The 1960–61 Yorkshire Cup was the fifty-third occasion on which the Yorkshire Cup competition was held.
| 1960–61 Yorkshire Cup | |
|---|---|
| Structure | Regional knockout championship |
| Teams | 16 |
| Winners | Wakefield Trinity |
| Runners-up | Huddersfield |
Wakefield Trinity won the trophy by beating Huddersfield by a score of 16-10 in the final played at Headingley, Leeds, now in West Yorkshire. The attendance for this match was 17,456, and receipts were £2,937. This was Wakefield Trinity's first of two consecutive triumphs and the club's third appearance out of five in a period of nine years (which included four as cup winners and one as runner-up).
Background
This season, there were no junior/amateur clubs taking part, no new entrants and no "leavers". Therefore, the total of entries remained the same at sixteen. This in turn resulted in no byes in the first round.
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 | Rec | Notes | Ref | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fri 26 Aug 1960 | Bramley | 10-7 | Hull Kingston Rovers | Barley Mow | ||||||
| 2 | Fri 26 Aug 1960 | Dewsbury | 14-2 | York | Crown Flatt | ||||||
| 3 | Sat 27 Aug 1960 | Batley | 2-20 | Huddersfield | Mount Pleasant | 2,000 | [5] | ||||
| 4 | Sat 27 Aug 1960 | Bradford Northern | 7-25 | Castleford | Odsal | ||||||
| 5 | Sat 27 Aug 1960 | Featherstone Rovers | 36-10 | Doncaster | Post Office Road | ||||||
| 6 | Sat 27 Aug 1960 | Keighley | 18-15 | Hull F.C. | Lawkholme Lane | [6] | |||||
| 7 | Sat 27 Aug 1960 | Leeds | 16-0 | Hunslet | Headingley | ||||||
| 8 | Sat 27 Aug 1960 | Wakefield Trinity | 3-0 | Halifax | Belle Vue |
Round 2 - quarterfinals
Involved 4 matches and 8 clubs.
| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tue 6 Sep 1960 | Dewsbury | 13-13 | Leeds | Crown Flatt | ||||||
| 2 | Tue 6 Sep 1960 | Keighley | 5-3 | Featherstone Rovers | Lawkholme Lane | ||||||
| 3 | Wed 7 Sep 1960 | Huddersfield | 15-3 | Castleford | Fartown | 3,656 | [5] | ||||
| 4 | Wed 7 Sep 1960 | Wakefield Trinity | 40-6 | Bramley | Belle Vue | [7] |
Round 2 - replays
Involved 1 match and 2 clubs.
| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R | Mon 12 Sep 1960 | Leeds | 22-16 | Dewsbury | Headingley |
Round 3 – semifinals
Involved 2 matches and 4 clubs.
| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fri 7 Oct 1960 | Leeds | 9-12 | Huddersfield | Headingley | 7,478 | [5] | ||||
| 2 | Wed 12 Oct 1960 | Keighley | 4-5 | Wakefield Trinity | Odsal | 1 | [7] |
Final
| Game No | Fixture date | Home team | Score | Away team | Venue | Att | Rec | Notes | Ref | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday 29 October 1960 | Wakefield Trinity | 16-10 | Huddersfield | Headingley | 17,456 | £2,937 | 2 3 4 5 | [3][5][7][8][9] |
Teams and scorers
| Wakefield Trinity | № | Huddersfield |
|---|---|---|
| teams | ||
| Donald Metcalfe | 1 | Frank Dyson |
| Fred Smith | 2 | Aidan Brown |
| Alan Skene | 3 | Brian Curry |
| Neil Fox | 4 | Ernie Ashcroft (c) |
| John Etty | 5 | Aidan Breen |
| Harold Poynton | 6 | Don Lockwood |
| Ken Rollin | 7 | Thomas Smales |
| Jack Wilkinson | 8 | Ted Slevin |
| Geoff Oakes | 9 | Don Close |
| Leslie "Les" Chamberlain | 10 | Ken Noble |
| Brian Briggs | 11 | Don Devereux |
| Albert Firth | 12 | Kenneth"Ken" Bowman |
| Derek "Rocky" Turner (c) | 13 | Dave Valentine |
| Ken Traill | Coach | Ernie Ashcroft |
| 16 | score | 10 |
| 10 | HT | 3 |
| Scorers | ||
| Tries | ||
| Neil Fox (2) | T | Aidan Breen (1) |
| John Etty (1) | T | Don Lockwood (1) |
| Fred Smith (1) | T | |
| Goals | ||
| Neil Fox (2) | G | Frank Dyson (2) |
| Referee | Norman T. Railton (Wigan) | |
Scoring - Try = three (3) points - Goal = two (2) points - Drop goal = two (2) points
The road to success
| First round | Second round | Semifinals | Final | ||||||||||||||||
| Keighley | 18 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Hull F.C. | 15 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Keighley | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Featherstone Rovers | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Featherstone Rovers | 36 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Doncaster | 10 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Keighley | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Wakefield Trinity | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Wakefield Trinity | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Halifax | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Wakefield Trinity | 40 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Bramley | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Bramley | 10 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Hull Kingston Rovers | 7 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Wakefield Trinity | 16 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Huddersfield | 10 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Dewsbury | 14 | ||||||||||||||||||
| York | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Dewsbury | 13 (16) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Leeds | 13 (22) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Leeds | 16 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Hunslet | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Leeds | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Huddersfield | 12 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Batley | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Huddersfield | 20 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Huddersfield | 15 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Castleford | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Bradford Northern | 7 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Castleford | 25 | ||||||||||||||||||
Notes and comments
1 * Keighley opted to play the match at Odsal in the hope of a possibly larger attendance and gate receipts
2 * This was Huddersfield's 20th appearance, Wakefield's 14th - in a Yorkshire Cup final
3 * The attendance is given as 17,629 by the official Huddersfield 1961 Yearbook[5] but given as 17,629 by "100 Years of Rugby. The History of Wakefield Trinity 1873-1973"[7] and 17,456 by RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] and by the Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook of 1991-92[9] and 1990-91[8]
4 * The receipts are quoted as £2,936 by "100 Years of Rugby. The History of Wakefield Trinity 1873-1973"[7] but £2,937 in the Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook of 1991-92[9] and 1990-91[8]
5 * 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)