1914–15 Yorkshire Cup
# 1914–15 Yorkshire Cup

The 1914–15 Yorkshire Cup was the tenth occasion on which the Yorkshire Cup competition, a Rugby league competition, was held.

This year's competition was again the turn of the previous cup holder, Huddersfield, winning the trophy by beating Hull F.C. by the score of 31-0

The match was played at Headingley, Leeds, now in West Yorkshire. The attendance was 12,000 and receipts were £422

This was Huddersfield's fifth appearance of what would be seven appearances in eight consecutive finals between 1909 and 1919 (which included four successive victories and six in total.) It was also the second of the four consecutive wins.

## Background

Britain had declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914 after they had attacked Luxemburg, Belgium and France. A month later the season proper started against this backdrop. The Yorkshire Cup competition started in October and it was to be the last until the end of the war. Tensions had been building across Britain and the rest of Europe for some time, but, despite this, the 1914–1915 season was played to its conclusion, albeit in some cases a little half-heartedly as evidenced in the lower attendances at matches and with several teams absent and many players already enlisted in the Armed Forces. In the middle of 1915 competitive sporting competition was finally suspended. 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 thirteen. This in turn resulted in three byes in the first round.

## Competition and Results

### Round 1

Involved 5 matches (with three byes) and 13 clubs

| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Sat 17 Oct 1914 | Batley | 5-0 | Dewsbury | Mount Pleasant |
| 2 | Sat 17 Oct 1914 | Bramley | 0-25 | Halifax | Barley Mow |
| 3 | Sat 17 Oct 1914 | Hull Kingston Rovers | 10-5 | Wakefield Trinity | Craven Street (off Holderness Road) |
| 4 | Sat 17 Oct 1914 | Leeds | 11-13 | Hunslet | Headingley |
| 5 | Sat 17 Oct 1914 | York | 13-24 | Huddersfield | Clarence Street |
| 6 | | Bradford Northern | | bye | |
| 7 | | Hull | | bye | |
| 8 | | Keighley | | bye | |

### Round 2 – quarterfinals

Involved 4 matches and 8 clubs

| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Sat 31 Oct 1914 | Batley | 2-0 | Bradford Northern | Mount Pleasant | |
| 2 | Sat 31 Oct 1914 | Halifax | 8-8 | Huddersfield | Thrum Hall | 1 |
| 3 | Sat 31 Oct 1914 | Hull | 11-5 | Hull Kingston Rovers | Boulevard | |
| 4 | Sat 31 Oct 1914 | Hunslet | 12-7 | Keighley | Parkside | |

### 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 05 Nov 1914 | Halifax | 2-10 | Huddersfield | Thrum Hall | | | | |

### Round 3 – semifinals

Involved 2 matches and 4 clubs

| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Sat 14 Nov 1914 | Huddersfield | 64-3 | Hunslet | Fartown | | | | |
| 2 | Sat 14 Nov 1914 | Hull | 7-0 | Batley | Boulevard | | | | |

### Final

| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| | Saturday 28 November 1914 | Huddersfield | 31-0 | Hull | Headingley | 12000 | 422 | 2 3 | |

**Teams and scorers**

| Huddersfield | № | Hull |
| - | - | - |
| | teams | |
| Major Holland | 1 | Ned Rogers |
| George Todd | 2 | Alfred Francis |
| Albert "Rozzi" Rosenfeld | 3 | Billy Batten |
| Harold Wagstaff (c) | 4 | Jack Harrison (VC) |
| Stan Moorhouse | 5 | Jim Devereux |
| Johnny Rogers | 6 | Sid Deane |
| Robert Habron | 7 | Tom Milner |
| John Higson | 8 | Tom Herridge |
| Douglas Clark | 9 | William Holder |
| Ben Gronow | 10 | Joe Hammill |
| Fred Longstaff | 11 | Steve Darmody |
| Arthur Swinden | 12 | Percy Oldham |
| H. Banks | 13 | Dick Taylor |
| Arthur Bennett (trainer) | Coach | Sid Melville (trainer) |
| 31 | score | 0 |
| 15 | HT | 0 |
| | Scorers | |
| | Tries | |
| Harold Wagstaff (2) | T | |
| Stan Moorhouse (1) | T | |
| Billy Banks (1) | T | |
| George Todd (1) | T | |
| Albert "Rozzi" Rosenfeld (1) | T | |
| Johnny Rogers (1) | T | |
| | T | |
| | Goals | |
| Major Holland (5) | G | |
| Referee | | Jimmy May (St. Helens) |

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 | 0 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Halifax | Halifax | 25 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Halifax | Halifax | 25 | Halifax | Halifax | 2 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 10 | | | | | | | |
| York | York | 13 | Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 10 | | | | | | | |
| Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 24 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 24 | | | | Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 64 | | | | |
| | | | | | | Hunslet | Hunslet | 3 | | | | |
| Leeds | Leeds | 11 | | | | | | | Hunslet | Hunslet | 3 | | | | |
| Hunslet | Hunslet | 13 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Hunslet | Hunslet | 13 | Hunslet | Hunslet | 12 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Keighley | Keighley | 7 | | | | | | | |
| Keighley | Keighley | | Keighley | Keighley | 7 | | | | | | | |
| bye | bye | | | | | | | | | | | |
| bye | bye | | | | | | | | | Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 31 |
| | | | | | | | | | | Hull | Hull | 0 |
| Hull | Hull | | | | | | | | | | | | Hull | Hull | 0 |
| bye | bye | | | | | | | | | | | |
| bye | bye | | Hull | Hull | 11 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Hull Kingston Rovers | Hull Kingston Rovers | 5 | | | | | | | |
| Hull Kingston Rovers | Hull Kingston Rovers | 10 | Hull Kingston Rovers | Hull Kingston Rovers | 5 | | | | | | | |
| Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | 5 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | 5 | | | | Hull | Hull | 7 | | | | |
| | | | | | | Batley | Batley | 0 | | | | |
| Batley | Batley | 5 | | | | | | | Batley | Batley | 0 | | | | |
| Dewsbury | Dewsbury | 0 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Dewsbury | Dewsbury | 0 | Batley | Batley | 2 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Bradford Northern | Bradford Northern | 0 | | | | | | | |
| Bradford Northern | Bradford Northern | | Bradford Northern | Bradford Northern | 0 | | | | | | | |
| bye | bye | | | | | | | | | | | |

## Notes and comments

1 * Match abandoned after 50 minutes due to fog

2 * The never to be beaten record widest margin victory in a final

3 * 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).

