Wakefield Trinity 38-5 Hull FC — 1959/60 Challenge Cup Final

Wembley Stadium, London · Attendance: 79,773

Data last verified: 11 August 2026.

1959/60 Challenge Cup Final: Wakefield Trinity 38-5 Hull FC, at Wembley Stadium, London.

Sourcing caveat: Referee confirmed 10 Sep 2026 via Eric Clay's own Wikipedia biography (he refereed this final, one of two Challenge Cup finals attended by Queen Elizabeth II), directly re-fetched by the assistant, closing a gap left open by an earlier pass. Beyond Fox's own two tries and seven goals, no other individual try scorers or goal kickers could be confirmed for either team. Lineups added on this second pass via Wikiwand (a Wikipedia mirror), after direct en.wikipedia.org fetches of this article again returned a team-sheet template with the player-name cells empty — the same reproducible extraction gap seen on neighbouring seasons in this file; Wikiwand's rendering came through cleanly on the first attempt. Both listed XIIIs line up against data already recorded above: Neil Fox at centre (his two tries/seven goals) and Tommy Harris as Hull's hooker (his Lance Todd Trophy, 'one of the rare instances of the award going to a player on the beaten side'). Position labels are not printed on the Wikiwand page — only shirt numbers 1-13 — so positions below follow this site's standard pre-1966 numbering convention, as elsewhere in this file. Both coaches (Ken Traill for Wakefield Trinity, Roy Francis for Hull FC) were given directly on the same page. This was a pre-substitute-era final, so no interchange field applies.

Scorers

Wakefield Trinity	Tries: Neil Fox (2 tries) Goals: Neil Fox (7 goals)
Hull FC	No scorers recorded.

Teams

Wakefield Trinity			Hull FC
1	Gerry Round	Fullback	Jack Kershaw	1
2	Fred Smith	Wing	Gordon Harrison	2
3	Alan Skene	Centre	Stan Cowan	3
4	Neil Fox	Centre	Nan Halafihi	4
5	John Etty	Wing	Dave Johnson	5
6	Ken Rollin	Stand-off	Frank Broadhurst	6
7	Keith Holliday	Scrum-half	Tommy Finn	7
8	Jack Wilkinson	Prop	Michael Scott	8
9	Geoff Oakes	Hooker	Tommy Harris	9
10	Don Vines	Prop	Sam Evans	10
11	Les Chamberlain	Second-row	Tom Sutton	11
12	Albert Firth	Second-row	Mike Smith	12
13	Derek Turner	Loose forward (c)	Johnny Whiteley	13

Ken Traill		Coach	Roy Francis

Match officials

Referee	Eric Clay
Lance Todd Trophy	Tommy Harris (Hull FC, hooker) — Lance Todd Trophy, one of the rare instances of the award going to a player on the beaten side

Match report

Wakefield Trinity thrashed Hull FC 38-5, with centre Neil Fox producing a Challenge Cup final individual scoring record of 20 points (two tries and seven goals) that stood for decades. Remarkably, the Lance Todd Trophy went not to Fox but to Hull's hooker Tommy Harris. The scale of the win — Wakefield's biggest winning margin in a Wembley final up to that point — reflected Trinity's dominance of the competition in this era, part of a run of three Challenge Cup final wins in four seasons either side of this game. 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 59th Challenge Cup final played, and, under the name “Wakefield Trinity,” the 3rd 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.

Round by round

Jump to round:

Round 1

Result	Venue	Attendance	Date
Barrow 2–8 Whitehaven	Craven Park	—	1960-02-13
Batley 2–5 Keighley	Mount Pleasant	—	1960-02-13
Blackpool Borough 2–10 Leigh	St Anne's Road	—	1960-02-13
Castleford 4–8 Bradford Northern	Wheldon Road	—	1960-02-13
Dewsbury 4–23 Swinton	Crown Flatt	—	1960-02-13
Doncaster 0–15 Rochdale Hornets	Tattersfield	—	1960-02-13
Hunslet 5–9 Wigan	Parkside	—	1960-02-13
Leeds 8–5 Hull Kingston Rovers	Headingley	—	1960-02-13
Liverpool City 3–3 Bramley	Knotty Ash	—	1960-02-13
Oldham 13–11 Huddersfield	Watersheddings	—	1960-02-13
St Helens 10–15 Wakefield Trinity	Knowsley Road	—	1960-02-13
Salford 0–5 Halifax	The Willows	—	1960-02-13
Walney Central 10–5 Lock Lane	Craven Park	—	1960-02-13
Widnes 14–0 Warrington	Naughton Park	—	1960-02-13
Workington Town 0–15 Featherstone Rovers	Derwent Park	—	1960-02-13
York 0–2 Hull FC	Wigginton Road	—	1960-02-13
Bramley 39–0 Liverpool City	Barley Mow	—	1960-02-17

Round 2

Result	Venue	Attendance	Date
Halifax 10–16 Featherstone Rovers	Thrum Hall	—	1960-02-27
Keighley 2–32 Hull FC	Lawkholme Lane	—	1960-02-27
Leigh 8–11 Whitehaven	Hilton Park	—	1960-02-27
Oldham 55–4 Walney Central	Watersheddings	—	1960-02-27
Rochdale Hornets 0–4 Bramley	Athletic Grounds	—	1960-02-27
Swinton 13–9 Bradford Northern	Station Road	—	1960-02-27
Widnes 2–5 Wakefield Trinity	Naughton Park	—	1960-02-27
Wigan 14–11 Leeds	Central Park	—	1960-02-27

Round 3

Result	Venue	Attendance	Date
Hull FC 12–8 Wigan	The Boulevard	—	1960-03-19
Oldham 8–2 Bramley	Watersheddings	—	1960-03-19
Swinton 7–11 Featherstone Rovers	Station Road	—	1960-03-19
Whitehaven 10–21 Wakefield Trinity	Recreation Ground	—	1960-03-19

Semi Final

Result	Venue	Attendance	Date
Oldham 9–12 Hull FC	Station Road, Swinton	27592	1960-04-09
Wakefield Trinity 11–2 Featherstone Rovers	Odsal Stadium, Bradford	55800	1960-04-09

Final

Result	Venue	Attendance	Date
Wakefield Trinity 38–5 Hull FC	Wembley Stadium, London	79773	1960-05-14

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

← All Challenge Cup Finals