The single division championship was won by Dewsbury, who had finished the season in first position and then defeated Bradford Northern in the play-off final.
[2] By the time of the council meeting on 31 July three of the five undecided teams confirmed that they would not be participating, Hull Kingston Rovers, Barrow and Liverpool Stanley.
[5] The league therefore comprised the 14 teams from Yorkshire who had competed in 1940-41 and four from Lancashire; Broughton Rangers, Wigan, Oldham and St Helens.
[7] The early part of the season passed smoothly although in October there were concerns that illegal payments were being made to players to induce them to make guest appearances for other clubs.
The investigation found no proof of such payments being made but did censure Sullivan for demanding more than the 25s maximum match fee from Wigan.
[9] Until the end of October there were no problems but towards the beginning of the following month, Broughton Rangers, started cancelling matches and later the matter was referred to the RFL.
[10][11] With the club declining to play any matches over the Christmas period they RFL held further discussions and in early January 1942 Broughton resigned from the competition and their results to that date were expunged from the league table.
[14] Changes in petrol rationing also imposed additional pressures on clubs in arranging travel to away games.
[16] Over the following weeks the discussion continued with the Dewsbury club, voicing their opposition to the suggestion on the grounds that it would cost them the title at that time; mid-January 1942.
After the matches on 6 April, the top four teams (in order) were Dewsbury, Bradford Northern, Halifax and Hull.
[24] The final was played at Headingley, Leeds on Saturday 18 April saw Dewsbury crowned champions with a 13-0 win over Bradford Northern.
Befitting their league positions, the top two met at Headingley in the Championship Final on 18 April.
Dewsbury, under manager-secretary Eddie Waring, had made wide use of the guest rules to build a strong team including several players currently in the army and based in West Yorkshire including Great Britain and Wales internationals Gus Risman and Roy Francis.
[31] All ties were to be two legged except the final, with the competition being played over consecutive weekends starting on 25 October 1941.
in both legs of the second round concluded a dismal season for the club as they finished without a victory in any competition.
A Risman penalty put Wales 7–2 ahead but England equalised with a try by Lawrensen which Belshaw converted.
A case try for Northern Command was matched by a second Lawrensen try to make the score 18–17 in the League's favour with time running out.