The 1895 Cup is a British

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

competition for clubs in the

Rugby League Championships The Rugby League Championships (known as the National Leagues between 2003-2008) are the two professional divisions below the Super League, consisting of 12 teams in the Championship and 14 teams in League 1 (rugby league), League 1. Promotion a ...

History

There have been many cup competitions for the lower leagues of rugby league. In 2002 the

Championship Cup The Championship Cup, (known as the Northern Rail Cup for sponsorship reasons), and previously known as the National League Cup, was a rugby league football competition for clubs in the United Kingdom's Rugby League Championships. Although the F ...

was founded for

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

and League 1 clubs to compete in along with the Challenge Cup, with the aim to give the lower league clubs a competition they can realistically win. The Championship Cup folded in 2013 in anticipation for the 2015 league restructuring. There was no replacement for Championship clubs, though the

League 1 Cup League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

ran from 2015-2017 for teams from that league. In late 2018 a new cup competition, named in honour of the founding of the

Northern Union The Rugby Football League is the governing body for professional rugby league in England, and until 1995 for the whole British Isles. The name Rugby Football League previously also referred to the main league competition run by the organisati ...

in 1895, was put to the Championship and League 1 clubs. It would involve 12 British Championship clubs and four League 1 clubs. It was accepted by the clubs ahead of the 2019 season to be integrated with the new league structure. For the inaugural 2019 tournament, eight League 1 clubs entered and so a first round was added to reduce these to the four teams required to join the twelve Championship sides in the last-16, followed by a straight knockout tournament to the final at Wembley on 24 August immediately after the

2019 Challenge Cup The 2019 Challenge Cup known as the Coral Challenge Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the 118th staging of the Challenge Cup, the main rugby league knockout tournament for teams in the Super League, the British National Leagues and a number of inv ...

final. The 2020 competition did not take place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With covid-19 still affecting the 2021 season, a new format which merged the early rounds of the tournament with the

Challenge Cup The Challenge Cup is a knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, with the exception of 1915–1919 and 1939–1940, due to World War I and World War II respectively. It involves am ...

was approved. In 2021, the four sides which progressed from the second round of the Challenge Cup qualified for the 1895 Cup semi-finals. An adapted version of this format was approved for 2022, to reflect the re-expansion of the Challenge Cup to include amateur teams. Now, the five qualifiers - including any amateur teams - from the fifth round of the Challenge Cup would qualify for the 1895 Cup, with any of those teams who win in the sixth round of the Challenge Cup moving straight to the semi-finals of the 1895 Cup. Two of the remaining qualified teams will be drawn into a play-off round before the semi-final stage.

History

Results

Team Performance

Sponsors

Notes

References