The 1971–72 Yorkshire Cup was the sixty-fourth occasion on which the RFL Yorkshire Cup competition had been held.
| 1971–72 Yorkshire Cup | |
|---|---|
| Structure | Regional knockout championship |
| Teams | 14 or 15 |
| Winners | Hull Kingston Rovers |
| Runners-up | Castleford |
Hull Kingston Rovers won the trophy by beating Castleford by the score of 11–7. The match was played at Belle Vue, in the City of Wakefield, now in West Yorkshire. The attendance was 5,536 and receipts were £1,589. The attendance was a Yorkshire Cup final record, the lowest ever, a record which would never be beaten.[citation needed]This is the second time in four seasons that Castleford, (who have never won the trophy, to date) finished as runner-up.
Competition and results
Round 1
Involved either 6 or 7 matches (with one or two byes) and either 14 or 15 Clubs
| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sat 31 Jul 1971 | Castleford | 24-5 | Batley | Wheldon Road | ||||||
| 2 | Sat 31 Jul 1971 | Hull F.C. | 9-2 | Featherstone Rovers | Boulevard | [3] | |||||
| 3 | Sun 1 Aug 1971 | Doncaster | 12-4 | Bradford Northern | Bentley Road Stadium/Tattersfield | ||||||
| 4 | Sun 1 Aug 1971 | Halifax | 19-10 | York | Thrum Hall | ||||||
| 5 | Sun 1 Aug 1971 | Hunslet | 10-17 | Keighley | Parkside | ||||||
| 6 | Sun 1 Aug 1971 | Wakefield Trinity | 11-4 | Huddersfield | Belle Vue | [4] | |||||
| 7 | Bramley | BYE | Leeds (Did not compete) | 2 | |||||||
| 8 | Hull Kingston Rovers | BYE | Dewsbury (Did not compete) | 2 |
Round 2 - Quarter-finals
Involved 4 matches and 8 clubs
| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fri 6 Aug 1971 | Castleford | 13-10 | Wakefield Trinity | Wheldon Road | [4] | |||||
| 2 | Fri 6 Aug 1971 | Keighley | 16-12 | Hull F.C. | Lawkholme Lane | [3] | |||||
| 3 | Sun 8 Aug 1971 | Bramley | 18-12 | Halifax | McLaren Field | ||||||
| 4 | Sun 8 Aug 1971 | Doncaster | 14-24 | Hull Kingston Rovers | Bentley Road Stadium/Tattersfield |
Round 3 – Semi-finals
Involved 2 matches and 4 clubs
| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fri 13 Aug 1971 | Castleford | 12-7 | Keighley | Wheldon Road | [4] | |||||
| 2 | Sun 15 Aug 1971 | Hull Kingston Rovers | 25-6 | Bramley | Craven Park (1) |
Final
| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday 21 August 1971 | Hull Kingston Rovers | 11-7 | Castleford | Belle Vue | 5,536 | £1,589 | 2 | [5][6] |
Teams and scorers
| Hull Kingston Rovers | No. | Castleford |
|---|---|---|
| Teams | ||
| Ian Markham | 1 | Derek Edwards |
| Mike Stephenson | 2 | Derek Foster |
| Phil lip "Phil" Coupland | 3 | Steve 'Knocker' Norton |
| George Kirkpatrick | 4 | Keith Worsley |
| Paul Longstaff | 5 | Alan Lowndes |
| Roger Millward (c) | 6 | Danny Hargrave |
| Paul Daley | 7 | Gary Stephens |
| Steve Wiley | 8 | Dennis Hartley |
| Peter Flanagan | 9 | Tony Miller |
| John Millington | 10 | Ian Van Bellen |
| Cliff Wallis | 11 | Brian Lockwood |
| Eric Palmer | 12 | Alan Dickinson |
| Joe Brown | 13 | Graham Blakeway |
| John Moore | 14 | Glyn Jones |
| Colin Cooper (for Eric Palmer) | 15 | Alan Ackroyd (for Ian Van Bellen) |
| Johnny Whiteley | Coach | Harry Poole |
| 11 | score | 7 |
| 7 | HT | 3 |
| Scorers | ||
| Tries | ||
| Paul Longstaff (1) | T | Derek Foster (1) |
| Goals | ||
| Roger Millward (4) | G | Alan Ackroyd (2) |
| Referee | Alexander Givvons, Jr. (Oldham) | |
| White Rose Trophy for Man of the match | Ian Markham - Hull KR - Fullback | |
| Sponsored by | ||
Scoring - Try = three (3) points - Goal = two (2) points - Drop goal = two (2) points
The road to success
| First round | Second round | Semi-finals | Final | ||||||||||||||||
| Doncaster | 12 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Bradford Northern | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Doncaster | 14 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Hull Kingston Rovers | 24 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Hull Kingston Rovers | |||||||||||||||||||
| ?? | |||||||||||||||||||
| Hull Kingston Rovers | 25 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Bramley | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Bramley | |||||||||||||||||||
| ?? | |||||||||||||||||||
| Bramley | 18 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Halifax | 12 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Halifax | 19 | ||||||||||||||||||
| York | 10 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Hull Kingston Rovers | 11 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Castleford | 7 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Castleford | 24 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Batley | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Castleford | 13 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Wakefield Trinity | 10 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Wakefield Trinity | 11 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Huddersfield | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Castleford | 12 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Keighley | 7 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Hunslet | 10 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Keighley | 17 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Keighley | 16 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Hull F.C. | 12 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Hull F.C. | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Featherstone Rovers | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
Notes and comments
1 * Leeds did not take part this season due to a dispute with the Yorkshire County Committee.[7]
2 * Bramley and Hull Kingston Rovers proceeded to the second round, whereas Dewsbury did not, however I am unable to find any record of these teams for the first round. Can anyone help
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
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)