AB Sundecks have extended their support of the 1895 Cup, ahead of the draw for the First Round proper of the 2025 competition at Thursday’s Betfred Championship and League One season launch in Oldham.
The competition has been known as the AB Sundecks 1895 Cup since it was launched in 2019, as a cup competition to give non-Super League clubs a second and more realistic chance to reach Challenge Cup Finals Day.
The five Finals played so far – four of them at Wembley Stadium and one at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with the competition suspended in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic – have featured eight clubs, with five different winners: Sheffield Eagles (2019), Featherstone Rovers (2021), Leigh Centurions (2022, before their rebrand as the Leopards), Halifax Panthers (2023) and last year Wakefield Trinity, who beat Sheffield Eagles in front of a record number of supporters for the AB Sundecks 1895 Cup.
The 2025 competition has a new format, with two preliminary rounds already drawn for the 11 Betfred League One clubs, which will kick off on February 2 and will produce four qualifiers to join the 12 English Betfred Championship clubs in the last 16.
The draw for the last 16 will be made on Thursday at Boundary Park, the home of newly-promoted Oldham and the venue for the official launch of the 2025 Betfred Championship and League One season.
The draw will be made by the husband and wife team who have driven the success of AB Sundecks over the last decade – Laura and Derek Beaumont, who is also the owner of Leigh Leopards.
The First Round ties will be played on the weekend of March 1-2 – a clear weekend in the Betfred Championship fixture list – with the quarter finals on the same weekend as the quarter finals of the Betfred Challenge Cup, April 5-6.
The semi finals will be played on the weekend of May 17-18, the weekend after the Challenge Cup semi finals, and three weeks before Finals Day at Wembley Stadium on Saturday June 7.
Laura Beaumont, the Sales and Marketing Director of AB Sundecks, said: “It’s amazing to think this will be the seventh year of the AB Sundecks 1895 Cup. It’s become established in the Rugby League calendar, especially with the teams outside Super League giving them a chance to go on a journey that is truly rewarding.
“We saw that again with Wakefield Trinity last year, and the sight of thousands of their fans celebrating at one end of Wembley was really memorable.
“Just like Leigh in 2022, Wakefield have now made the step up to Super League which means they won’t be able to defend the Cup this year – and maybe that means we could have another new winner.”
AB Sundecks 1895 Cup Finals:
2019, Wembley – Sheffield Eagles beat Widnes Vikings
2020, no competition – Covid
2021, Wembley – Featherstone Rovers beat York City Knights
2022, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium – Leigh Centurions beat Featherstone Rovers
2023, Wembley – Halifax Panthers beat Batley Bulldogs
2024, Wembley – Wakefield Trinity beat Sheffield Eagles
AB Sundecks 1895 Cup Ball Numbers:
1 Barrow Raiders
2 Batley Bulldogs
3 Bradford Bulls
4 Doncaster
5 Featherstone Rovers
6 Halifax Panthers
7 Hunslet
8 London Broncos
9 Oldham
10 Sheffield Eagles
11 Widnes Vikings
12 York Knights
13 Qualifier 1 (Goole Vikings, Newcastle Thunder or North Wales Crusaders
14 Qualifier 2 (Workington Town or Dewsbury Rams)
15 Qualifier 3 (Rochdale Hornets, Cornwall or Swinton Lions)
16 Qualifier 4 (Keighley Cougars, Midlands Hurricanes or Whitehaven)
1895 Cup First Preliminary Round (ties to be played weekend February 1-2)
Midlands Hurricanes v Whitehaven RLFC
Rochdale Hornets v Cornwall
Newcastle Thunder v North Wales Crusaders
Second Preliminary Round (ties to be played weekend February 15-16)
Goole Vikings v Newcastle Thunder or North Wales Crusaders
Workington Town v Dewsbury Rams
Rochdale Hornets or Cornwall RLFC v Swinton Lions
Keighley Cougars v Midlands Hurricanes or Whitehaven RLFC
Round 1: weekend of 1-2 March
Quarter-finals: weekend of 5-6 April
Semi-finals: weekend of 17-18 May
Final: Saturday 7 June (Wembley Stadium)
