The North Midlands Cup is an annual rugby union knock-out cup club competition organised by the North Midlands Rugby Football Union and was first contested during the 1971-72 season with the inaugural cup being won by the now defunct Birmingham Police, who beat Evesham at the final held at The Reddings in Birmingham (formerly home of Moseley RFC).[1] It is currently open for clubs ranked in tier 5-6 of the English rugby union system that fall under the North Midlands RFU umbrella, including sides based in Birmingham and the West Midlands, Herefordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire.[2] Originally the North Midlands Cup was the sole cup competition in the region but in 2001 and 2005, the North Midlands Shield and North Midlands Vase competitions were introduced for lower ranked clubs.[3] A further change in 2014 saw the introduction of a 'Plate' competition for sides eliminated in the early stages of the cup, although it was not played for during the 2018-19 competition.[4]
The current format is as a knock-out cup with a preliminary round, quarter-final, semi-final and final which is held at a neutral venue in March. Due to the disjointed numbers of teams several teams have to play in the preliminary round.
^Plate competition introduced for 2014-15 season for teams that were knocked out of the first round of the North Midlands Cup.[4]
^After 80 minutes the game was tied 20-20 when Newport having received a penalty kicked for touch not realizing that extra time was not allowed in this cup competition, resulting in Birmingham & Solihull winning by virtue of scoring 3 tries to Newport's 2. This caused some controversy amongst players and supporters who felt that the referee had not made this clear hence Newport kicking off the field instead of going all out for a winner.[43][44]
^Bournville RFC won by virtue of scoring more tries (4-3) than Old Halesonians.[45]
