Sourcing caveat: The try-scorer list and Lewis Jones's goal tally do not fully reconcile arithmetically with the 9-7 scoreline, so the exact points breakdown for Leeds should be treated as approximate. Leeds' full starting XIII was found on the club's own timeline page and lines up with the tries/goals already recorded above (Quinn, Hodgkinson, Jones). Barrow's lineup could not be found in any accessible source — Rugby League Project's page for this match has no team-sheet data entered, and no other source located lists Barrow's XIII — so only the Leeds lineup is included. This was a pre-substitute-era final, so no interchange field applies. Second-pass note: raw-wikitext fetching of the Wikipedia article itself was not testable in this environment (en.wikipedia.org only serves cached, canonical /wiki/ article pages here — any query-string or action=raw URL to that domain is rejected outright as 'cache-only', before even reaching Wikipedia), and a direct fetch of the rendered /wiki/ page itself reproducibly drops the team-sheet's player-name cells (positions/numbers come through, names don't) — the same gap noted elsewhere in this file. Wikiwand (a Wikipedia mirror) did successfully return full lineups for three other seasons in this file on the first attempt each, but returned a 403 on every one of roughly a dozen attempts made specifically for this season across a 20+ minute span, so it could not be used here this pass; it remains worth retrying for Barrow's lineup specifically in a future attempt. Third-pass note (30 Aug 2026): Wikiwand was tried again first, via both https://www.wikiwand.com/en/articles/1956%E2%80%9357_Challenge_Cup and the legacy wiki2.org mirror, with waits of roughly 20s/90s/100s/115s/115s between successive attempts across this session — every attempt returned a 403 throughout, unlike the brief-window rate-limiting described for earlier passes, so it could not be used this time either. This session's web-search quota was also already exhausted before this pass began, ruling out a fresh source hunt. Barrow's lineup remains omitted; no fabricated names were added. Fourth-pass note (30 Aug 2026): Wikiwand again 403'd on every attempt (as for every other season in this file this pass), but individual-player Wikipedia biographies — searched and fetched directly, since WebFetch stayed usable after this session's WebSearch budget was hit partway through the pass — confirmed three individual Barrow positions for this match: Phil Jackson (right-centre, scored a try — matching the 'Jack Jackson' try already recorded above; 'Jack' appears to be a period nickname for Phil Jackson, though that identification is not itself sourced and should be treated as likely rather than certain), Frank Castle (wing, no try recorded), and Bill Healey (loose forward). Willie Horne's own Wikipedia page confirms he 'played in Barrow's 7-9 defeat by Leeds' in this final but does not state his position for this specific match (he was Barrow's regular stand-off and captain in this era generally), so he is not added as a positionally-confirmed player here. Separately, Don Robinson's Wikipedia biography states HE played second-row for LEEDS in this exact match and scored a try there — apparently a different 'Don Robinson' from the Barrow try-scorer already recorded above in team2_tries (Leeds' own confirmed lineup above already lists a 'D. Robinson' at second-row), a naming collision worth flagging rather than silently resolving. With only three of Barrow's thirteen positions confirmed (a centre, a wing, and the loose forward), that is still short of a sourced full XIII, so no team2_lineup field is added, per this file's no-guessing policy; a full Barrow lineup remains outstanding for a future pass.
Scorers
Leeds
Tries: Pat Quinn (first half); Del Hodgkinson (early second half) Goals: Lewis Jones (goals kicked, exact number unconfirmed)
Barrow
Tries: Don Robinson (second half); Jack Jackson (second half) Goals: Horne (1 goal, plus 1 penalty)
Teams
Leeds
Barrow
Match officials
Referee
C. F. Appleton (Warrington)
Lance Todd Trophy
Jeff Stevenson (Leeds, scrum-half) — Lance Todd Trophy
Match report
Leeds recorded their seventh Challenge Cup final win in nine appearances, with scrum-half Jeff Stevenson taking the Lance Todd Trophy. Pat Quinn opened the scoring by pouncing at the play-the-ball, and Del Hodgkinson extended Leeds' lead early in the second half. Barrow fought back through a Don Robinson try and Jack Jackson's score, cutting the gap to two points. The tension continued to the last minute, when Barrow's John Rea opted to kick rather than pass in a promising attacking position, a decision that arguably cost Barrow the 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). Since 1946/47, the competition's individual award, the Lance Todd Trophy, has been presented to the final's outstanding player, voted for by a panel of media representatives at the final whistle — on several notable occasions the trophy has gone to a player on the losing side, an unusual honour that reflects the award's focus on individual performance rather than simply reflecting the final scoreline. This was the 56th Challenge Cup final played, and, under the name “Leeds,” the 7th 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.
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.
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