Saturday 12th of April saw the final round of the Yorkshire League. In the Woodhouse Cup (Division 1), Sheffield A, captained by Mike Handley, finished first, with 16 match points from their 9 matches, pushing Hull & East Riding A into second place by just a single match point. The final league table can be seen at https://mannchess.org.uk/YEvents/Division1.htm. Alternatively you can look at https://lms.englishchess.org.uk/lms/event/6257/fixtures, though it takes numerous clicks to navigate between the league table, the fixture list and result details of individual matches.

In the I. M. Brown Shield (Division 2) Doncaster finished 2nd-3rd= on match points with Huddersfield, but secured second place by virtue of a higher game-point total that Huddersfield’s. Thus Doncaster joins I. M. Brown winners Calderdale A in earning promotion to the Woodhouse Cup for 2025-26 season. See https://mannchess.org.uk/YEvents/Division2.htm.

Sheffield B captained by Geoff Brown finished 6th out of 9 teams in the I. M. Brown.

Sheffield previously won the Woodhouse Cup in the following years:

1886

1889

1907

1910

1924

1925

1926 *

1935

1937

1950

1954

1961 (jointly with Leeds)

1971

1974

1976

1977

2002

2008

2009

2015

2020

2023

* In 1926 the rules were such that three wins in succession won the trophy outright. This was in fact the second Woodhouse Cup. The original Woodhouse Cup was won by Leeds in 1913. For 1926-27 season onwards, Leeds donated the more elaborate original trophy back to the Yorkshire Chess Association. At the same time the three-in-a-row winners-keepers rule was abolished, leaving Sheffield owning the less impressive second Woodhouse Cup in perpetuity. This second Woodhouse Cup was initially put to use as the trophy for the “Annual Match” (discontinued after 1991) between the Sheffield & District Chess Association and the Sheffield & District Works Sports Association Chess Section (aka “The Works”). When the S&DCA Summer League was instituted in 2010, the (2nd) Woodhouse Cup was put back into use as that for Division 1 of the S&DCA Summer League.