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1940–41 Yorkshire Cup
1940–41 Yorkshire Cup
Structure	Regional knockout championship
Teams	16
Winners	Bradford Northern
Runners-up	Dewsbury
	← 1939–40 1941–42 →

The 1940–41 Yorkshire Cup was held in spring 1941.

The 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 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.

The Second World War was continuing and the Yorkshire Cup was moved to the end of the 1940–41 Northern Rugby Football League Wartime Emergency League season.

1940–41 was the thirty-third occasion on which the Yorkshire Cup competition had been held. This season's competition is classed as a "Wartime Emergency Competition" and therefore the results did not count as an official competition win. However, this aside and for the second consecutive competition, there was a new winner for this season's trophy, Bradford Northern winning the trophy by beating Dewsbury by the score of 15-5. The match was played at Fartown, Huddersfield, now in West Yorkshire. The attendance was 13,316 and receipts were £939.

Change in Club participation

Hull Kingston Rovers – The club dropped out of the wartime Lancashire league after the ‘first (1939–40) season. They did not return to league competition until 1945–46 peacetime season.

Wigan - This club entered the Yorkshire Cup competition.

Oldham - The club, as Wigan, also entered the Yorkshire Cup competition.

Batley, Bramley and Keighley all rejoined the competition after appearing to withdraw from last season's competition.

Dewsbury - had a relatively successful time during the war years. Managed by Eddie Waring, and with the side boosted by the inclusion of a number of big-name guest players, the club won the Wartime Emergency League in 1941–42 and again the following season 1942–43 (though that championship was declared null and void when it was discovered they had played an ineligible player). They were also runners-up in the Championship in 1943–44, Challenge Cup winners in 1943 and Yorkshire Cup final appearances in this season 1940–41 and winners in 1942–43.

Background

This season there were no junior/amateur clubs taking part, but with the addition of the two Lancashire clubs, Wigan and Oldham, the total number of entrants increased by four to the total of sixteen.

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

Competition and results

^[1]^[2]

Round 1

Involved 8 matches (with no byes) and 16 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team	Score	Away team	Venue	Notes	Ref

1	Sat 15 Mar 1941	Bradford Northern	28-10	Bramley	Odsal
2	Sat 15 Mar 1941	Dewsbury	17-5	Hunslet	Crown Flatt
3	Sat 15 Mar 1941	Featherstone Rovers	14-0	Keighley	Post Office Road
4	Sat 15 Mar 1941	Halifax	6-13	Castleford	Thrum Hall
5	Sat 15 Mar 1941	Huddersfield	35-3	Batley	Fartown
6	Sat 15 Mar 1941	Hull	15-22	York	Boulevard		^[3]
7	Sat 15 Mar 1941	Wakefield Trinity	17-5	Oldham	Belle Vue	1	^[4]
8	Sat 15 Mar 1941	Wigan	3-9	Leeds	Central Park	2	^[4]

Round 2 - quarterfinals

Involved 4 matches and 8 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team	Score	Away team	Venue

1	Sat 22 Mar 1941	Bradford Northern	18-5	Wakefield Trinity	Odsal
2	Sat 22 Mar 1941	Dewsbury	21-5	York	Crown Flatt
3	Sat 22 Mar 1941	Featherstone Rovers	20-9	Leeds	Post Office Road
4	Sat 22 Mar 1941	Huddersfield	8-3	Castleford	Fartown

Round 3 – semifinals

Involved 2 matches and 4 clubs

Game No	Fixture date	Home team	Score	Away team	Venue

1	Sat 29 Mar 1941	Dewsbury	20-2	Featherstone Rovers	Crown Flatt
2	Sat 29 Mar 1941	Huddersfield	0-2	Bradford Northern	Fartown

Final

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

	Saturday 5 April 1941	Bradford Northern		15-5		Dewsbury	Fartown	13,316	£939	3	^[5]^[6]

Teams and scorers

Bradford Northern	No.	Dewsbury

	teams
George Carmichael	1
Walter Best	2
Tom Winnard	3
Ernest Ward	4
Emlyn Walters	5
Gus Risman (wartime guest from Salford)	6
Donald Ward	7
Frank Whitcombe	8
Cliff Carter (wartime guest from Leeds)	9
Leonard Higson	10
Trevor Foster	11
xWilliam Smith	12
John Moore	13
Dai Rees	Coach	Eddie Waring

15	score	5
6	HT	5

	Scorers
	Tries
	T
	T
	T
	Goals
	G
	G
	Drop Goals
	DG
Referee		unknown

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

The road to success

First round		Second round		Semifinals		Final

Huddersfield	35

Batley	3
		Huddersfield	8

		Castleford	3
Halifax	6

Castleford	13
				Huddersfield	0

				Bradford Northern	2
Bradford Northern	28

Bramley	10
		Bradford Northern	18

		Wakefield Trinity	5
Wakefield Trinity	17

Oldham	5
						Bradford Northern	15

						Dewsbury	5
Dewsbury	17

Hunslet	5
		Dewsbury	21

		York	5
Hull	15

York	22
				Dewsbury	20

				Featherstone Rovers	2
Featherstone Rovers	14

Keighley	0
		Featherstone Rovers	20

		Leeds	9
Wigan	3

Leeds	9

Notes and comments

1 * Oldham joined the Yorkshire Cup. This was the first Yorkshire Cup match to be played by Oldham

2 * Wigan joined the Yorkshire Cup. This was the first Yorkshire Cup match to be played by Wigan and the first at Central Park

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.

References

^ "Rugby League Project".
^ Jack Winstanley & Malcolm Ryding (1991). John Player Yearbook 1975-76. Queen Anne Press.
^ "HULL&PROUD - Stats - Fixtures & Results".
^ ^a ^b "Wigan "Cherry and White" archived results".
^ 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.