Winter Cup: Draw for Round of the Last-28

Winter League

The last item on the Agenda for Thursday's Winter League Management Committee was the draw for the Round of the Last-28 of the Winter Cup. With 28 qualifiers from the ten qualifying competitions there was great interest in the make up of the draw and the passageways that the last 16 would have to negotiate to progress even further. The first 24 out of the hat made up the 12 ties of the Preliminary Round with the other four qualifiers progressing directly through to Round 1.

One major pairing stood out as the last two numbers out of the hat were numbers 1 and 2. These were the numbers of the two Division 1 qualifiers, Andy Lumb of Kirkheaton Con A and Graham Hirst of Lower Hopton. Graham is a two-time Top Bowler in Division 1, whereas Andy has just completed his first season in the Winter League after becoming age-qualified at the start of this season. Andy had a tremendous qualifying run of results as previously covered on HuddWebb.

The Round of the Last 28 takes place at Huddersfield RUFC from 11.00am on Sunday 29 March with Finals Day following two weeks later at the same venue on Sunday 12 April again with an 11.00am start time.

There will be a new name on the Winter Cup this year with none of the previous four winners still in contention. It is an impressive trophy donated to the League by Kirkheaton Con bowlers Garry Senior and Tony Butterfield. There is nothing more that the pair would like to see than a Kirkheaton Cub member bowler lifting the trophy. With three club members in the last 28 that may be possible but for at least for one of those it is a big ask to even progress through the opening round.

The full draw is below and there are no clashes of bowlers from the same club meeting each other at this stage, maybe later. Scroll down to see all the results of the previous four Winter Cup Finals.

Winter Cup Finals

2026  Total entries 162. Average number of entries per team (162 / 80) = 2.03

2025   Total entries 154. Average number of entries per team (154 / 64) = 2.41

Stuart Greaves (New Mill B) beat Tim Poulter (Clayton West) 21-14 at Netherton Con

2024   Total entries 121. Average number of entries per team (121 / 54) = 2.24

Julie Mallinson (Marsh United) beat Robert Spencer (Linthwaite Hall) 21-17 at Lindley Lib

2023 Total entries 106. Average number of entries per team (106 / 40) = 2.65

Ian Briggs (Thorpe Green) beat Stuart Greaves (Jackson Bridge) 21-16 at Springwood

2022   Total entries 60. Average number of entries per team (60 / 27) = 2.22

Stephen Haigh (Lindley BC) beat Adrian 'Crafty' Cooper (Kirkheaton Con) 21-11 at Milnsbridge