1987–88 Yorkshire Cup

The 1987–88 Yorkshire Cup was the 80th occasion on which the Yorkshire Cup competition was held. Bradford Northern won the trophy by beating Castleford by the score of 11–2 in a replay after drawing the first match 12–12. The competition was sponsored by John Smith's Brewery.

This was the fifth 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. 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 eighteen. This in turn resulted in the necessity to continue with a preliminary round to reduce the number of clubs entering the first round to sixteen.

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 2 matches and 4 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

Final
The initial match was played at Headingley, Leeds. The score was 12–12, the attendance was 10,947, and receipts were £40,283. This match was the final appearance for Bradford Northern's Welsh former rugby union international Terry Holmes, who announced his retirement shortly after this game due to a persistent knee problem.

Final - Replay
The replay was at Elland Road, Leeds. Bradford Northern won the match 11–2, the attendance was 8,175, and receipts were £30,732. The game was marred by a brawl between both sets of players which took place just before half time. Bradford's Karl Fairbank and Castleford's John Joyner were sent to the sin bin as a result. A further player from each team (Kelvin Skerrett and John Fifita) were sin-binned for separate incidents during the second half.

The road to success
The following chart excludes any preliminary round fixtures/results