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1945–46 Yorkshire Cup
1945–46 Yorkshire Cup
Structure	Regional knockout championship
Teams	15
Winners	Bradford Northern
Runners-up	Wakefield Trinity
	← 1944–45 1946–47 →

The 1945–46 Yorkshire Cup was the thirty-eighth occasion on which the competition was held.

In this, the first peacetime Cup final for five years, there was a new name on the trophy. Bradford Northern, who previously won the trophy in 1940–41, 1941–42 and 1943–44, could now lay claim to a genuine trophy; the wartime competitions were not counted officially in the records. Bradford Northern won by beating Wakefield Trinity by a score of 5–2.

The match was played at Thrum Hall, Halifax, now in West Yorkshire. The attendance was 24,252 and receipts were £1,934.

Background

The Second World War was now over, and things were beginning to return to normal, although there was still a long way to go. Hull Kingston Rovers and Bramley re-joined the competition and the four Lancashire clubs returned to their own competition. This season there were no junior/amateur clubs taking part, which resulted in the number of entrants falling by two, leaving the total number of entries at 15.

This in turn resulted in one bye in the first round.

The competition reverted to its 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]

Round 1 – first leg

Round 1's first leg involved seven matches (with one bye) and 15 clubs.

All first round ties were played on a two-legged home and away basis.

Game no.	Fixture date	Home team	Score	Away team	Venue	Ref

1	Sat 6 Oct 1945	Batley	5–21	Hunslet	Mount Pleasant
2	Sat 6 Oct 1945	Bramley	14–22	Keighley	Barley Mow
3	Sat 6 Oct 1945	Halifax	18–5	Hull	Thrum Hall	^[3]
4	Sat 6 Oct 1945	Hull Kingston Rovers	5–4	Dewsbury	Craven Park (1)
5	Sat 6 Oct 1945	Leeds	11–4	Castleford	Headingley
6	Sat 6 Oct 1945	Wakefield Trinity	20–5	Huddersfield	Belle Vue	^[4]
7	Sat 6 Oct 1945	York	?	Featherstone Rovers	Clarence Street
8		Bradford Northern		bye

Round 1 – second leg

Round 1's second leg involved seven matches (with one bye) and 15 clubs.

All first round ties were played on a two-legged home and away basis.

Game no.	Fixture date	Home team	Score	Away team	Venue	agg	Ref

1	Sat 13 Oct 1945	Hunslet	19–0	Batley	Parkside	40–5
2	Sat 13 Oct 1945	Keighley	17–15	Bramley	Lawkholme Lane	39–29
3	Sat 13 Oct 1945	Hull	30–5	Halifax	Boulevard	35–23	^[3]
4	Sat 13 Oct 1945	Dewsbury	20–4	Hull Kingston Rovers	Crown Flatt	24–9
5	Sat 13 Oct 1945	Castleford	11–10	Leeds	Wheldon Road	15–21
6	Sat 13 Oct 1945	Huddersfield	7–32	Wakefield Trinity	Fartown	12–52	^[4]
7	Sat 13 Oct 1945	Featherstone Rovers	24–5	York	Post Office Road	?
8		Bradford Northern		bye

Round 2 – quarterfinals

Round 2's quarterfinals involved four matches and eight clubs.

All second round ties were played on a two-legged home and away basis.

Game no.	Fixture date	Home team	Score	Away team	Venue	Notes	Ref

1	Tue 16 Oct 1945	Dewsbury	10–3	Keighley	Crown Flatt
2	Wed 17 Oct 1945	Wakefield Trinity	34–7	Hull	Belle Vue	1	^[3]^[4]
3	Wed 17 Oct 1945	Bradford Northern	8–0	Hunslet	Odsal
4	Wed 17 Oct 1945	Leeds	11–4	Featherstone Rovers	Headingley

Round 3 – semifinals

Round 3's semifinals involved two matches and four clubs.

Both semi-final ties were played on a two-legged home and away basis.

Game no.	Fixture date	Home team	Score	Away team	Venue	Ref

1	Tue 23 Oct 1945	Dewsbury	2–7	Bradford Northern	Crown Flatt
2	Wed 24 Oct 1945	Wakefield Trinity	14–7	Leeds	Belle Vue	^[4]

Final

Game no.	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	Agg	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref

	Saturday 3 November 1945	Bradford Northern		5–2		Wakefield Trinity	Thrum Hall		24252	£1,934	2	^[4]^[5]^[6]

Teams and scorers

Bradford Northern	No.	Wakefield Trinity

	Teams
George Carmichael	1	William "Billy" Teall
Eric Batten	2	Ronnie Copley
Jack Kitching	3	William "Billy" Stott
Ernest Ward	4	Johnny Jones
Walter Best	5	Dennis Baddeley
George Bennett	6	Ronald "Ron" Rylance
Donald Ward	7	Herbert "Harry" Goodfellow
Frank Whitcombe	8	Harry Wilkinson
Vic Darlison	9	Leonard "Len" Marson
Leonard Higson	10	James "Jim" Higgins
Laurie Roberts	11	Harry Murphy
Alf Marklew	12	Frank Moore
William Hutchinson	13	Leonard "Len" Bratley
Dai Rees	Coach	James "Jim" Croston

5	Score	2
0	HT	2

	Scorers
	Tries
Frank Whitcombe	T
	Goals
George Carmichael	G	William "Billy" Stott
Referee		unknown

Scoring – Try = three (3) points – Goal = two (2) points – Drop goal = two (2) points

^[4]

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		Semifinals		Final

Hull Kingston Rovers	9

Dewsbury	24
		Dewsbury	10

		Keighley	3
Bramley	29

Keighley	39
				Dewsbury	2

				Bradford Northern	7
Bradford Northern

bye
		Bradford Northern	8

		Hunslet	0
Batley	5

Hunslet	40
						Bradford Northern	5

						Wakefield Trinity	2
Wakefield Trinity	52

Huddersfield	12
		Wakefield Trinity	34

		Hull	7
Halifax	23

Hull	35
				Wakefield Trinity	14

				Leeds	7
Leeds	21

Castleford	15
		Leeds	11

		Featherstone Rovers	4
York	L

Featherstone Rovers	W

Notes and comments

The date is given by RUGBYLEAGUEproject^[1] as Tuesday 16 October, but by the official Hull F.C. archives^[3] as Wednesday 17 October.

Thrum Hall was the home ground of Halifax with a final capacity of 9,832 (The attendance record of 29,153 was set on 21 March 1959 for a third round Challenge Cup tie v Wigan). The club finally moved out in 1998 to take part ownership and ground-share with Halifax Town FC at The Shay Stadium.

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 (until the onset of "summer rugby" in 1996) ran from around August through to around May, 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 occurred during, and immediately after, the two World Wars.

References

^ ^a ^b "Rugby League Project".
^ Jack Winstanley & Malcolm Ryding (1991). John Player Yearbook 1975–76. Queen Anne Press.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "HULL&PROUD – Stats – Fixtures & Results".
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f J C Lindley and D W Armitage (1973). 100 Years of Rugby. The History of Wakefield Trinity 1873–1973. Wakefield Trinity Centenary Committee. ISBN 0 35617852 8.
^ Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1991). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991–1992. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617852 8.
^ Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1990). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1990-1991. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617851 X.