1906–07 Yorkshire Cup
# 1906–07 Yorkshire Cup

The 1906 Yorkshire Cup was the second in the Rugby Football League club tournament's history. It was a knock-out competition between (mainly professional) rugby league clubs from the English 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)

1906 was the second occasion on which the Yorkshire Cup competition had been held.

This year there were two new clubs to contest the final.

Bradford won the trophy by beating Hull Kingston Rovers by the score of 8-5

The match was played at Belle Vue, in the City of Wakefield, now in West Yorkshire. The attendance was 10,500 and receipts were £286

## Background

Brighouse Rangers, Castleford (1896) and Normanton left the league and the three non league clubs from last season were not invited, but they were replaced by junior/amateur club New Blackpool. This resulted in an overall decrease of five clubs, leaving a total of fifteen entrants.

This, in turn, resulted in one bye in the first round.

Pontefract resigned after 8 league matches and their record was expunged, but by this time, they had played (and lost) in this competition.

## Competition and Results

### Round 1

Involved 7 matches (with one bye) and 15 Clubs

| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Sat 13 Oct 1906 | Bradford | 68-2 | Bramley | Park Avenue | |
| 2 | Sat 13 Oct 1906 | Dewsbury | 10-27 | Huddersfield | Crown Flatt | |
| 3 | Sat 13 Oct 1906 | Hull | 3-6 | Halifax | Boulevard | |
| 4 | Sat 13 Oct 1906 | Hull Kingston Rovers | 44-0 | Pontefract | Craven Street (off Holderness Road) | |
| 5 | Sat 13 Oct 1906 | Keighley | 34-2 | New Blackpool | Lawkholme Lane | 2 |
| 6 | Sat 13 Oct 1906 | Wakefield Trinity | 7-19 | Leeds | Belle Vue | |
| 7 | Sat 13 Oct 1906 | York | 8-7 | Batley | Clarence Street | |
| 8 | | Hunslet | | bye | | |

### Round 2 - Quarterfinals

Involved 4 matches and 8 Clubs

| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Sat 27 Oct 1906 | Bradford | 21-5 | Leeds | Park Avenue |
| 2 | Sat 27 Oct 1906 | Halifax | 6-0 | Hunslet | Thrum Hall |
| 3 | Sat 27 Oct 1906 | Hull Kingston Rovers | 11-3 | Huddersfield | Craven Street (off Holderness Road) |
| 4 | Sat 27 Oct 1906 | Keighley | 34-2 | York | Lawkholme Lane |

### 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 17 Nov 1906 | Bradford | 6-4 | Halifax | Park Avenue | | | | |
| 2 | Sat 17 Nov 1906 | Hull Kingston Rovers | 21-0 | Keighley | Craven Street (off Holderness Road) | | | | |

### Final

| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| | Saturday 1 December 1906 | Bradford | 8-5 | Hull Kingston Rovers | Belle Vue | 10500 | 286 | 3 | |

**Teams and scorers**

| Bradford | № | Hull Kingston Rovers |
| - | - | - |
| | teams | |
| Gomer Gunn | 1 | Alf Carmichael |
| James Dechan | 2 | George West |
| Ervine Mosby | 3 | William "Billy" Phipps |
| F. Heseltine | 4 | Dan Rees |
| J. Connell | 5 | W. Madley |
| S. Brear | 6 | James "Jim" Barry |
| Thomas Surman | 7 | A. Lofthouse |
| Alex Laidlaw | 8 | Jim Gath |
| N. Greenwood | 9 | xW. Smith (H. W. Smith?) |
| H. Francis | 10 | Arthur Spackman |
| H. Mann | 11 | C. J. Hambrecht |
| J. Feather (Harry Feather?) | 12 | S. Sherwood |
| Walton | 13 | Andrew Windle |
| | Coach | |
| 8 | score | 5 |
| 8 | HT | 3 |
| | Scorers | |
| | Tries | |
| James Dechan (1) | T | George West (1) |
| S. Brear (1) | T | |
| | Goals | |
| Alex Laidlaw (1) | G | W. Madley (1) |
| | G | |
| | Drop Goals | |
| | DG | |
| Referee | | William McCutcheon (Oldham) |

Scoring - Try = four points - Goal = two points - Drop goal = one point

### The road to success

| First round | First round | First round | Second round | Second round | Second round | Semifinals | Semifinals | Semifinals | | Final | Final | Final |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Bradford | Bradford | 68 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Bramley | Bramley | 2 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Bramley | Bramley | 2 | Bradford | Bradford | 21 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Leeds | Leeds | 5 | | | | | | | |
| Wakefield Trinity | Wakefield Trinity | 7 | Leeds | Leeds | 5 | | | | | | | |
| Leeds | Leeds | 19 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Leeds | Leeds | 19 | | | | Bradford | Bradford | 6 | | | | |
| | | | | | | Keighley | Keighley | 4 | | | | |
| Keighley | Keighley | 34 | | | | | | | Keighley | Keighley | 4 | | | | |
| New Blackpool | New Blackpool | 2 | | | | | | | | | | |
| New Blackpool | New Blackpool | 2 | Keighley | Keighley | 34 | | | | | | | |
| | | | York | York | 2 | | | | | | | |
| York | York | 8 | York | York | 2 | | | | | | | |
| Batley | Batley | 7 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Batley | Batley | 7 | | | | | | | | Bradford | Bradford | 8 |
| | | | | | | | | | | Hull Kingston Rovers | Hull Kingston Rovers | 5 |
| Hull Kingston Rovers | Hull Kingston Rovers | 44 | | | | | | | | | | | Hull Kingston Rovers | Hull Kingston Rovers | 5 |
| Pontefract | Pontefract | 0 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Pontefract | Pontefract | 0 | Hull Kingston Rovers | Hull Kingston Rovers | 11 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 3 | | | | | | | |
| Dewsbury | Dewsbury | 10 | Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 3 | | | | | | | |
| Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 27 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Huddersfield | Huddersfield | 27 | | | | Hull Kingston Rovers | Hull Kingston Rovers | 21 | | | | |
| | | | | | | Halifax | Halifax | 0 | | | | |
| Hull | Hull | 3 | | | | | | | Halifax | Halifax | 0 | | | | |
| Halifax | Halifax | 6 | | | | | | | | | | |
| Halifax | Halifax | 6 | Halifax | Halifax | 6 | | | | | | | |
| | | | Hunslet | Hunslet | 0 | | | | | | | |
| Hunslet | Hunslet | | Hunslet | Hunslet | 0 | | | | | | | |
| bye | bye | | | | | | | | | | | |

## Notes and comments

1 * This was a record score at the time in the competition

2 * New Blackpool is/was a junior/amateur club from ? (possibly Leeds area - can anyone shed light on this ?)

3 * 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

