History - First Challenge Cup

The teams pose for the photographers before the first Challenge Cup Final. Batley (left) beat St. Helens 10-3 at Headingley, on 24 April 1897.

The Northern Union was but a few months old before it was suggested that an even grander trophy would be appropriate, to be contested by all teams in membership with the union. The cup itself was ordered from Tony Fattorini's firm for £60, together with 15-carat gold medals worth £3 3s. for the winning players and something worth thirty shillings for each of the losers; and this began an association with Fattorini & Sons that has endured throughout the game's history.

The first round began on 20 March, 1897, with forty teams playing and another dozen inactive with byes; which was a way of ensuring sixteen matches in the second round, so that this would lead evenly to third and fourth rounds before the semi-finals. Because many junior sides were drawn against senior clubs there was a lot of high scoring in the first round. Hunslet beat Broughton Recreation 75-5 (the first team to score so many points in the Northern Union) and Runcorn demolished Warrington Locos 65-0: on the other hand, Wigan merely scraped through against Radcliffe 3-0. The Lancashire Pennine villagers of Crompton went further than any other juniors, enjoying a bye in the first round and beating Bradford Church Hill 26-0 in the second before going down 50-0 to Halifax at Thrum Hall in the third. In the semi-finals, Batley beat Warrington 6-0 at Huddersfield and St Helens defeated Swinton 7-0 at Broughton.

The first Challenge Cup Final took place on 24 April 1897 at Headingley, in front of 13,492 people, by no means a sell-out on a ground that could accommodate 20,000 at a pinch.