17 Jul LEEDS RETAIN HICKSON TROPHY

On Friday 11 July Leeds won the Hickson Trophy that they first won in 2024.

The qualifying rounds had been played the previous Friday (as previously reported) and the semi-finals matched Harrogate against Sheffield and East Coast versus Leeds. Harrogate and East Coast are ‘new kids on the block’ and both teams gave a good account of themselves only losing by an average of 1.5 chalks per game but both previous winners Leeds and Sheffield overcame the tough opposition.

The final was held at Hillsborough Park in glorious sunshine and after the first four games it was two games each but Leeds had an ominous looking 14 aggregate points lead and they powered on from there only losing one game in the middle 4 and one more loss in the final 4, the aggregate was 195 – 234 in favour of Leeds.

The previous two tournaments in 2023 and 2024 had been run on a round robin basis but the hosts, Sheffield, opted to return to a knockout trophy. The format of the 2026 tournament will be decided in November and will be hosted by the West Riding team.

The photo shows the victorious teams with captain Roger Birdsall holding the trophy.