1952	Huddersfield		9-9		Halifax	Fartown		8,998			[3]

Round 3 – Semi-Finals - 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 16 Oct 1952	Halifax		5-15		Huddersfield	Thrum Hall		12,000			[3]

Final

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	agg	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
	Saturday 15 November 1952	Huddersfield		18-8		Batley	Headingley		15,500	£2,471	1 2	[3][7][8]

Teams and Scorers

Huddersfield	№	Batley
	teams
Johnny Hunter	1	Phil Walshaw
Peter Henderson	2	Gordon Harrison
Peter Ramsden	3	George Kenny
Pat Devery	4	William "Bill" Riches
Lionel Cooper	5	John Etty
Russell Pepperell	6	William "Billy" Riley
Billy Banks	7	Raymond "Ray" Laycock (c)
Ted Slevin	8	Frank Wagstaff
George Curran	9	Harold McIntyre
William Griffin	10	Trevor Jones
John "Jack" Brown	11	George Palmer
John "Jack" Large	12	Clarrie Briggs
Dave Valentine (c)	13	John Westbury
William R. 'Bill' Smith	Coach	Alex Fiddes
18	score	8
10	HT	3
	Scorers
	Tries
Lionel Cooper (3)	T	John Etty (1)
Dave Valentine (1)	T	George Kenny (1)
	Goals
Pat Devery (3)	G	Raymond "Ray" Laycock (1)
Referee		C F (Charlie) Appleton (Warrington)

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					Second Round					Semi Finals					Final
	Featherstone Rovers		22
	Bradford Northern		30
						Bradford Northern		13
						Leeds		14
	Leeds		43
	Bramley		17
											Leeds		17
											Wakefield Trinity		18
	Wakefield Trinity		33
	Hull		23
						Wakefield Trinity		14
						Huddersfield		5
	Hull Kingston Rovers		24
	Huddersfield		38
																Wakefield Trinity		17
																Keighley		3
	Castleford		14
	Keighley		20
						Keighley		18
						Halifax		14
	Dewsbury		18
	Halifax		19
											Keighley		15
											Hunslet		9
	Doncaster		6
	Hunslet		21
						Hunslet		27
						Batley		8
	Batley		28
	York		13

Notes and comments

1 * The attendance is variably given as 15,500 by the official Huddersfield 1953 Yearbook,[3] 15,000 by RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] but 14,705 by the Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook of 1991-92[7] and 1990-91[8]

2 * 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)

See also

• 1952–53 Northern Rugby Football League season
• Rugby league county cups

References

1. "Rugby League Project".
2. Jack Winstanley & Malcolm Ryding (1991). John Player Yearbook 1975-76. Queen Anne Press.
3. "Fartown Rugby League Yearbook 1953" (PDF).
4. HC&AC committee. Fartown Rugby League Year Book 1953. HC&AC Supporters' Club.
5. "Huddersfield RL Heritage 1952–53" (PDF).
6. "HULL&PROUD - Stats - Fixtures & Results".
7. Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1991). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991-1992. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617852 8.
8. Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1990). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1990-1991. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617851 X.

External links

• Saints Heritage Society
• 1896–97 Northern Rugby Football Union season at wigan.rlfans.com
• Hull&Proud Fixtures & Results 1896/1897
• Widnes Vikings - One team, one passion Season In Review - 1896-97
• The Northern Union at warringtonwolves.org