Following on from the first round of the Richardson Cup which was played w/c 12th October (see here), the draws for the 2nd round of the Richardson Cup and for the 1st round of the Sam Haystead Memorial Trophy (“Plate”) competition have now been announced.

20 teams entered the Richardson Cup. The 10 winners now proceed to round 2 of the Richardson. Those of the 10 losers who expressed the wish so to do now proceed to round 1 of the Haystead.

Ollie Brennan has made the relevant draws using a computerised system – so maybe Rule 24(f) needs amending to fall into line with this time-saving approach!

Richardson Cup Round 2

If the number of winning teams in Round 1 is not a power of 2 (2, 4, 8, 16 etc), then this round serves to reduce the number of teams to a power of two so that the remainder of the competition can be run as in a simple knockout event. Accordingly, Richardson Cup Round 2 consists of just two matches which serve to “lose” 2 teams, so leaving 8 teams to conclude with 3 knockout rounds: quarterfinal, semifinal and final.

The draw for Round 2, with matches to be played w/c 9th November, had earlier been published as follows:

Woodseats 1	v	Ecclesall 2	Mon 9 Nov 26
Sheffield Nomads 1	v	Sheffield University 2	Tue 10 Nov 26

Teams receiving byes in round 2 are:

Chesterfield 1,

Darnall & Handsworth 1,

Ecclesall 1,

Hillsborough,

SASCA 1,

Sheffield University 1.

Haystead (“Plate”) Round 1

There are 6 teams involved, meaning the first round, scheduled to be played w/c 11 January 2027, needs to “lose” 2 teams leaving 4 teams. There will follow a semifinal round scheduled to be played in February, then a final round to be played in March.

The draw for Round 2, with matches to be played w/c 11th January 2027

Barnsley 2	v	Darnall & Handsworth 2	Tue 12 Jan 27
Rotherham	v	Sheffield Nomads 2	Wed 13 Jan 27

Teams receiving byes in Round 2 are:

Barnsley 1,

Worksop 1.