Challenge Cup third round: Results and round-up

The draws for the fourth and fifth rounds of the Challenge Cup takes place on Wednesday, March 15, following an entertaining third round of action. 

Two of Sunday’s games were televised. The battle of the Crusaders was shown on the BBC Sport website, BBC iPlayer and BBC Red Button. League 1 side North Wales were made to work for an 18-10 win against community club Thatto Heath.

In the second televised match which was streamed by The Sportsman on YouTube, Championship favourites Featherstone fell to a 22-18 defeat to the impressive Halifax at Post Office Road.

Just two community clubs remain in the 2023 Challenge Cup. Hunslet ARLFC and Rochdale Mayfield are in the hat for the next round after beating Westgate Common and Leigh Miners Rangers respectively.

And there will be four clubs representing League 1 in the fourth round – Midlands, North Wales, Dewsbury and Doncaster.

There’ll be 11 Championship clubs in the next round, with Featherstone and Whitehaven bowing out this weekend.

Third round results:

Saturday

Westgate Common 12-15 Hunslet ARLFC

Leigh Miners Rangers 10-38 Rochdale Mayfield

Orrell St James 12-19 Midlands Hurricanes

Wests Warriors 4-80 Widnes Vikings

London Broncos 32-10 Whitehaven

Sunday

Thatto Heath Crusaders 10-18 North Wales Crusaders

Stanningley 16-58 Newcastle Thunder

Batley Bulldogs 60-0 Wath Brow Hornets

Dewsbury Rams 38-18 Rochdale Hornets

Siddall 12-34 Sheffield Eagles

Barrow Raiders 32-14 Swinton Lions

Bradford Bulls 62-6 York Acorn

Doncaster 24-20 Workington Town

Featherstone Rovers 18-22 Halifax Panthers

Hunslet 14-16 Keighley Cougars

York Knights 52-12 West Bowling

The draws for the fourth and fifth Rounds will be held the following Wednesday, March 15, at Millom ARLFC, who are celebrating their 150th anniversary and thought to be the world’s oldest amateur rugby league club.

The 12 Super League clubs do not enter the competition until the sixth round, which is scheduled to be played on the weekend of May 20/21.

The fourth round takes place April 1/2, with the fifth round three weeks later on April 22/23.

How the Challenge Cup feeds in to the 1895 Cup

The four non-Super League teams that reach the fifth round will be the semi-finalists for this year’s 1895 Cup.

The draw details will be confirmed for that at a later date, but it will be a straight final four with the two winners going in to the final to be played at Wembley on August 12.

There will be three finals at Wembley this year, with the Women’s Challenge Cup final also taking place.

Last season’s 1895 Cup required a play-off round before the semi-finals, due to Toulouse being in Super League and not participating in the Challenge Cup.

Sheffield beat Whitehaven in the play-off round, before losing to Leigh in the semi-finals. In the final, Leigh beat Featherstone, who had seen off Barrow in the semi-finals.

In 2021, as there were no community clubs able to participate in the Challenge Cup due to COVID, the early rounds of the Challenge Cup also doubled up as the early rounds of the 1895 Cup.

READ NEXT: Cradtracker – every yellow and red card in Super League this season