Biggest upset in Challenge Cup history?

[Wellsy4HullFC]

8 hours ago, Just Browny said:

Do you remember the state of that Huddersfield team?

I remember they had just gone through the NFP season unbeaten (1 draw) and were chasing a world record 30th consecutive win at the time. 

[Hopping Mad]

15 hours ago, Wollo Wollo Wayoo said:

Once saw 1st Division Wakefield beaten at home by 2nd division Whitehaven.

Watched this game (February, 1987) myself. Even Whitehaven, who at the time had a dreadful record in the Challenge Cup, were surprised how easy it was. Final score 25-2.

[welsh lion]

21 hours ago, yipyee said:

Salford in 96 beating Wigan who had won around 48 consecutive games over 10 years meaning that the challenge cup would be going to a destination outside wigan for the first time since 87.

What's more impressive is Salford were second tier part timers against the biggest club in the country.. .

In contrast Hudds have lost 8 in a row  and struggling in SL against a team who had dual reg Wigan players!

Swinton had 2 of Wigans u19s in the 17 who hadn't played for the club before, hardly a big Wigan presence!! Give them some credit.

There were a fair few hardened talented pros in that Salford team who beat Wigan in what was and still is one of the biggest upsets ever.

[johnh1]

12 hours ago, JohnM said:

I was there and feel the pain still, just as I was at Wembley to see Sheffield v Wigan. My life is one of constant pain!

I was there too and still feel the joy of that day. Great game.

 

[fieldofclothofgold]

On ‎4‎/‎24‎/‎2017 at 0:07 PM, Oxford said:

Leigh against Leeds?

no Leigh were a very good team that year

[fieldofclothofgold]

Bramley drew with Wigan at McLaren Field when the great Wigan team were in their prime . Bramley player Peter Lister scored a spectacular try.Bramley took a big following to Central Park for the replay .The result was a predictable big win for Wigan ,but that draw was a big shock

[Oxford]

13 hours ago, fieldofclothofgold said:

no Leigh were a very good team that year

I think there was a quality difference that was marked and Leigh followed the plan of disrupting Leeds game and A. Murphy ran very quickly into a gap for the first time in about 10 years. All symptoms of an underdog win! 

[East of the Moon]

13 hours ago, fieldofclothofgold said:

Bramley drew with Wigan at McLaren Field when the great Wigan team were in their prime . Bramley player Peter Lister scored a spectacular try.Bramley took a big following to Central Park for the replay .The result was a predictable big win for Wigan ,but that draw was a big shock

As a former Bradley supporter going back to the days of the Barley Mow...Wilson, Rushton, Dudley, Hamill et al....great to read your post!

[East of the Moon]

Bramley (silly predictive text)

[The Phantom Horseman]

Talking of Bramley, this is kind of off-topic but Bramley winning the Floodlit Trophy in 1973, beating a star-studded Widnes team at Naughton Park in the final, must rank as one of the biggest upsets in knockout history. Think it was the only trophy the club ever won?

[meast]

On 24/04/2017 at 8:32 PM, Wellsy4HullFC said:

Didn't National League 2 Hunslet beat Super League Huddersfield in 2003? That's a big shock.

They did, and we'd played them 3 times in the season that had just passed and put 60+ points on them in every game, and we had just gained promotion back to SL and so had strengthened our squad!

This is up there i would say.

[Trojan]

Fev beating Hull in '83.  The bookies had stopped taking bets on Hull they were such hot favourites.  And Sheffield beating Wigan.  I worked in Wigan at the time and on the morning of the game a lad who worked at our place, who had little interest in the game, asked if he should back Wigan.  His mates advised him it was a sure thing!

It pains me to say it but I thought Wigan were robbed that day.   The ref allowed Sheffield to slow down the ruck, and took away Wigan's big advantage over most sides.

Fev beating Cas in 2012 was a bit of an upset too.  Cost Ropati a broken jaw as well!

[meast]

On 24/04/2017 at 10:47 PM, Futtocks said:

  On 24/04/2017 at 10:40 PM, Just Browny said:

Do you remember the state of that Huddersfield team?

A team that Included Marcus St Hilaire, Darren Fleary, Eorl Crabtree, Darren Turner, Paul March,Jim Gannon, Jeff Wittenburg, Brandon Costin?

[Ullman]

On 25/04/2017 at 0:01 AM, hunslet ramone said:

The bigger Challenge cup shock to me was Hunslet beating Hull KR in the eighties 12.11 when we were a league below them, Hull KR was packed with internationals and used to win nearly everything at that time. Huddersfield was no near as good as Hull KR by comparison. 

I remember it well. It was a massive upset. We celebrated so hard my dad couldn't get his key in the front door when he got home.

[yipyee]

3 hours ago, meast said:

A team that Included Marcus St Hilaire, Darren Fleary, Eorl Crabtree, Darren Turner, Paul March,Jim Gannon, Jeff Wittenburg, Brandon Costin?

Eorl on the wing hehe

[The King Of Leon]

The biggest shock ever according to the Bookies was the aforementioned Hunslet win over Huddersfield. Hunslet got 36 start that day, I know because I backed us . No team has ever won off a level handicap getting 36 start.Swinton came close last week getting 30 and Oldham I think was in the region of 30-32 last year at HKR but that 36 is the biggest I can remember in 40 odd years punting on RL.  

[Steve Fox]

7 hours ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Talking of Bramley, this is kind of off-topic but Bramley winning the Floodlit Trophy in 1973, beating a star-studded Widnes team at Naughton Park in the final, must rank as one of the biggest upsets in knockout history. Think it was the only trophy the club ever won?

It was a surprise result alright but the legend has been embellished somewhat by the events of the years following that final. If you had described Widnes as "star-studded" back then people would have laughed in your face. I've also seen mention of that Bramley win as coming at the expense of "cup kings" Widnes. In fact the Chemics hadn't won anything for 9 years by then and the trophy before that was in 1945. In the league their highest finish in the previous decade was tenth. By mid-December 1973 I think I'm right in saying they were 16th of 16 clubs in the first division (so below Bramley) and looking near-certainties for relegation. The Widnes team wasn't a bad one: Dutton; D.O'Neill, Hughes, Aspey, Macko; Warburton, Bowden; Hogan, Elwell, Nelson, Sheridan, Blackwood, Laughton.

Dutton, O'Neill and Laughton were GB internationals but Hughes, Bowden and Elwell were still young unknowns at the time. 

Bramley beat St Helens in the previous round and I'm guessing that Saints may have fielded a more illustrious side in that tie.

As for Widnes, they lost their next league game after the BBC final but then a young lad called Mick Adams was drafted into the side (he'd played a handful of first team games over the previous few years) and that coincided with a run of 16 league wins from the last 17 fixtures and a fourth placed finish (one of the highest in the club's history). They carried on their good form into 1974/75, won 2 trophies that season, and the rest is history.

[fieldofclothofgold]

10 hours ago, Oxford said:

I think there was a quality difference that was marked and Leigh followed the plan of disrupting Leeds game and A. Murphy ran very quickly into a gap for the first time in about 10 years. All symptoms of an underdog win! 

Murphy talked it up as Leigh underdogs and Leeds missing Alan Smith ,Ray Batten and the tragic Mick Shoebottom helped them too

[fieldofclothofgold]

8 hours ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Talking of Bramley, this is kind of off-topic but Bramley winning the Floodlit Trophy in 1973, beating a star-studded Widnes team at Naughton Park in the final, must rank as one of the biggest upsets in knockout history. Think it was the only trophy the club ever won?

yes it was  ,but then again Bramley too had a very good team that season and played some good stuff.yes it was the only trophy they ever won ."UP THE MOW"

[East of the Moon]

UP THE MOW!!

[snoopdog]

Ellenbourgh Rangers beating both Bramley at Hedingley , and Hunslet in the same season, the Bramley team were full of Leeds squad players, the Hunslet were top of the 1st Division at the time, with quality players like Manson, price, Butt. St John ellis.

[meast]

On 26/04/2017 at 10:17 PM, yipyee said:

Eorl on the wing hehe

Centre, in his early spikey hair days ?

[gingdong]

Fev v Hull 83 by far the biggest upset ever

That Hull team was a superstar team and was the prototype for todays game

[Old Frightful]

On 4/26/2017 at 10:15 PM, Ullman said:

I remember it well. It was a massive upset. We celebrated so hard my dad couldn't get his key in the front door when he got home.

Probably due to him being at the wrong house.

[Ullman]

9 minutes ago, Old Frightful said:

Probably due to him being at the wrong house.

I'd have been surprised if it was even in the right street.