| 1985–86 Yorkshire Cup | |
| Structure: | Regional knockout championship |
| Season Champ Name: | Winners |
| Runner-Up Name: | Runner-up |
| Second Place: | Castleford |
| Prevseason Link: | 1984 Yorkshire Cup |
| Prevseason Year: | 1984–85 |
| Nextseason Link: | 1986 Yorkshire Cup |
| Nextseason Year: | 1986–87 |
| No Of Teams: | 17 |
The 1985–86 Yorkshire Cup was the seventy-eighth occasion on which the Yorkshire Cup competition had been held. This season there were no junior/amateur clubs taking part, no "leavers", but one new entrant in the form of newcomers to the league, Sheffield Eagles and so the total of entries increases by one up to seventeen. This in turn resulted in the necessity to introduce a preliminary round to reduce the number of clubs entering the first round to sixteen.
Last year's runner-up, Hull Kingston Rovers returned to the finals stage to win the trophy this year by beating Castleford by the score of 22–18. The match was played at Headingley, Leeds, now in West Yorkshire. The attendance was 12,686 and receipts were £36,327. It was the third time in the incredible eleven-year period in which Castleford. previously only once winners in 1977, will make eight appearances in the Yorkshire Cup final, winning on four and ending as runner-up on four occasions.
The Rugby Football League's 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).
Involved 1 match and 2 clubs
| width=20 abbr="No" | Game No | width=100 abbr="Date" | Fixture Date | width=150 abbr="Home Team" | Home Team | width=5 abbr="space" | width=20 abbr="Score" | Score | width=5 abbr="space" | width=150 abbr="Away Team" | Away Team | width=150 abbr="Venue" | Venue | width=30 abbr="Att" | Att | width=30 abbr="Rec" | Rec | width=20 abbr="Notes" | Notes | width=30 abbr="Ref" | Ref | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P1 | Wed 4 Sep 1985 | Castleford | 38-6 | Sheffield Eagles | 1748 | 1 |
Involved 8 matches (with no byes) and 16 clubs
| width=20 abbr="No" | Game No | width=100 abbr="Date" | Fixture Date | width=150 abbr="Home Team" | Home Team | width=5 abbr="space" | width=20 abbr="Score" | Score | width=5 abbr="space" | width=150 abbr="Away Team" | Away Team | width=150 abbr="Venue" | Venue | width=30 abbr="Att" | Att | width=30 abbr="Rec" | Rec | width=20 abbr="Notes" | Notes | width=30 abbr="Ref" | Ref | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sun 15 Sep 1985 | Batley | 10-14 | Dewsbury | Mount Pleasant | 2148 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Sun 15 Sep 1985 | Bradford Northern | 40-15 | Wakefield Trinity | Odsal | 3180 | |||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Sun 15 Sep 1985 | Bramley | 22-10 | Doncaster | McLaren Field | 582 | |||||||||||||||||
| 4 | Sun 15 Sep 1985 | Castleford | 60-2 | Hunslet | 2708 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Sun 15 Sep 1985 | Halifax | 52-14 | Huddersfield Barracudas | Thrum Hall | 2516 | |||||||||||||||||
| 6 | Sun 15 Sep 1985 | Hull Kingston Rovers | 12-10 | Hull F.C. | Craven Park (1) | 10115 | [2] | ||||||||||||||||
| 7 | Sun 15 Sep 1985 | Leeds | 60-12 | Keighley | Headingley | 4775 | |||||||||||||||||
| 8 | Sun 15 Sep 1985 | York | 18-26 | Featherstone Rovers | Clarence Street | 2283 |
Involved 4 matches and 8 clubs
| width=20 abbr="No" | Game No | width=100 abbr="Date" | Fixture Date | width=150 abbr="Home Team" | Home Team | width=5 abbr="space" | width=20 abbr="Score" | Score | width=5 abbr="space" | width=150 abbr="Away Team" | Away Team | width=150 abbr="Venue" | Venue | width=30 abbr="Att" | Att | width=30 abbr="Rec" | Rec | width=20 abbr="Notes" | Notes | width=30 abbr="Ref" | Ref | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wed 25 Sep 1985 | Dewsbury | 2-48 | Leeds | Crown Flatt | 3700 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Wed 25 Sep 1985 | Featherstone Rovers | 11-22 | Bradford Northern | Post Office Road | 2185 | |||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Wed 25 Sep 1985 | Halifax | 4-24 | Castleford | Thrum Hall | 4012 | |||||||||||||||||
| 4 | Wed 25 Sep 1985 | Hull Kingston Rovers | 30-6 | Bramley | Craven Park (1) | 3959 |
Involved 2 matches and 4 clubs
| width=20 abbr="No" | Game No | width=100 abbr="Date" | Fixture Date | width=150 abbr="Home Team" | Home Team | width=5 abbr="space" | width=20 abbr="Score" | Score | width=5 abbr="space" | width=150 abbr="Away Team" | Away Team | width=150 abbr="Venue" | Venue | width=30 abbr="Att" | Att | width=30 abbr="Rec" | Rec | width=20 abbr="Notes" | Notes | width=30 abbr="Ref" | Ref | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wed 2 Oct 1985 | Hull Kingston Rovers | 11-5 | Bradford Northern | Craven Park (1) | 6008 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Wed 2 Oct 1985 | Leeds | 10-14 | Castleford | Headingley | 10281 |
| width=20 abbr="No" | Game No | width=100 abbr="Date" | Fixture Date | width=150 abbr="Home Team" | Home Team | width=5 abbr="space" | width=20 abbr="Score" | Score | width=5 abbr="space" | width=150 abbr="Away Team" | Away Team | width=150 abbr="Venue" | Venue | width=45 abbr="Att" | Att | width=60 abbr="Rec" | Rec | width=20 abbr="Notes" | Notes | width=30 abbr="Ref" | Ref | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday 27 October 1985 | Hull Kingston Rovers | 22-18 | Castleford | Headingley | 12,686 | £36,327 | 2 | [3] [4] [5] |
| width=280 abbr=winner | Hull Kingston Rovers | width=60 abbr="Number" | No. | width=280 abbr=runner-up | Castleford |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| teams | |||||
| George Fairbairn | 1 | Gary Lord | |||
| Garry Clark | 2 | David Plange | |||
| John Dorahy | 3 | Tony Marchant | |||
| Gary Prohm | 4 | Gary Hyde | |||
| David Laws | 5 | Tony Spears | |||
| Gordon Smith | 6 | Steve Diamond | |||
| Paul Harkin | 7 | Robert "Bob" Beardmore | |||
| Peter Johnston | 8 | Kevin Ward | |||
| David Watkinson | 9 | Kevin Beardmore | |||
| Asuquo "Zook" Ema | 10 | Barry Johnson | |||
| Chris Burton | 11 | Keith England | |||
| Phil Hogan | 12 | Martin Ketteridge | |||
| Gavin Miller | 13 | John Joyner | |||
| John Lydiat (for George Fairbairn) | 14 | David Roockley | |||
| Andy Kelly (for Phil Hogan) | 15 | ||||
| Roger Millward | Coach | Malcolm "Mal" Reilly | |||
| 22 | score | 18 | |||
| 10 | HT | 6 | |||
| Scorers | |||||
| Tries | |||||
| Garry Clark (1) | T | Tony Marchant (2) | |||
| Gavin Miller (2) | T | Robert "Bob" Beardmore (1) | |||
| Goals | |||||
| John Dorahy (5) | G | Steve Diamond (1) | |||
| G | Robert "Bob" Beardmore (2) | ||||
| Referee | Ronald "Ronnie" Campbell (Widnes) | ||||
| White Rose Trophy for Man of the match | Gavin Miller - Hull KR - | ||||
| sponsored by | |||||
| Competition Sponsor | John Smith's Brewery Tadcaster |
1 * This is the first Yorkshire Cup match played by Sheffield Eagles, newly elected to the league
2 * 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.