The Rugby League Challenge Cup started life as the Northern Union Challenge Cup in 1897. The competition was re-named the Rugby League Challenge Cup in 1922 when the Northern Union became Rugby Football League. Over the years the format of the competition has changed a number of times, but apart the 1993 and 1994 competitions, there have always been junior/amateur clubs included in the first or preliminary round draw.
The first Northern Union Challenge Cup had forty clubs taking part. There were twenty five from the semi – professional Senior Competition’s in Lancashire and Yorkshire and fifteen junior clubs that were honorary members of the Northern Union. For the first two years of the Cup none of the junior clubs managed to beat their senior opponents. It was the 1899 competition that saw the first ‘giant killers’ when Normanton beat Holbeck. Over the next ten years Normanton’s feat in 1899 was replicated every year apart from in 1905. However, following Beverley’s victory against Ebbw Vale in 1909, there would then be a gap of thirty seven years before a junior club would again manage to beat a senior club. In 1946 Sharlston Rovers beat Workington Town by 12 points to 7. Unfortunately, Sharlston didn’t progress to the next round as, in the immediate post war years, the first round was played over two legs and Workington beat Sharlston in the second leg by 16 points to 2. The same fate befell Risehow and Gillhead in 1948 when they beat Keighley in the second leg of their first round game by 10 points to 2, but the eight point margin of victory wasn’t sufficient to overturn Keighley’s 11 points to 0 win in the first leg. After Risehow and Gillhead forty seven years would elapse before there was another ‘giant killing’ act when in 1995 Beverley defeated Highfield.
The names of some of the ‘giant killers’ in the list below will be familiar to followers of rugby league as many of those clubs are still in existence and playing in the Community competitions. Two ‘giant killers’ from the first decade of the Twentieth Century Featherstone Rovers and Whitehaven Recreation are also familiar names. However, although there are Featherstone and Whitehaven clubs playing in the professional competition today, in the early years of the Twentieth century both were junior clubs.
The 'giant killers' are highlighted in bold
