Sourcing caveat: Individual try scorers and goal kickers for both teams could not be confirmed from available sources despite multiple searches. Lineups added subsequently, sourced from Rugby League Project's team-sheet summary for this final and cross-checked against the player_of_match detail already present (Mick Burke at full-back) — shirt numbers 1-13 plus two named substitutes for each side, with both clubs' coaches, all confirmed; the referee's name remains unconfirmed.
Widnes beat defending champions Hull Kingston Rovers 18-9 at Wembley in front of 92,496 fans, with full-back Mick Burke's performance earning him the Lance Todd Trophy. Rovers had arrived as reigning champions after their historic first Cup win the previous year, but Widnes proved too strong, continuing their emergence as the outstanding Challenge Cup side of the early 1980s. 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 80th Challenge Cup final played, and, under the name “Widnes,” the 6th 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.
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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