1954–55 Yorkshire Cup
# 1954–55 Yorkshire Cup

1954–55 was the forty-seventh occasion on which the Yorkshire Cup competition had been held.

Halifax winning the trophy by beating Hull F.C. by the score of 22-14

The match was played at Headingley, Leeds, now in West Yorkshire. The attendance was 25,949 and receipts were £4,638

This was the first of Halifax's two successive victories, both against Hull FC, for whom it was their second of three successive Cup final defeats

## 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.

Last season saw the end of the two-legged home and away ties, and reverted to the whole competition being based on a simple knock-out formulae

## Competition and results

### Round 1

Involved 8 matches (with no byes) and 16 clubs

| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Att |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Fri 10 Sep 1954 | Bramley | 12-12 | Doncaster | Barley Mow | |
| 2 | Fri 10 Sep 1954 | Hunslet | 17-10 | Batley | Parkside | |
| 3 | Sat 11 Sep 1954 | Castleford | 10-13 | Bradford Northern | Wheldon Road | |
| 4 | Sat 11 Sep 1954 | Huddersfield | 40-17 | Keighley | Fartown | 10,572 |
| 5 | Sat 11 Sep 1954 | Hull F.C. | 18-4 | Featherstone Rovers | Boulevard | |
| 6 | Sat 11 Sep 1954 | Leeds | 57-13 | Hull Kingston Rovers | Headingley | |
| 7 | Sat 11 Sep 1954 | Wakefield Trinity | 30-16 | Dewsbury | Belle Vue | |
| 8 | Sat 11 Sep 1954 | York | 8-11 | Halifax | Clarence Street | |

### Round 1 - replays

Involved 1 match and 2 clubs

| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| R | Thu 16 Sep 1954 | Doncaster | 4-7 | Bramley | Bentley Road Stadium/Tattersfield | | | | |

### Round 2 - quarterfinals

Involved 4 matches and 8 clubs

| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Att |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Tue 21 Sep 1954 | Bradford Northern | 5-3 | Hunslet | Odsal | |
| 2 | Tue 21 Sep 1954 | Huddersfield | 7-7 | Hull F.C. | Fartown | 16,028 |
| 3 | Wed 22 Sep 1954 | Leeds | 27-17 | Wakefield Trinity | Headingley | |
| 4 | Thu 23 Sep 1954 | Bramley | 11-22 | Halifax | Barley Mow | |

### Round 2 - replays

Involved 1 match and 2 clubs

| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| R | Thu 23 Sep 1954 | Hull F.C. | 22-13 | Huddersfield | Boulevard | 17,000 | | | |

### Round 3 – semifinals

Involved 2 matches and 4 clubs

| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Thu 30 Sep 1954 | Hull F.C. | 10-5 | Bradford Northern | Boulevard | | | | |
| 2 | Fri 01 Oct 1954 | Halifax | 10-0 | Leeds | Thrum Hall | | | | |

### Final

| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| | Saturday 23 October 1954 | Halifax | 22-14 | Hull F.C. | Headingley | 25,949 | £4,638 | 1 | |

**Teams and scorers**

| Halifax | № | Hull F.C. |
| - | - | - |
| | teams | |
| Tuss Griffiths | 1 | Colin Hutton |
| Arthur Daniels | 2 | Keith Bowman |
| Thomas Lynch | 3 | Roy Francis |
| Peter Todd | 4 | Carl Turner |
| Dai Bevan | 5 | Bill Riches |
| Ken Dean | 6 | Bernard Conway |
| Stan Kielty | 7 | Albert Tripp |
| John Thorley | 8 | Mick Scott |
| Alvin Ackerley (c) | 9 | Tommy Harris |
| Len Olsen | 10 | Bob Coverdale |
| Les Pearce | 11 | Harry Markham |
| Jack Wilkinson | 12 | Norman Hockley |
| Eric Callighan | 13 | Johnny Whiteley |
| ?? | Coach | Roy Francis |
| 22 | score | 14 |
| 7 | HT | 4 |
| | Scorers | |
| | Tries | |
| | T | |
| | 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 | First round | First round | Second round | Second round | Second round | Semifinals | Semifinals | Semifinals | | Final | Final | Final |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Bramley | Bramley | 12 (7) | | | | | | | | | | |
| Doncaster | Doncaster | 12 (4) | | | | | | | | | | |
| Doncaster | Doncaster | 12 (4) | Bramley | Bramley | 11 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Halifax | Halifax | 22 | | | | | | | |
| York | York | 8 | Halifax | Halifax | 22 | | | | | | | |
| Halifax | Halifax | 11 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Halifax | Halifax | 11 | | | | Halifax | Halifax | 10 | | | | |
| | | | | | | Leeds | Leeds | 0 | | | | |
| Leeds | Leeds | 57 | | | | | | | Leeds | Leeds | 0 | | | | |
| Hull Kingston Rovers | Hull Kingston Rovers | 13 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Hull Kingston Rovers | Hull Kingston Rovers | 13 | Leeds | Leeds | 27 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | 17 | | | | | | | |
| Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | 30 | Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | 17 | | | | | | | |
| Dewsbury | Dewsbury | 16 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Dewsbury | Dewsbury | 16 | | | | | | | | Halifax | Halifax | 22 |
| | | | | | | | | | | Hull F.C. | Hull F.C. | 14 |
| Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 40 | | | | | | | | | | | Hull F.C. | Hull F.C. | 14 |
| Keighley | Keighley | 17 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Keighley | Keighley | 17 | Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 7 (13) | | | | | | | |
| | | | Hull F.C. | Hull F.C. | 7 (22) | | | | | | | |
| Hull F.C. | Hull F.C. | 18 | Hull F.C. | Hull F.C. | 7 (22) | | | | | | | |
| Featherstone Rovers | Featherstone Rovers | 4 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Featherstone Rovers | Featherstone Rovers | 4 | | | | Hull F.C. | Hull F.C. | 10 | | | | |
| | | | | | | Bradford Northern | Bradford Northern | 5 | | | | |
| Castleford | Castleford | 10 | | | | | | | Bradford Northern | Bradford Northern | 5 | | | | |
| Bradford Northern | Bradford Northern | 13 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Bradford Northern | Bradford Northern | 13 | Bradford Northern | Bradford Northern | 5 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Hunslet | Hunslet | 3 | | | | | | | |
| Hunslet | Hunslet | 17 | Hunslet | Hunslet | 3 | | | | | | | |
| Batley | Batley | 10 | | | | | | | | | | |

## Notes and comments

1 * 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)

