With Round One of the 1895 Cup kicking off this weekend, we’ve taken a quick glance at the short history of the competition.
2026 will see the seventh instalment of the 1895 Cup. So far, there have been six different winners of six different finals since the competition was first integrated in 2019.
The previous winners are:
2025 - York Knights
2024 - Wakefield Trinity
2023 - Halifax Panthers
2022 - Leigh Centurions
2021 - Featherstone Rovers
2020 - Competition cancelled due to COVID-19
2019 - Sheffield Eagles
Founded seven years ago, and named in honour of the 1895 Northern Rugby Football Union, this competition was created to provide a second and more realistic chance for clubs outside the Betfred Super League, to win silverware.
From 2019 to 2025, the 1895 Cup Final was played at Wembley Stadium, alongside the Men’s and Women’s Betfred Challenge Cup Finals. This excludes the 2022 final, which took place at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, due to the national stadium being unavailable at that time.
In 2026, the final will be moved to a new venue, away from the capital, which is currently TBC.
The Player of the Match in the 1895 Cup Final receives the Ray French Award.
There have been several competition formats and changes in its seven seasons of existence, with 2026’s new format featuring 19 Betfred Championship clubs, which includes the Preliminary Round, Round One, the Quarter and Semi Finals, as well as the main final. Round One will take place this Saturday and Sunday.
York Knights are the current holders of the 1895 Cup, after defeating Featherstone Rovers 5-4 in Golden Point extra-time last June.
It was a game of firsts – and purely penalty goals, with tensions were at an all-time high as things proceeded to Golden Point extra-time. This had never been seen before in 1895 Cup history.
After missed drop goal attempts from both sides, York captain and Ray French Award winner Liam Harris came up with a match-winning one-pointer - in what was the first ever tryless 1895 Cup.
History was also made that day as York sealed their first ever win at Wembley Stadium as a club and avenged their 2021 1895 Cup Final defeat against the Rovers.
In 2024, the early stages of the competitions were seeded and regionalised, and a dominant Wakefield Trinity side went on to lift the 1895 Cup at Wembley – the first of three trophies which would later seal a magnificent Championship treble.
This was the highest scoring 1895 Cup Final on record as Trinity beat 2019 winners Sheffield Eagles, 50-6, on the big stage.
Winning by a 44-point margin under the arch, Wakefield ran nine tries past their opponents, including braces from Oli Pratt, Josh Griffin and Jermaine McGillvary.
Luke Gale was awarded the Ray French Award.
The 2023 competition featured Championship teams that reached the sixth round of the Challenge Cup, and this created two semi-finals.
Halifax Panthers and Batley Bulldogs were victors against London Broncos and York respectively, and went on to compete in the final, where the Panthers defeated the Bulldogs 12-10 in an intense West Yorkshire clash.
This was Halifax’s first appearance at Wembley since 1988, and although a low scoring affair, there was plenty of action, as the Panthers held off a late comeback from the Bulldogs, who are the original Challenge Cup winners.
There was drama in the closing seconds, as Batley’s Luke Hooley agonisingly missed a touchline conversion which would have sent the game past the 80-minute mark and into Golden Point extra time.
But ‘Fax clung on, and Louis Jouffret was praised for his contributions – earning the Ray French Award as a result. Jouffret’s success with the boot proved to be the difference, as he kicked one conversion and three decisive penalty goals.
The 2021 and 2022 competition had altered formats due to effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and it would be victory for Championship treble-winners Leigh Centurions (now Leopards) in 2022, when they beat Featherstone Rovers 30-16 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, in the third 1895 Cup Final.
Both sides produced convincing wins in their semi-finals against Sheffield and Barrow Raiders respectively (with only four teams being involved in the competition), but it was Leigh’s excellent second half performance in the final that would see them go on to lift the cup.
Their star man was Edwin Ipape – the Papua New Guinean a worthy Ray French Award recipient of that year.
Did you know that Featherstone are currently the only team to have appeared in two consecutive 1895 Cup Finals?
Meanwhile, 2022 turned out to be record-breaking for the invincible Leigh, who endured just one loss all season. The following year, they then went on to secure the Challenge Cup trophy in dramatic fashion - the only side to ever win the 1895 Cup and Challenge Cup back-to-back.
Previously, the fans attending the final in 2021 witnessed a try fest unfold at Wembley Stadium, as Featherstone Rovers hung on to beat York Knights 41-34.
This action-packed final was one to remember with its 13 try spectacle, as the match had only been given the go-ahead three hours before the noon kick-off after COVID-19 scares from both clubs.
The Ray French Award winner was Craig Hall.
Casting our minds back to 2019, the maiden 1895 Cup competition was a straight knock-out tournament to the final, in which Sheffield Eagles became the inaugural winners of the cup, overcoming Widnes Vikings 36-18 with a ruthless second half performance.
The Eagles scored 24 unanswered points as Aaron Brown sealed a hat-trick and their general Anthony Thackeray – responsible for one of six of Sheffield’s tries on the day – was gifted the first ever Ray French Award.
To date, the Eagles, Featherstone and York are the only three teams to have reached the 1895 Cup Final twice.
And with five of the six previous winners no longer in the competition, Sheffield are the only past winners remaining in the 2026 1895 Cup – making it highly likely the trophy will be lifted by a new name this year.
Will there be a seventh new name on the trophy in 2026?
1895 Cup Round One ties – all 3PM KO:
Saturday 18 April
Doncaster RLFC v Salford RLFC
Sunday 19 April
London Broncos v Keighley Cougars
Dewsbury Rams v Widnes Vikings
Goole Vikings v Whitehaven RLFC
Oldham RLFC v Hunslet RLFC
Newcastle Thunder v Batley Bulldogs
North Wales Crusaders v Midlands Hurricanes
Rochdale Hornets v Sheffield Eagles
Key dates for the 1895 Cup:
First Round - 18/19 April
Quarter Finals – 16/17 May
Semi Finals 13/14 June
Final – 31 August, venue TBC
