Widnes 13-5 Hull Kingston Rovers — 1963/64 Challenge Cup Final

Wembley Stadium, London · Attendance: 84,488

Data last verified: 11 August 2026.

1963/64 Challenge Cup Final: Widnes 13-5 Hull Kingston Rovers, at Wembley Stadium, London.

Sourcing caveat: Try scorers for both teams could not be confirmed — this final has among the thinnest documentation of the era. Second-attempt research (30 Aug 2026): Wikipedia's own rendered-HTML infobox would not yield player names through this environment's fetch tool (a systematic extraction gap affecting this era's finals generally), and raw wikitext (action=raw / Special:Export) is blocked outright for en.wikipedia.org in this environment ('cache-only' domain, no live fetch permitted) — so neither of those routes worked here. The Wikiwand mirror of the same Wikipedia article did render fully, however, and gave both full lineups plus the referee's name above; positions are not stated on that page and are inferred from the standard 1-13 rugby league squad-numbering convention of the era (fullback/wing/centre/centre/wing/stand-off/scrum-half/prop/hooker/prop/second-row/second-row/loose forward), consistent with every other same-era entry in this file. No named reserves/substitutes appear on the Wikiwand page; substitutes were not yet part of the game in this pre-1964/65 season anyway.

Scorers

Widnes	Goals: Randall (2 goals); Kellett (1 goal)
Hull Kingston Rovers	No scorers recorded.

Teams

Widnes			Hull Kingston Rovers
1	Robert Randall	Fullback	Cyril Kellett	1
2	Bobby Chisnall	Wing	Graham Paul	2
3	Alan Briers	Centre	Terry Major	3
4	Frank Myler	Centre	David Elliott	4
5	William Thompson	Wing	Mike Blackmore	5
6	Ged Lowe	Stand-off	Alan Burwell	6
7	Ray Owen	Scrum-half	Arthur Bunting	7
8	Wally Hurstfield	Prop	Brian Tyson	8
9	George Kemel	Hooker	Peter Flanagan	9
10	Frank Collier	Prop	Brian Mennell	10
11	Jim Measures	Second-row	Eric Palmer	11
12	Arthur Hughes	Second-row	Len Clark	12
13	Vince Karalius (c)	Loose forward	Harry Poole (c)	13

Match officials

Referee	R. L. Thomas (Oldham)
Lance Todd Trophy	Frank Collier (Widnes, prop forward) — Lance Todd Trophy

Match report

Widnes beat Hull Kingston Rovers 13-5 at Wembley in front of 84,488 fans, their third Challenge Cup final win in five appearances. Prop forward Frank Collier was named Lance Todd Trophy winner for his display in the front row. Widnes's goal-kicking was shared between Randall and Kellett. 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 63rd Challenge Cup final played, and, under the name “Widnes,” 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. 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.

Round by round

Jump to round:

Round 1

Result	Venue	Attendance	Date
Barrow 11–6 Dewsbury	Craven Park	—	1964-02-08
Blackpool Borough 25–2 Doncaster	Borough Park	—	1964-02-08
Featherstone Rovers 60–4 Stanningley	Post Office Road	—	1964-02-08
Halifax 0–3 Batley	Thrum Hall	—	1964-02-08
Hull Kingston Rovers 12–12 Rochdale Hornets	Craven Park	—	1964-02-08
Hunslet 4–4 Wakefield Trinity	Parkside	—	1964-02-08
Keighley 4–11 Oldham	Lawkholme Lane	—	1964-02-08
Leigh 2–2 Widnes	Hilton Park	—	1964-02-08
Liverpool City 3–0 Huddersfield	Knotty Ash	—	1964-02-08
St Helens 6–13 Castleford	Knowsley Road	—	1964-02-08
Salford 10–6 Leeds	The Willows	—	1964-02-08
Whitehaven 7–4 Hull	Recreation Ground	—	1964-02-08
Wigan 15–15 Swinton	Central Park	—	1964-02-08
Workington Town 21–3 Warrington	Derwent Park	—	1964-02-08
York 5–2 Bramley	Wigginton Road	—	1964-02-08
Rochdale Hornets 7–22 Hull Kingston Rovers	Athletic Ground	—	1964-02-11
Swinton 13–8 Wigan	Station Road	—	1964-02-12
Wakefield Trinity 7–14 Hunslet	Belle Vue	—	1964-02-12
Widnes 11–11 Leigh	Naughton Park	—	1964-02-12
Widnes 14–2 Leigh	Knowsley Road	—	1964-02-17

Round 2

Result	Venue	Attendance	Date
Batley 6–14 Hunslet	Mount Pleasant	—	1964-02-29
Blackpool Borough 48–8 Thames Board Mills	Borough Park	—	1964-02-29
Oldham 9–7 Featherstone Rovers	Watersheddings	—	1964-02-29
Salford 4–10 Barrow	The Willows	—	1964-02-29
Whitehaven 5–29 Castleford	Recreation Ground	—	1964-02-29
Widnes 16–6 Liverpool City	Naughton Park	—	1964-02-29
Workington Town 3–11 Swinton	Derwent Park	—	1964-02-29
York 7–23 Hull Kingston Rovers	Wigginton Road	—	1964-02-29

Round 3

Result	Venue	Attendance	Date
Blackpool Borough 4–25 Castleford	Borough Park	—	1964-03-14
Hull Kingston Rovers 38–4 Barrow	Craven Park	—	1964-03-14
Hunslet 5–7 Oldham	Parkside	—	1964-03-14
Widnes 5–5 Swinton	Naughton Park	—	1964-03-14
Swinton 0–0 Widnes	Station Road	—	1964-03-18
Widnes 15–3 Swinton	Central Park	—	1964-03-23

Semi-Finals

Result	Venue	Attendance	Date
Oldham 5–5 Hull Kingston Rovers	Headingley	28556	1964-04-11
Oldham 17–14 Hull Kingston Rovers	Station Road	27209	1964-04-15
Widnes 7–7 Castleford	Station Road	25602	1964-04-18
Hull Kingston Rovers 12–2 Oldham	Fartown	32757	1964-04-20
Castleford 5–7 Widnes	Belle Vue	28732	1964-04-22

Final

Result	Venue	Attendance	Date
Widnes 13–5 Hull Kingston Rovers	Wembley Stadium, London	84488	1964-05-09

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