1970–71 Yorkshire Cup

The 1970–71 Yorkshire Cup was the sixty-third occasion on which the Yorkshire Cup competition had been held.

1970–71 Yorkshire Cup
Structure	Regional knockout championship
Teams	16
Winners	Leeds
Runners-up	Featherstone Rovers
← 1969–70 1971–72 →

Leeds won the trophy by beating Featherstone Rovers by the score of 23–7

The match was played at Odsal in the City of Bradford, now in West Yorkshire. The attendance was 6,753 and receipts were £1,879

This was Featherstone Rovers's second Yorkshire Cup final defeat in successive competitions

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.

Competition and results

^[1][2]

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 28 Aug 1970	Hull Kingston Rovers		9–27		Hull F.C.	Craven Park (1)				[3]
2	Sat 29 Aug 1970	Bramley		27–5		Bradford Northern	McLaren Field
3	Sat 29 Aug 1970	Castleford		29–4		Halifax	Wheldon Road
4	Sat 29 Aug 1970	Featherstone Rovers		40–9		York	Post Office Road
5	Sat 29 Aug 1970	Wakefield Trinity		10–20		Leeds	Belle Vue				[4]
6	Sun 30 Aug 1970	Dewsbury		12–10		Keighley	Crown Flatt
7	Sun 30 Aug 1970	Huddersfield		17–0		Batley	Fartown
8	Sun 30 Aug 1970	Hunslet		w/o		Doncaster	Parkside			1

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	Mon 7 Sep 1970	Castleford		7–14		Leeds	Wheldon Road
2	Fri 11 Sep 1970	Bramley		12–7		Dewsbury	McLaren Field
3	Fri 11 Sep 1970	Hull F.C.		42–0		Doncaster	Boulevard				[3]
4	Wed 16 Sep 1970	Huddersfield		8–10		Featherstone Rovers	Fartown

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	Tue 29 Sep 1970	Hull F.C.		11–12		Leeds	Boulevard				[3]
2	Fri 2 Oct 1970	Featherstone Rovers		23–2		Bramley	Post Office Road

Final

Game No	Fixture date	Home team		Score		Away team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
	Saturday 21 November 1970	Leeds		23–7		Featherstone Rovers	Odsal	6,753	£1,879	2	[5][6]

Teams and scorers

^[6]

Leeds	No.	Featherstone Rovers
	teams
John Holmes	1	Cyril Kellett
Alan Smith	2	Michael "Mick" Smith
Syd Hynes (c)	3	Keith Cotton
Ronnie Cowan	4	John Newlove
John Atkinson	5	David "Dave" Hartley
Anthony Wainwright	6	Chris Harding
Mick Shoebottom	7	Terry Hudson
John Burke	8	Sam Windmill
Peter Dunn	9	Dennis Morgan (Sent off)
Phil Cookson	10	Steve Lyons
Bill Ramsey	11	Alan Rhodes
Bob Haigh	12	James "Jimmy" Thompson
Ray Batten	13	Vince Farrar
John Langley (for Anthony Wainwright)	14	Paul Coventry (for Chris Harding)
?	15	?
Derek Turner	Coaches	Laurie Gant
23	score	7
8	HT	2
	Scorers
	Tries
Alan Smith (2)	T	Dave Hartley (1)
John Atkinson (1)	T
Peter Dunn (1)	T
Bill Ramsey (1)	T
	T
	T
	T
	Goals
Syd Hynes (4)	G	Cyril Kellett (2)
	G
	G
	Drop Goals
	DG
	DG
	DG
Referee		D S Brown (Preston)
White Rose Trophy for Man of the match		Syd Hynes - Leeds - Centre
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
	Hull Kingston Rovers		9
	Hull F.C.		27
						Hull F.C.		42
						Doncaster		0
	Hunslet		w/o
	Doncaster
											Hull F.C.		11
											Leeds		12
	Castleford		29
	Halifax		4
						Castleford		7
						Leeds		14
	Wakefield Trinity		10
	Leeds		20
																Leeds		23
																Featherstone Rovers		7
	Huddersfield		17
	Huddersfield		0
						Huddersfield		8
						Featherstone Rovers		10
	Featherstone Rovers		40
	York		9
											Featherstone Rovers		23
											Bramley		2
	Bramley		27
	Bradford Northern		5
						Bramley		12
						Dewsbury		7
	Dewsbury		12
	Keighley		10

Notes and comments

1 * Just prior to the new season's start, the Hunslet players were told they had to accept a cut in wages. This they refused to accept as they had not had a rise for eight years. They went on strike. When the management threatened to close down the club, the players relented and backed down, but after only one match they went back on strike. This match was not played and Doncaster awarded a walk-over.

2 * Odsal is the home ground of Bradford Northern from 1890 to 2010 and the current capacity is in the region of 26,000, The ground is famous for hosting the largest attendance at an English sports ground when 102,569 (it was reported that over 120,000 actually attended as several areas of boundary fencing collapse under the sheer weight of numbers) attended the replay of the Challenge Cup final on 5 May 1954 to see Halifax v Warrington

See also

• 1970–71 Northern Rugby Football League season
• Rugby league county cups