Leeds 7-7 (drawn; replay 26-12) Hull FC — 1909/10 Challenge Cup Final

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Match report

This was rugby league's first-ever drawn Challenge Cup Final: Leeds and Hull FC finished 7-7 at Fartown, Huddersfield on 16 April 1910, with Hull leading 7-2 at half-time on George Cottrell's try before Walter Goldthorpe's try and a Frank Young goal levelled it late on; Ned Rogers had a last-gasp try claim controversially denied for Hull. In the replay two days later at the same venue, Leeds took full control, racing to a 16-0 half-time lead and winning 26-12 with four tries (Harold Rowe, Walter Goldthorpe, Fred Webster, Harry Topham) and seven goals from Frank Young, while Hull, missing several key players including the injured Stanley Britton, mounted only a late rally through George Connell and Harry Walton. It was Leeds' first Challenge Cup win in their first final appearance, while Hull suffered a third consecutive final defeat. 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 14th Challenge Cup final played, and, under the name “Leeds,” the 1st Challenge Cup title for the club.

Round by round

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

• 1909–10 Challenge Cup — Wikipedia
• On This Day: Hull Send 1910 Cup Final To Replay
• Jim Devereux — Wikipedia
• RugbyLeagueProject
• RugbyLeagueProject Round 1
• RugbyLeagueProject Final Replay