Halifax 8-3 Warrington — 1903/04 Challenge Cup Final

The Willows, Salford · Attendance: 17,041

Data last verified: 11 August 2026.

1903/04 Challenge Cup Final: Halifax 8-3 Warrington, at The Willows, Salford.

Sourcing caveat: Try scorers, goal-kickers, and referee could not be confirmed from available sources. Both line-ups here are partial, pieced together from individual player biography pages on Wikipedia (each confirms this specific final by date/score/venue and states the player's position) — no source found lists a full XIII for either side. Shirt numbers are not confirmed by any source for this era (squad numbering wasn't standard until the 1930s), so "UNCONFIRMED" is used throughout rather than assuming a modern numbering convention.

Scorers

HalifaxNo scorers recorded.
WarringtonNo scorers recorded.

Teams

HalifaxWarrington
UNCONFIRMEDBilly LittleFullbackGeorge DickensonUNCONFIRMED

Match officials

Referee—

Match report

Halifax retained the Challenge Cup, beating Warrington 8-3 at The Willows, Salford on 30 April 1904, completing back-to-back titles. This closer contest followed the previous year's more comfortable 7-0 win over Salford. The Rugby League Challenge Cup is rugby league's oldest and most prestigious knockout competition, first contested in 1896/97 under what was then the Northern Union. Its history has been interrupted only by the two World Wars, with four editions lost between 1915/16 and 1918/19 and one more in 1939/40; the finals played either side of those gaps, and during the Second World War itself, were sometimes contested as regional or two-legged fixtures under wartime emergency arrangements rather than the usual single showpiece match. For much of the competition's early history the final rotated around northern club and representative grounds such as Headingley, Fartown, Central Park and the Athletic Ground, Rochdale, before Wembley Stadium became the final's permanent home from 1928/29 onward (with a short break during Wembley's 2000-2007 reconstruction, when finals were staged at Murrayfield, Twickenham and the Millennium Stadium instead). This was the 8th Challenge Cup final played, and, under the name “Halifax,” the 2nd Challenge Cup title for the club. The result is recorded in this site's full results table alongside every other Challenge Cup final played since the competition's 1896/97 inception, cross-referenced against the venue and attendance figures gathered for that table. As with all of this site's rugby league match reports, any statistic that couldn't be confirmed from an accessible source — a scorer's name, an exact minute, a goal-kicking split — has been left out entirely rather than estimated, in line with the sourcing standard applied across the Challenge Cup, World Cup, World Club Challenge and domestic finals coverage on this site. The Challenge Cup final has long been treated as rugby league's flagship one-off occasion, drawing media and public attention that regularly outstrips any single regular-season league fixture, a status it has held for the entire span of the competition's history covered by this page.

Round by round

Qualifying Round

ResultVenueAttendanceDate
Birkenhead 6–0 Marsh HornetsPark Station—1904-03-05
Bramley 15–8 Hebden BridgeHanson Lane—1904-03-05
Brighouse Rangers 6–0 OtleyLane Head—1904-03-05
Brookland Rovers 2–0 Maryport——1904-03-05
Castleford 5–5 YorkHunt's Field—1904-03-05
Dewsbury 18–10 BeverleyCrown Flatt—1904-03-05
Holbeck 11–0 Outwood ChurchElland Road—1904-03-05
Lancaster 0–0 MorecambeQuay Meadow—1904-03-05
Millom 7–8 PartonSalthouse—1904-03-05
Normanton 2–20 Wakefield TrinityHorsfalls—1904-03-05
Pontefract 21–2 South ShieldsPark Avenue—1904-03-05
Rochdale Athletic 6–28 Rochdale HornetsAthletic Ground—1904-03-05
Roose 0–34 Barrow——1904-03-05
St Helens 48–5 Wigan HighfieldKnowsley Road—1904-03-05
Morecambe 4–13 LancasterMoss Lane—1904-03-09
York 2–0 CastlefordWigginton Road—1904-03-09

Round 1

ResultVenueAttendanceDate
Barrow 10–10 BramleyCavendish Park—1904-03-12
Batley 5–0 OldhamMount Pleasant—1904-03-12
Brookland Rovers 0–57 SalfordNew Barnes—1904-03-12
Dewsbury 0–15 HunsletCrown Flatt—1904-03-12
Halifax 15–0 St HelensThrum Hall—1904-03-12
Holbeck 17–0 BirkenheadElland Road—1904-03-12
Huddersfield 0–7 WiganFartown—1904-03-12
Hull Kingston Rovers 2–3 LeedsCraven Street—1904-03-12
Hull FC 9–0 WidnesThe Boulevard—1904-03-12
Lancaster 0–8 KeighleyQuay Meadow—1904-03-12
Parton 0–26 Broughton RangersWheater's Field—1904-03-12
Pontefract 0–0 Brighouse RangersPark Avenue—1904-03-12
Rochdale Hornets 3–10 LeighAthletic Ground—1904-03-12
Runcorn 0–0 Wakefield TrinityCanal Street—1904-03-12
Swinton 0–0 WarringtonChorley Road—1904-03-12
York 0–8 BradfordWigginton Road—1904-03-12
Bramley 7–7 BarrowHanson Lane—1904-03-16
Brighouse Rangers 0–2 PontefractLane Head—1904-03-16
Wakefield Trinity 5–7 RuncornBelle Vue—1904-03-16
Warrington 20–0 SwintonWilderspool—1904-03-16
Bramley 3–14 BarrowHanson Lane—1904-03-17

Round 2

ResultVenueAttendanceDate
Barrow 6–11 HalifaxCavendish Park—1904-03-19
Broughton Rangers 11–0 RuncornWheater's Field—1904-03-19
Holbeck 0–9 BradfordElland Road—1904-03-19
Hull FC 5–23 SalfordThe Boulevard—1904-03-19
Leeds 13–0 KeighleyHeadingley—1904-03-19
Leigh 0–8 HunsletMather Lane—1904-03-19
Pontefract 9–3 BatleyPark Avenue—1904-03-19
Warrington 3–0 WiganWilderspool—1904-03-19

Round 3

ResultVenueAttendanceDate
Broughton Rangers 0–0 BradfordWheater's Field—1904-04-02
Halifax 8–2 LeedsThrum Hall—1904-04-02
Pontefract 4–10 WarringtonPark Avenue—1904-04-02
Salford 2–5 HunsletWeaste—1904-04-02
Bradford 0–0 Broughton RangersPark Avenue—1904-04-05
Bradford 15–0 Broughton RangersHeadingley—1904-04-08

Semi-Final

ResultVenueAttendanceDate
Halifax 7–2 HunsletBelle Vue210001904-04-16
Warrington 3–3 BradfordWheater's Field130001904-04-16
Bradford 0–8 WarringtonFartown100001904-04-20

Final

ResultVenueAttendanceDate
Halifax 8–3 WarringtonThe Willows (Weaste), Salford170411904-04-30

Early rounds feature amateur and community clubs alongside professional ones; team names are linked only where this site has a team page for that exact club, matching the same safety-first approach used for the Final's own results table.

Sources

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