1985–86 Yorkshire Cup

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.

Background
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).

Preliminary round
Involved 1 match and 2 clubs

Round 1
Involved 8 matches (with no byes) and 16 clubs

Round 2 - Quarter-finals
Involved 4 matches and 8 clubs

Round 3 – Semi-finals
Involved 2 matches and 4 clubs

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