1968–69 Yorkshire Cup

The 1968–69 Yorkshire Cup was the sixty-first occasion on which the Yorkshire Cup competition had been held. Leeds won the trophy by beating Castleford by the score of 22-11. The match was played at Belle Vue, in the City of Wakefield, now in West Yorkshire. The attendance was 12,573 and receipts were £3,746.

1968–69 Yorkshire Cup
Structure	Regional knockout championship
Teams	16
Winners	Leeds
Runners-up	Castleford
← 1967–68 1969–70 →

Background

This season there were no junior/amateur clubs taking part, no new entrants and no "leavers" and so the total of entries remained the same at sixteen.

This in turn resulted in no byes in the first round.

Competition and results

^[1][2][3][4]

Round 1

Involved 8 matches (with no byes) and 16 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Fri 6 Sep 1968	Doncaster		7-13		Halifax	Bentley Road Stadium/Tattersfield
2	Sat 7 Sep 1968	Batley		12-11		York	Mount Pleasant
3	Sat 7 Sep 1968	Bramley		5-24		Bradford Northern	McLaren Field
4	Sat 7 Sep 1968	Dewsbury		5-6		Castleford	Crown Flatt
5	Sat 7 Sep 1968	Hull F.C.		9-30		Leeds	Boulevard				[5]
6	Sat 7 Sep 1968	Hunslet		19-11		Huddersfield	Parkside	1,500			[4]
7	Sat 7 Sep 1968	Wakefield Trinity		18-30		Hull Kingston Rovers	Belle Vue			1	[6]
8	Sun 8 Sep 1968	Featherstone Rovers		21-10		Keighley	Post Office Road

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 16 Sep 1968	Hunslet		5-5		Castleford	Parkside
2	Tue 17 Sep 1968	Featherstone Rovers		10-18		Leeds	Post Office Road
3	Tue 17 Sep 1968	Halifax		14-10		Hull Kingston Rovers	Thrum Hall
4	Wed 18 Sep 1968	Bradford Northern		17-8		Batley	Odsal

Round 2 - replays

Involved 1 match and 2 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
R	Wed 18 Sep 1968	Castleford		33-18		Hunslet	Wheldon Road

Round 3 – semifinals

Involved 2 matches and 4 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Sun 29 Sep 1968	Bradford Northern		15-16		Castleford	Odsal
2	Thu 3 Oct 1968	Halifax		5-12		Leeds	Thrum Hall

Final

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
	Saturday 19 October 1968	Leeds		22-11		Castleford	Belle Vue	12,573	£3,746	2	[7][8]

Teams and scorers

Leeds	№	Castleford
	teams
Bev Risman	1	Derek Edwards
Alan Smith	2	Keith Howe
Syd Hynes	3	Ronald Hill
Bernard Watson	4	Tony Thomas
John Atkinson	5	David Stephens
Mick Shoebottom	6	Alan Hardisty (c)
Barry Seabourne	7	Danny Hargrave
Mick Clark (c)	8	Dennis Hartley
Tony Crosby	9	Clive Dickinson
Kenny Eyre	10	John Ward
Bill Ramsey	11	Peter Small
Albert Eyre	12	Brian Lockwood
Ray Batten	13	Malcolm "Mal" Reilly
John Langley	14	Glyn Jones
David Hick (for Bill Ramsey)	15	Michael Redfearn (for Brian Lockwood)
Roy Francis	Coach	Derek Turner
22	score	11
10	HT	8
	Scorers
	Tries
Alan Smith (1)	T	Ronald Hill (1)
Bernard Watson (1)	T
John Atkinson (1)	T
David Hick (1)	T
	Goals
Bev Risman (5)	G	Ronald Hill (2)
	G	Alan Hardisty (2)
Referee		Joe Manley (Warrington)
White Rose Trophy for Man of the match		Barry Seabourne - Leeds - scrum-half
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Scoring - Try = three (3) points - Goal = two (2) points - Drop goal = two (2) points

^[8]

The road to success

First round

Second round

Semi-finals

Final

Bradford

Bramley

Bradford

Leeds

Wakefield Trinity

Leeds

Bradford

Keighley

Keighley

New Blackpool

Keighley

York

York

Batley

Bradford

8

Hull Kingston Rovers

5

Hull Kingston Rovers

Pontefract

Hull Kingston Rovers

Huddersfield

Dewsbury

Huddersfield

Hull Kingston Rovers

Halifax

Hull

Halifax

Halifax

Hunslet

Hunslet

bye

Notes and comments

1. The score in this match is given as 18-30 by RUGBYLEAGUEproject^[1] but in "100 Years of Rugby. The History of Wakefield Trinity 1873-1973"^[6] the score is given as 18-40 and is further described in the book as "Trinity's heaviest defeat at home in County Cup football and the highest score by any opponent on Trinity's ground for 10 years"
2. Belle Vue is the home ground of Wakefield Trinity with a capacity of approximately 12,500. The record attendance was 37,906 on the 21 March 1936 in the Challenge Cup semi-final between Leeds and Huddersfield

See also

• 1968–69 Northern Rugby Football League season
• Rugby league county cups