2006 Challenge Cup

The 2006 Challenge Cup (also known as the Powergen Challenge Cup due to sponsorship from Powergen) was the Xth tournament played for rugby league's Challenge Cup. It features teams from across Europe including England, Scotland, Wales, France and Russia.

The competition started in January 2006 with the preliminary round where the Gloucestershire Warriors from the Rugby League Conference surprised an established Pennine League team in Illingworth. The final was scheduled to be played at the new Wembley Stadium but in March 2006 it became apparent that the stadium would not be ready for the final on 26 August so it was switched to Twickenham.

In the final St. Helens proved too strong for the Huddersfield Giants, winning by 42 points to 12. It was Huddersfield's first final since 1953, when they also faced St Helens.

Round 1

Sees the introduction of the major amateur clubs from the National Conference League and the teams from National League 3

Round 2

Round 3

Round 3 sees the introduction of the National League 1 and 2 teams and teams from France and Russia. Amateurs Thornhill Trojans provided the first surprise result by beating national 2 team Workington Town. Late season snow caused a number of postponements on the Sunday.

Challenge Cup

The Challenge Cup is a knockout cup competition for rugby league clubs organised by the Rugby Football League. Originally it was contested only by British teams but in recent years has been expanded to allow teams from France and Russia to take part.

It has been held annually since 1896, with the exception of much of the 1914-18 Great War (1915–16 to 1918-19) and the start of the Second World War in 1939–1940 season, and involves amateur, semi-professional and professional clubs. For the 2013 competition, 96 teams entered the tournament.

The final of the Challenge Cup is one of the most prestigious matches in world rugby league, and is traditionally held at Wembley Stadium, London. Despite London not being an area traditionally associated with rugby league, the final receives a lot of mainstream media coverage and is broadcast to many different countries around the world. Traditionally, "Abide with Me" is sung before the game, and has become something of a rugby league anthem.

1996 Challenge Cup

The 1996 Challenge Cup was the 95th staging of the Challenge Cup tournament. Known as the Silk Cut Challenge Cup due to sponsorship from Silk Cut, it was the first Challenge Cup of the summer era. The tournament featured 40 teams playing 42 games, the culmination of which was the final at London's Wembley Stadium between English Super League I teams St Helens and Bradford Bulls.

Prize money

The following is a table of prize amounts received by each club depending on which round of the Challenge Cup was reached. No prizes were awarded in the first two rounds of the competition, but amateur clubs who reached the Third Round each received £1,000.

First round

Second round

Third round

Fourth round

Fifth round

Quarter Final

Semi finals

Final

The 1996 tournament's final featured English Super League clubs St Helens and Bradford Bulls, and was played on Saturday, 26 April at London's Wembley Stadium before a crowd of 78,550. The match was refereed by Stuart Cummings and at half time Bradford led 14-12. Trailing 26-12 from the 53rd to the 57th minute, St Helens overcame this 14-point deficit, the biggest in Challenge Cup final history for a winning team, to prevail by 40-32. This also made it the highest-scoring Challenge Cup final in history.

1979 Challenge Cup

The 1979 Challenge Cup was a series of international ice hockey games between the Soviet Union national ice hockey team and a team of All-Stars from the National Hockey League. The games were played on February 8, 10, and 11 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. It replaced the NHL's all-star festivities for the 1978–79 NHL season. The Soviets defeated the NHL All-Stars 2 games to 1.

The team of All-Stars from the National Hockey League included 23 Canadians and 3 Swedish players. Bobby Orr commenting in the post-game interviews after Game 2, accidentally called the NHL All-Stars "Team Canada" (because of the amount of Canadians on the roster). The Challenge Cup, unlike its predecessor, the Summit Series, included non-Canadian born players in the NHL rosters.

The Soviets were accustomed to the wider European ice-rinks, but by the third game they had gotten used to the smaller Madison Square Garden rink. Instead of shooting the puck into offensive zone and chasing after it, the player with the puck played it sideways to a player skating from behind with speed. This way of entering the offensive zone was a typical sign of Russian ice hockey during the period from approximately 1965 until 1985. It didn't always work as it was supposed to.