1938–39 Yorkshire Cup

The 1938–39 Yorkshire Cup, was the thirty-first occasion on which the Yorkshire County Cup competition was held.

1938–39 Yorkshire Cup
Structure	Regional knockout championship
Teams	15
Winners	Huddersfield
Runners-up	Hull
← 1937–38 1940–41 →

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

^[1][2]

Round 1

Involved 7 matches (with one bye) and 15 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
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				[3]
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	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
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				[3]
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				[3]

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	[3][4][5]

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

^[6][7][8]

The road to success

	First round					Second round					Semifinals					Final
	Huddersfield		32
	Dewsbury		8
						Huddersfield		8
						Leeds		6
	Featherstone Rovers		4
	Leeds		43
											Huddersfield		6
											Wakefield Trinity		2
	Halifax		9 (16)
	Batley		9 (0)
						Halifax		8
						Wakefield Trinity		14
	Wakefield Trinity
	bye
																Huddersfield		18
																Hull		10
	Hull		17
	Bramley		10
						Hull		8
						Keighley		0
	York		14
	Keighley		28
											Hull		18
											Hunslet		2
	Bradford Northern		7
	Hunslet		20
						Hunslet		23
						Hull Kingston Rovers		7
	Hull Kingston Rovers		12
	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.)

See also

• 1938–39 Northern Rugby Football League season
• Rugby league county cups