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97-521: The Rugby Football League Challenge Cup , commonly known just as the Challenge Cup is a knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League , held annually since 1896, it is the world's oldest cup competition in either code of rugby . A concurrent Women's Challenge Cup and Wheelchair Challenge Cup have been held since 2012 and 2015 respectively. The competition

194-489: A blacksmith's striker at the Dry docks His sport was as a prize fighter, bare-knuckle boxing , at Cardiff Docks known locally as Tiger Bay . Times would be hard for Gertrude Whitcombe, Frank's mother, but she was a resourceful woman, for income the family firstly had her brother and Samuel & Emily Leonard as lodgers. Mrs Whitcombe would send one of the children to the brewery for a jug of yeast , and would brew her own beer,

291-465: A 25–7 victory over Bramley at Odsal Stadium . He scored his first try for Bradford Northern against Wakefield Trinity in a 22–0 home win on 2 January 1939. Whitcombe's only goal for the club was in a Yorkshire League game against Hull F.C. on 2 June 1941 when Whitcombe kicked the only conversion in the Bradford northern score in their 29–5 win. His last game for Bradford Northern was the last match of

388-493: A brief boxing career while in the army. He won his first 11 bouts, but when he lost his twelfth he decided eleven good wins were not worth one good hiding. While playing rugby union for London Welsh RFC Whitcombe was selected to play for The Rest V Wales on 4 May 1935 in a special rugby union match arranged to benefit the King George V Silver Jubilee Trust at Cardiff Arms Park . From a Welsh point of view this game served as

485-581: A bronze medal struck by Edouard Fraisse of Paris to commemorate Whitcombe's achievement of winning the Lance Todd trophy the previous year and for his services to Rugby League. This was presented to him after the match Frank Whitcombe played in 5 Championship play-off finals ; Whitcombe played in 4 Yorkshire Cup Finals; Whitcombe's Testimonial match for Bradford Northern was on Saturday 10 April 1948 at Odsal Stadium , Bradford , against Wakefield Trinity Whitcombe made his début on Boxing Day 1938 in

582-533: A crowd of 13,492. The Challenge Cup trophy was designed by silversmiths Fattorini & Sons of Bradford in 1897. The trophy stands 36 inches high, manufactured of solid silver and sits on a black ebony base approximately 8 inches deep. Tony Collins , the Rugby Football League's archivist, stated in 2007 that, "Fattorini's weren't given any particular commission, just told to come up with something prestigious". The trophy cost £60. The average wage in 1897

679-505: A decline in the prestige of the cup, so the timing of the competition was altered in 2005 On 26 August 2006 St. Helens scrum-half Sean Long became the first player in the history of the Challenge Cup to collect a third Lance Todd trophy following his man-of-the-match performance in the final against Huddersfield . His other Lance Todd trophy wins came in the 2001 and 2004 Challenge Cup Finals. On 25 August 2018, Catalans Dragons became

776-420: A draw may be settled in extra time and eventually by a penalty shootout or by replaying the fixture. Another perceived disadvantage is that most competitors are eliminated after relatively few games. Variations such as the double-elimination tournament allow competitors a single loss while remaining eligible for overall victory. However, losing one game requires the competitor to win more games in order to win

873-521: A final was scored by Robbie Paul for Bradford Bulls v St Helens in 1996. Three years later, Leroy Rivett scored 4 for Leeds Rhinos against London Broncos in 1999. Some players previously missed out on becoming the first to score a hat trick due to tries being disallowed, such as Martin Offiah (Wigan v Castleford in 1992), Tony Iro (Wigan v Halifax in 1988) & Kevin Iro (Wigan v Warrington in 1990). Graham Rees scored

970-558: A guide to discovering fresh talent for the next season. The game particularly showed that there were some very good young forwards in Wales, including Whitcombe. Some of the players who took part in this game went on to be rugby league greats. On the Wales side that day playing at Stand off was a teenager from Swansea still attending Gowerton county school , one W T H "Willie" Davies , a future Lance Todd trophy winner and teammate of Whitcombe's at Bradford Northern and Great Britain. Playing on

1067-451: A match between the losers of the semifinal matches called third place playoffs , the winner therein placing third and the loser fourth. Many Olympic single-elimination tournaments feature the bronze medal match if they do not award bronze medals to both losing semifinalists. The FIFA World Cup has long featured the third place match (since 1934 ), though the UEFA Euro has not held one since

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1164-528: A memorable victory on Christmas Day, 25 December 1937, when Broughton Rangers defeated Wally Prigg 's touring Australian rugby league team 13–0 on their 1937/38 Kangaroo Tour of Great Britain. Soon after this Whitcombe was signed by Bradford Northern for a record fee and the family crossed the Pennines , and settled in Wibsey . Extract from Bradford Northern 1948 Challenge Cup Final brochure: Genial giant Frank

1261-719: A motor driver. This was an outstanding sporting unit, in his first year of service, 38th Field Company won the Athletic Challenge Cup, the Boxing cup and the Rugby cup. This was the start of Whitcombe's rugby union playing career with the Army . He had a sparkling career playing 27 times for the Army team and won two caps. On 23 February 1935, Whitcombe played on the winning Army team against Territorial Army at Taunton R.F.C. by 18 – 5. A game used as

1358-511: A nine-day period Whitcombe played for Great Britain on 29 July 1946 against West Coast losing 8–17 then five days later on 3 August he played against Auckland winning 9–7 and again three days later on 6 August against South Auckland winning 42–12 and scoring a try. He played against Auckland again on 12 August winning 22–9 his last game for Great Britain. Whitcombe played 19 games on the 1946 tour of Australia and New Zealand more than any other player. The Great Britain team left New Zealand aboard

1455-494: A possible match-up with the top seed until one round later. MLS' format is identical, except that the conference quarterfinals is a best-of-three series. In some situations, a seeding restriction may be implemented; from 1975 until 1989 in the NFL , and from 1994 until 2011 in MLB there was a rule where at the conference or league semifinal, should the top seed and last seed (wild card) be from

1552-437: A quarter-final from the previous year . Sometimes the remaining competitors in a single-elimination tournament will be "re-seeded" so that the highest surviving seed is made to play the lowest surviving seed in the next round, the second-highest plays the second-lowest, etc. This may be done after each round, or only at selected intervals. In American team sports, for example, the NFL employs this tactic, but MLS , NHL and

1649-435: A random factor is always present in a real-world competition, this might easily cause accusations of unfairness. Variations of the single-elimination tournament include: Other common tournament types include: Frank Whitcombe Frank William Whitcombe (29 May 1913 – 17 January 1958), also known by the nickname of "The Big Man" , was a Welsh rugby union , and professional rugby league footballer who played in

1746-444: A scrum missing his head by inches. Immediately Whitcombe stood up from the scrum and confronted his reckless action. He ran towards Arthur with both fists clenched Whitcombe drove the full force of his 18 stone frame in to Arthur Clues chest and pole-axed him. Clues could not get his breath and for ten minutes received emergency medical attention in front of the 17,000 Odsal crowd. Before the referee could send Whitcombe off, Whitcombe

1843-539: A test series in Australia. The tour was historic as it was the first major event in any sport after the war ended. The Australian government made a personal plea to the British parliament to enable the tour to go ahead, as it wanted to lift the morale of its people, struggling to come to terms with the tragedy of the war. At that time Royal Navy vessels were the only way to travel, but the team managed to secure berths and made

1940-566: A trial match for the upcoming inter services. He then won his first cap on the winning Army Rugby Union team against the Royal Navy 11–8, on 2 March, in a famous victory with the Army team having only 13 players, due to injury for most of the match. His fellow prop was the England captain Douglas Kendrew who was one of the players who had to leave the field injured after only 15 minutes. Then on

2037-511: A two-year contract at £600 per season as player-coach plus costs of transport and a lucrative job (based on increases in average earnings, this would be approximately £59,340 in 2016). Whitcombe signed the two-year contract with St George, however on his return to Bradford the family decided to stay in Yorkshire. On 21 July the touring party left Australia for the New Zealand leg of the tour over

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2134-674: Is 1 v 8, 2 v 7, 3 v 6 and 4 v 5, for example this is used for 16 seeds in the World Snooker Championship and 32 seeds in the World Darts Championship . Some tournaments stray from this, for example it is not the procedure that is followed in most tennis tournaments, where the 1 and 2 seeds are placed in separate brackets, but then the 3 and 4 seeds are assigned to their brackets randomly, and so too are seeds 5 through 8, and so on. This may result in some brackets consisting of stronger players than other brackets, and since only

2231-459: Is believed that up to 120,000 spectators were present to see Warrington defeat Halifax 8–4. The first final that was played under limited tackle rules (Originally 4, later changed to 6) Was the 1967 final between Barrow and Featherstone Rovers. Wigan became well known for their successes in the Challenge Cup competition, winning every Challenge Cup Final from 1988 to 1995. Until the 1993–94 season there were very few amateur clubs included in

2328-533: Is first - for example, if sorting the numbers 1-4 ascending, if 4 and 3 meet in the first round, 3 and 1 will lose in the first round and 2 will lose in the second, selecting 4 as the largest number in the set, but insufficient comparisons have been performed to determine which is greater, 1 or 3. Despite this, the candidate that loses in the final round is commonly considered to have taken second place (in this case, 2). When matches are held to determine places or prizes lower than first and second, these typically include

2425-500: Is open to all eligible clubs down to Tier 5 . Some amateur clubs have to qualify to enter in Round One while others can apply through the RFL to enter. The final is traditionally played at Wembley Stadium although it has been played at other venues Wembley is seen as the home of the competition. " Abide with Me ", sung before the game, has become a rugby league anthem. The current holders of

2522-507: Is rare in English itself, with noticeable use in American debate tournaments. The round before the round of sixteen is sometimes called round of thirty-two in English. Terms for this in other languages generally translate as "sixteenth final". Earlier rounds are typically numbered counting forwards from the first round, or by the number of remaining competitors. If some competitors get a bye ,

2619-485: Is the best in the game", (based on increases in average earnings, this would be approximately £141,700 in 2016). After turning professional, Whitcombe went on to win his first cap for Wales while at Broughton Rangers, and further caps following his move to Bradford Northern . Between 1938 and 1948 Whitcombe won 14 caps. His first cap for Wales was in their 17–9 victory over England on 10 November 1938 at Stebonheath Park , Llanelli 's football ground. The Welsh team

2716-519: Is the wit as well as the heavy-weight of the team. He turns the scales at over 18st. And opposing forwards really know they have been in a game after 80 minutes with him. But as a boy in Cardiff, where he was born in 1913, Frank was a full back. He turned to the pack after joining the Army. He played 27 times for the Army team and won a Welsh international trial. In 1935 Broughton Rangers signed him and he gained his first Welsh Rugby league International cap

2813-421: The 1980 edition . Sometimes, contests are also held among the losers of the quarterfinal matches to determine fifth to eighth places. In one scenario, two "consolation semifinal" matches may be conducted, with the winners of these then facing off to determine fifth and sixth places and the losers playing for seventh and eighth; those are used often in qualifying tournaments where only the top five teams advance to

2910-599: The Lance Todd Trophy was introduced and awarded to the man of the match. The first winner was Billy Stott of Wakefield Trinity while the first winner of the trophy on the losing team was Frank Whitcombe of Bradford Northern in 1948. In itself, it is a prestigious trophy presented only at the Challenge Cup Final. The winner is selected by the members of the Rugby League Writers' Association present at

3007-629: The Melbourne newspaper 'The Truth'. Despite the damage the Australian and Great Britain forwards had inflicted on each other only hours before after the third Test, Ken Gee , Joe Egan , Whitcombe, Ike Owens , Arthur Clues , 'Bumper' Farrell and Noel Mulligan drank heartily together at The Dolphin Hotel in Surry Hills until the early hours of next morning. Fellow tourist Trevor Foster said of Whitcombe. "He

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3104-588: The Middlesex Sevens on Saturday 27 April 1935 for London Welsh losing 3–10 to Harlequins . The following week Whitcombe returned to Cardiff to play in the Welsh final trial On 25 July 1933, in Cardiff, Whitcombe married Doris May ( née Bryan) who lived at 15 Sussex Street also in Grangetown. Whitcombe's father-in-law, Alfie Bryan, was an amateur boxing trainer who worked in the gym with Jim Driscoll . Whitcombe had

3201-562: The NBA do not (and neither does the NCAA college basketball tournament ). Although MLB does have enough teams (12) in its playoff tournament where re-seeding would have made a large difference in the matchups; only the WNBA's at the minimum, which is at least four from each conference for a total of 8. The NBA's format calls for the winner of the first-round series between the first and eighth seeds (within each of

3298-491: The Palace of Westminster with motorists bellowing and waving fists at our bus. Frank, with a huge smile sailed away to get us to Wembley bang on time". A personal record came in the 1948–49 Challenge Cup Final when, just 29 days short of his 35th birthday, he became the oldest as well as the heaviest player to play in a Challenge Cup final. Bradford Northern played in five of the six Challenge Cup finals between 1944 and 1949,

3395-683: The Rugby Football Union . The rugby union authorities refused to sanction a nationwide tournament, however, fearing that this would inevitably lead to professionalism. After the schism of 1895 , the northern clubs were free to go ahead, and they started the Northern Rugby Football Union Challenge Cup . In 1896 Fattorini's of Bradford were commissioned to manufacture the Challenge Cup at a cost of just £60. Fattorini's also supplied three-guineas winners' medals then valued at thirty shillings (£1.50). The first competition

3492-506: The 1930s and 1940s. He played rugby union (RU) for Cardiff RFC , London Welsh RFC , Aldershot Services and Army Rugby Union , as a prop , and representative level rugby league (RL) for Great Britain , Rugby League XIII , and Wales , and at club level for Broughton Rangers and Bradford Northern , as a prop . Whitcombe was one of ten children growing up at 52 Wedmore Road in Grangetown . His father Frederick William Whitcombe worked as

3589-632: The 1948–49 season against Dewsbury , fittingly at Odsal in a 10–9 win. Prior to this game Whitcombe shook hands with Ernest Ward on the field so the 19,000 Bradford Northern supporters could say farewell. The Bradford Northern captain described Whitcombe as a great player. During his career at Bradford Northern, Whitcombe played in 18 major finals and league wins, including five Rugby League Challenge Cup finals, five Rugby League Championship play-off finals, won four Yorkshire cups, and won three Yorkshire league titles. In total he made 331 league and cup appearances. On Wednesday 10 November 1948 he played on

3686-524: The 1960s with ITV's World of Sport even showing games as well for a short period. The BBC has been the predominant broadcaster, showing every final live since 1958 (except the 1982 Final Replay shown as highlights). Eddie Waring was the first commentator for BBC coverage. When he retired, commentary was covered by Ray French and he continued to work for the BBC for a number of years, albeit in semi-retirement, with his last Challenge Cup Final in 2008. From 2009,

3783-476: The 2002 Challenge Cup Final. The winners of the cup in looking after the trophy must "follow a certain code of practice," says Collins. When not in a secure cabinet, the trophy must always be in the presence of someone. When the trophy is taken out overnight, somebody must sleep in the same room and if taken in a car there must be two people in attendance. Collins reveals that, "When it went down to France for some Catalans publicity photos, it even had its own seat on

3880-569: The 2024 final. The Challenge Cup has been sponsored since 1980, with the sponsor being able to determine the cup's sponsorship name. There have been eight sponsors with Betfred being the current sponsors. The official rugby ball supplier is Steeden . The most tries scored in a final was 5 scored by Tom Briscoe (Leeds Rhinos v Hull KR in 2015), who also holds the record for most tries in total from one player (7 for Leeds, 2014 – 1, 2015 – 5, 2020 – 1) one ahead of Kevin Iro (6 for Wigan, 1988 – 2, 1989 – 2, 1990 – 2). The first hat trick of tries in

3977-480: The Australian forward with smelling salts to bring him round a still groggy Farrell lashed out at him mistaking him for Whitcombe. He then played in the winning side against Australia 14–5 in the second Test at the Brisbane Exhibition Ground on 6 July 1946 the crowd was 65,000. Great Britain won the 1946 Rugby League Ashes series. Following this game Whitcombe was referred to as "The Steam Roller" by

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4074-434: The BBC include John Inverdale and Steve Rider . The current main hosts (as of 2013) are Mark Chapman and Super League Show presenter Tanya Arnold . From 2012–2021, Sky Sports held the rights for the early rounds with one match each round and two quarter finals; whilst BBC Sport showed two sixth round matches, two quarter finals, both semi-finals and the final. Single-elimination tournament In English ,

4171-494: The Challenge Cup and 30 different teams have appeared in the final. Wigan Warriors hold the record for most wins with 21 and have appeared in 34 finals. In 2007, Catalans Dragons became the first non English team to reach the final but lost to St. Helens . 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 2002, 2011, 2013, 2022, 2024 1999, 2014, 2015, 2020 2007, 2008, 2021 The BBC first covered the final of this competition when Wigan beat Bradford Northern in 1948. At that time though

4268-508: The Challenge Cup are Wigan Warriors , winning the competition for the 21st time, beating Warrington Wolves 18-8 in the 2024 Final on 8 June 2024 at Wembley Stadium . Wigan are the most successful club in the history of the competition, winning the Cup a record 21 times. The clubs that formed the Northern Union had long been playing in local knock-out cup competitions under the auspices of

4365-515: The Lance Todd Trophy that day) had a match winning conversion to take in injury time. But due to the saturated pitch, he miskicked the ball, sending it wide of the posts. Despite a successful career for both club and country, Fox has always been remembered for that one infamous moment. The first player to be sent off in a final was Syd Hynes, for Leeds against Leigh in 1971, for headbutting Alex Murphy. Hynes has always protested his innocence over

4462-549: The RMS Rangitikei on 14 August arriving in Tilbury on 22 September at 10pm, four days late. When the party returned home after the five-month tour they had travelled more than 25,000 nautical miles around the world Great Britain formed a team that relaunched rugby league in a world devastated by World War II . Many regard them as the most famous touring team of all time and who remain the only Great Britain team to be unbeaten in

4559-758: The Rest 13–5. A special jersey was made for this game and given to the players afterwards. All the proceeds from this match where donated to the Kings Silver Jubilee Trust Fund. Despite the efforts of his brother George to persuade him otherwise, an earlier offer, in March 1935 from the Wigan Rugby League Club was turned down by Whitcombe. When a second offer came on 18 September 1935 from the Broughton Rangers rugby league club, Whitcombe accepted. He

4656-604: The arduous journey to Sydney by train, which took five days. There was no sleeping accommodation on board and the train stopped for refreshments at army camps en route with players drawing lots for the right to sleep on the wire-netting luggage racks Whitcombe played in 5 Rugby League Challenge Cup Cup finals; Whitcombe played prop , in three consecutive Wembley Challenge Cup Finals of 1946, 1947, and 1948. The first time any rugby league or Football club had appeared in three consecutive Wembley finals. Wembley Stadium 1947. Teammate Trevor Foster remembered "On our bus journey to

4753-577: The children would sell this to the neighbours, and she would also make sloe gin to sell in the autumn Along with brother George Whitcombe , Frank attended Ninian Park council school in Cardiff . On leaving school at 14 he worked for McNeil's The Coal and later as a van boy with the Great Western Railway . Then after a period of unemployment on 17 January 1931 Whitcombe enlisted as a Sapper (number 1869154) in 38th Field Company, Royal Engineers as

4850-453: The competition, seeding is often used to prevent this. Brackets are set up so that the top two seeds could not possibly meet until the final round (should both advance that far), none of the top four can meet prior to the semifinals, and so on. If no seeding is used, the tournament is called a random knockout tournament. Standard seeding pairs the highest and lowest, then second highest and second lowest and so on, for an 8 seed tournament this

4947-419: The cup, typically two. For part of the 1980s, and the 1992–93 season the cup was solely for professional clubs. The competition was then opened up to large numbers of amateur clubs as part of a deal between the Rugby Football League and British Amateur Rugby League Association over bridging the gap between the professional and amateur leagues. In 1997, a Challenge Cup Plate took place for teams knocked out in

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5044-527: The early rounds of the competition. The final took place at Wembley and was won by Hull Kingston Rovers who beat Hunslet 60–14. The first final that featured use of the Video Referee, for try decisions, was the 1999 final between Leeds Rhinos and London Broncos , which saw the Broncos beaten by a record margin of 52–16 in a Challenge Cup Final. The 1999 Challenge Cup Final was also the last to be played at

5141-570: The final tie, the rugby league authorities voted 13–10 to move to the recently built Wembley Stadium in London, aiming to emulate the FA Cup's success and to put the game on the national stage. The first final held at Wembley was in 1929 when Wigan beat Dewsbury 13–2 in front of a crowd of 41,500. The final was subsequently held at Wembley in 1930 & 31 but switched to Central Park in Wigan in 1932 as Wembley

5238-403: The first non-English team to win the Challenge Cup as they defeated Warrington Wolves 20–14 at Wembley . The modern Challenge Cup has eight rounds prior to the final. Teams are seeded, entering at different stages. The precise format has altered slightly from year to year, however the current format is as follows: During the first round right through to the quarter-finals the cup is hosted at

5335-443: The first two finals; the 1943–44 Challenge Cup Final against Wigan , and the 1944–45 Challenge Cup Final against Huddersfield were played over two-legs, five Bradford Northern players played in all five of these finals, they were; Eric Batten , Vic Darlison , Donald Ward , Ernest Ward , and Frank Whitcombe. On Saturday 30 April 1949 Bradford Northern played Whitehaven . Harry Hornby Managing Director of Bradford Northern had

5432-441: The following season. He has been Wales ' first choice as prop ever since, he played in Australia with Gus Risman 's team and played in the first two tests. Bradford Northern made one of their best moves ever when they signed him from Broughton Rangers . He takes a well earned benefit this season. Following Whitcombe's world record transfer fee of £850 to Bradford Northern in 1938 – Rugby League secretary John Wilson added "He

5529-487: The game and the trophy was presented at a celebratory dinner at the Willows , the home of Salford . The post World War Two Final crowds almost immediately reached capacity at Wembley – which amounted to multiple 90,000 plus crowds. 1954 saw the Challenge Cup final drawn and the replay set the record for a rugby league match attendance. The match was on 5 May and 102,569 was the official attendance at Odsal Stadium, although it

5626-641: The history of the game to win all six major rugby league cups in his career. A quirk of fate here is Arthur Childs also played in the rest team with Whitcombe, a back row forward from Abertillery who also turned professional with the Halifax club. Twenty nine years later Arthur's son, Rodney Childs, and Whitcombe's son, Frank Whitcombe Jr, were the two prop forwards for the North Eastern Counties side against Sir Wilson Whineray 's 5th New Zealand All Blacks team on their tour of Britain in 1964 Wales defeated

5723-457: The incident. Richard Eyres of Widnes was shown a red card for an off the ball elbow on Martin Offiah of Wigan in the 1993 final, and was banned for 6 games as a result. The first final to be decided by golden point was in 2023 with Leigh Leopards scoring a drop goal against Hull KR via Lachlan Lam. 2023 also saw the first occasion of the Women's Challenge Cup final featuring at Wembley Stadium, prior to

5820-499: The losing Bradford Northern side 7–21 to Col Maxwell 's Australian 1948/49 Kangaroo Touring Team. At the end of the season he flew from Ringway Airport to France on Northern's first ever overseas tour on this end of season 'treat' for everybody connected with the club, after the disappointment of losing both Challenge Cup and Championship finals. Bradford Northern played Toulouse Olympique winning 21–17 on 15 May 1948. The following day they beat AS Carcassonne 16–10 The second game

5917-565: The losing side 3–6 to the Royal Air Force on 23 March at Twickenham in a game dominated by the RAF standoff Gus Walker , making the Inter-Services title of 1935 a Triple Tie. While serving in the Army, Whitcombe reached the rank of lance corporal , very few non-commissioned officers made the Army side at this time. Prior to turning professional, Whitcombe played at Twickenham in the final of

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6014-522: The men's final. The 2024 final was known as the Rob Burrow final, with several tributes held to the former Leeds Rhinos player following his death days before the game. Aligned to his former number 7 jersey, the match kicked off at 3.07pm and a minutes applause was held on the seventh minute with all players lining up with Rob burrow shirts prior to kickoff and fans holding up large banners as tribute before kickoff. In total, 26 different clubs have won

6111-399: The next round; or some method of ranking the four quarterfinal losers might be employed, in which case only one round of additional matches would be held among them, the two highest-ranked therein then playing for fifth and sixth places and the two lowest for seventh and eighth. The number of distinct ways of arranging a single-elimination tournament (as an abstract structure, prior to seeding

6208-516: The old Wembley Stadium before the construction of the new Wembley Stadium began in 2003. During this time a variety of venues were used to hold the Final including Twickenham , Murrayfield and the Millennium Stadium . The Challenge Cup Final moved back into the new Wembley Stadium for the 2007 Final . There was a belief that the Challenge Cup final taking place early in the season had led to

6305-429: The only TV transmitter was in London, so fans up North never got to see it. It was another four years before another final was covered when Workington Town beat Featherstone Rovers in 1952. The cup final was not broadcast on TV again until the 1958 final between Wigan and Workington Town since when it has been shown every year. The inception of Grandstand also saw coverage of earlier rounds start to be shown during

6402-414: The opportunity to face every other player/team. Also, if the competitors' performance is variable, that is, it depends on a small, varying factor in addition to the actual strength of the competitors, then not only will it become less likely that the strongest competitor actually wins the tournament, in addition the seeding done by the tournament organizers will play a major part in deciding the winner. As

6499-593: The other. If a small number of teams play in a single elimination tournament, sometimes a consolation bracket is included to allow the eliminated teams to play more than once. This was the format of the Little League World Series until 1992. The format is less suited to games where draws are frequent. In chess , each fixture in a single-elimination tournament must be played over multiple matches, because draws are common , and because white has an advantage over black. In association football , games ending in

6596-525: The plane." The Lance Todd Trophy, named in memory of Lance Todd , is awarded to the man-of-the-match in the Challenge Cup Final. The winner is decided each year by those members of the Rugby League Writers' Association present at the match. The Trophy was first presented in 1946 to William "Billy" Stott of Wakefield Trinity . The current holder of the trophy is Bevan French of the Wigan Warriors following their victory over Warrington Wolves in

6693-583: The players into the tournament) is given by the Wedderburn–Etherington numbers . Thus, for instance, there are three different arrangements for five players: However, the number of arrangements grows quickly for larger numbers of players and not all of them are commonly used. Opponents may be allocated randomly (such as in the FA Cup); however, since the "luck of the draw" may result in the highest-rated competitors being scheduled to face each other early in

6790-418: The present day main commentator is Dave Woods . He usually commentates with Brian Noble , Jonathan Davies , Iestyn Harris or Ian Millward . Nowadays, the BBC continues to broadcast the tournament with Clare Balding hosting from 2006 to 2012 until her move to Channel 4 Racing. Mark Chapman was secondary host in 2012 when Balding was unavailable for the cup and international matches, and previous hosts for

6887-421: The quickest Challenge Cup Final try after just 35 seconds for St Helens against Leeds in 1972. The most famous final was the 1968 'Watersplash' game between Leeds and Wakefield Trinity. Due to a heavy thunderstorm both before and during the match, the pitch became totally waterlogged. In the final minute, with Leeds 11 – 7 in front, Wakefield winger Ken Hurst scored under the posts, and Don Fox (Who had already won

6984-571: The regular season (or did not take place, in some cases). In international fencing competitions, it is common to have a group stage . Participants are divided in groups of 6–7 fencers who play a round-robin tournament, and a ranking is calculated from the consolidated group results. Single elimination is seeded from this ranking. The single-elimination format enables a relatively large number of competitors to participate. There are no "dead" matches (perhaps excluding "classification" matches), and no matches where one competitor has more to play for than

7081-446: The round at which they enter may be named the first round , with the earlier matches called a preliminary round , qualifying round , opening round , or the play-in games . Examples of the diverse names given to concurrent rounds in various select disciplines: Notes: The knockout round of the 2002 FIFA World Cup tournament: Without any additional matches, the only position a single-elimination tournament can reliably determine

7178-514: The round in which only eight competitors remain is generally called (with or without hyphenation) the quarter-final round; this is followed by the semi-final round, in which only four are left, the two winners of which then meet in the final or championship round . The round before the quarterfinals has multiple designations. Often it is called the round of sixteen , last sixteen , or (in South Asia) pre-quarterfinals . In many other languages

7275-399: The same division, they cannot play each other; in that case, the top seed plays the worst division champion; the second-best division champion plays the wild card team. This is due to the scheduling employed for the regular season, in which a team faces any given divisional opponent more often than any given non-divisional opponent – the tournament favors match-ups that took place fewer times in

7372-488: The second Great Britain try in the 8–8 drawn first test at the Sydney Cricket Ground on 17 June in front of a crowd of 64,527. This game was dubbed the 'Commando Test' due to the brutal exchanges in the first test. Shortly before Great Britain centre Jack Kitching was sent off, Whitcombe 'King Hit' his opposite Aussie prop Frank 'Bumper' Farrell . When an unfortunate St. John Ambulance man ran on to administer

7469-454: The silver wearing thin, it had lost its fluted top and the players on each of the handles had been damaged. The original Fattorini trophy was last presented at the 2001 Challenge Cup Final to St Helens captain Chris Joynt after his team had beaten Bradford . The original trophy is now stored at the RFL's headquarters at Red Hall and only used for promotional appearances. The trophy used today

7566-434: The stadium of the team who has been drawn at home. The semi finals are hosted at neutral venues so there is no advantage for the home team. The final is played at Wembley traditionally, having first been played there in 1929 . Before, the final had been held in different neutral venues, mostly in the north of England. The first Challenge Cup final was held at Headingley , Leeds between Batley and St. Helens in front of

7663-404: The stadium we were caught up in a traffic jam and running late. The driver was in a state of panic, it could have been something to do with him not being sure of the route through London. Much to our amusement the great character, Frank Whitcombe, took over the driver's seat and proceeded to bypass all traffic in front and put his foot on the pedals. We sailed through the centre of the big city. Past

7760-1007: The term for these eight matches translates to eighth-final (e.g., in these European languages: "huitième de finale" in French , "achtste finale" in Dutch, octavos de final in Spanish , Achtelfinale in German , åttondelsfinal in Swedish , ottavi di finale in Italian , oitavos-de-final in Portuguese , optimi de finală in Romanian , osmifinále in Czech , osemfinále in Slovak , and osmina finala in Serbo-Croatian ), though this term

7857-468: The top 32 players of 128 are seeded in Tennis Grand Slam tournaments, it can happen that the 33rd-best player in a 128-player field could end up playing the top seed in the first round. An example of this occurring was when World No. 33 Florian Mayer was drawn against, and defeated by, World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the first round of the 2013 Wimbledon Championships , in what was also a rematch of

7954-470: The tournament. In a single-elimination tournament without any seeding, awarding the second place to the loser of the final is unjustified: any of the competitors knocked out before getting to play the losing finalist might have been stronger than the actual losing finalist. In general, it is only fair to use a single-elimination tournament to determine first place. To fairly determine lower places requires some form of round-robin in which each player/team gets

8051-650: The trip aboard the aircraft carrier, the touring party stoked the boilers to keep fit on board HMS  Indomitable , from where the nickname came. The journey took almost six weeks to make the journey. The ship was instructed to leave the Great Britain party in Perth and then divert to Singapore to collect injured prisoners who had been incarcerated in Changi jail during the Japanese occupation. The tourists were then forced to complete

8148-438: The two conferences the league has) to face the winner of the first-round series between the fourth and fifth seeds in the next round, even if one or more of the top three seeds had been upset in their first-round series; critics have claimed that this gives a team fighting for the fifth and sixth seeding positions near the end of the regular season an incentive to tank (deliberately lose) games, so as to finish sixth and thus avoid

8245-433: The wing for Wales was Arthur Bassett of Aberavon , who would also become Whitcombe's teammate for Great Britain. Bassett famously scored a hat-trick of tries in Great Britain's Ashes clinching victory over Australia at Brisbane in 1946. In The Rest side with Whitcombe on the wing was Alan Edwards of Aberavon, also a future Bradford Northern and Wales teammate. Edwards has the distinction of being one of only five players in

8342-597: Was also the first time the Bradford club had played on a Sunday. Whitcombe was included in Bradford Bulls Millennium Masters. Harry Hornby, the Chairman, and financial power behind Bradford Northern in those days paid a world record fee for Whitcombe. Whitcombe was a hard player during an era when the game was at its toughest. His rivalry with the great Australian and New South Wales second-row i.e. number 11 or 12, Arthur Clues who played for Leeds

8439-595: Was an outstanding player on the 1946 Indomitables tour, scoring tries and was the best forward in the scrum. He took on the Aussie pack on his own and was genuinely feared by the Australians. It took sometimes three and often four men to get him down in the tackle. He was strong and fearless". Whitcombe's performances on tour attracted the attention of the Sydney based club, St. George . Club official Jack Moggridge offered Whitcombe

8536-428: Was around £2 per week which suggests an equivalent 2007 price of £16,000, although Collins says, "if you wanted something made of silver and with that level of craftsmanship these days, it would be far more expensive. In terms of its subsequent value, the RFL got a bargain." The trophy currently presented to the winners after the final is not the original which had to be withdrawn due to its delicate condition. As well as

8633-587: Was cancelled due to the outbreak of the Second World War . However he won two caps for Great Britain while at Bradford Northern in 1946 against Australia on the famous "Indomitables" tour. On tour Whitcombe did not start the first game against Southern Districts, but then played nine successive matches including the Queensland game in Brisbane , and the two games against New South Wales in Sydney . He scored

8730-497: Was captained by the record points scorer Jim Sullivan . Whitcombe's second cap against France away in Bordeaux in front of a crowd of 25,000 on 16 April 1939 resulting in a 16–10 defeat for Wales. Wales finished runners-up in the 1938–39 European Champions . His last game was against Australia on 20 November 1948 at St. Helens Swansea ; Australia won 12–5. Whitcombe was selected for the Great Britain tour to Australia in 1940 which

8827-488: Was created by Jack Spencer ( goldsmith ) of Sheffield in 800 man-hours and is an almost exact replica of the Fattorini piece. One improvement made with the new version is that the small shields displaying each winning team and captain are now the same size, whereas they had been getting smaller as space ran out on the original. The new trophy's neck has been strengthened. The second trophy was first presented to Wigan, winners of

8924-508: Was held during the 1896–97 season (the second season of the new game), and 52 clubs entered to compete for the trophy. The first final was held at Headingley in Leeds , on 24 April 1897. Batley defeated St. Helens 10–3 in front of a crowd of 13,492 ( see picture ). The St Helens side did not play in a standardised team jersey. The competition was later interrupted by the Great War , although it

9021-546: Was held in 1915, when the season that had begun before the war was completed. It was then suspended until the end of hostilities. Initially, the final tie was held at one of the larger club grounds in the north, however, noting the excitement in Huddersfield that the town's football team were playing at Wembley in the FA Cup Final and the increasing difficulty for any of the rugby league grounds to satisfy spectator demand to see

9118-552: Was legendary. Clues was the first Australian to join an English club after World War II . Their confrontations on the field during the Bradford Northern v Leeds local derby games are part of rugby league folklore. Trevor Foster recalled an incident after Bradford Northern's 8–4 victory over Leeds in the 1946–47 Challenge Cup Final, ironically against Leeds in a fierce fought 11–9 Yorkshire cup tie win. Clues kicked out violently at Bradford Northern scrum-half Gwylfa Jones at

9215-489: Was not booked by the games administrators. At the start of the Second World War , rugby league suspended its season immediately, but the Challenge Cup took a single year's break before restarting, on a limited basis and with the support of the authorities, as part of keeping up morale. The Challenge Cup finals, which took place in the game's Northern heartland, got big crowds as the game raised money for prisoners of war and for Lord Beaverbrook 's armaments programme. In 1946,

9312-687: Was now the Broughton Rangers fullback , Howells was also a professional Lancashire League cricketer . Whitcombe's new club provided him with a job as a zookeeper at Belle Vue Zoological Gardens where Rangers played at the Belle Vue Stadium inside the motorcycle speedway track. At this time Belle Vue was the leisure centre for North West England. Whitcombe made his début against Swinton at home on 19 October 1935 and played his last game for Broughton Rangers against St. Helens away on 17 December 1938. During his career at Rangers he played in

9409-435: Was paid £100 for his services along with two new suits . Of his signing fee, £90 was to buy him out of the Army , leaving him £10 to start a new life at 5 Cawdor Road, Fallowfield , a suburb of Manchester , with his young family. Whitcombe shared his house with former Llanelli RFC and Wales rugby union player, Bryn Howells , who like Whitcombe had made the decision to 'Go north' and seek a better life for their families. He

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