Ahh.... memories.

I was nine in 1965 and this was my first Challenge Cup final. Went with my mum, dad, auntie, uncle and cousin - 6 of us with dad driving his Ford Consul. Remember driving up Wembley Way and parking right outside the stadium before that big flyover thingy was there. My auntie got a flag made up from a bedsheet with a terrific drawing of the Challenge Cup and the names of all the Wigan players down the sides. I'll never forget the colours of the Hunslet kit "white with a chocolate (brown) V."

Gilfedder's penalty was from the centre spot in the opening minute 'cos the Hunslet kick off went straight out. All week the papers were talking up the battle between Trevor Lake our Rhodesian winger and Hunslet's flyer Griffiths. In the second half Lake shot down the wing outpacing Griffiths and best of all finishing with a spectacular dive right in the corner.

My dad had booked the following week off work so after the match we drove down to the South coast ending up in Hastings. I got the paper on Sunday morning which had a full page picture of Lake in mid-air as he scored. To top it all off, we enjoyed the rest of our week in glorious hot weather despite it being only the second week of May.

Memories ahh....

I can remember being at Swinton with about 30,000 on there. Billy B was deemed in touch which lost us the game. That linesman Arnold Bagnall later became a relative of ours, though my old dad never forgave him.

not enough promotion and community work being done, with plenty of other hobbies to do these days its more important that people are taught league at an early age in school.
We seriously fail when it comes to playing rugby in Schools, teachers just don't care and don't have time to do it so clubs and the RFL should pick up the slack.

12 SL teams entering from 5R, compressing the competition to remove the long gaps between rounds and moving the final to end of May to move it away from the GF would all improve on what we currently have IMO.

There was a similar discussion on the VT last week and I posted this:

"The fixture calendar could very easily be structured around something like:

CC 4R - February
CC 5R - March
CC QF - April
CC SF - Beginning of May
CC F - End of May/beginning of June
MW - July (after the league split)

Playoffs - September
GF - October

Don't the 12 SL teams enter the CC from the 5R from next season? If so it's even easier to compress the cup and play the final earlier in the season. I guess the stumbling blocks are Wembley's availability and what the BBC want."

It is in the world our sport operates in.

And where on earth do you get the idea "most 7 events generate more publicity and money than the challenge cup final does"? If you are referring to 7's in RU that is no comparison because what you would have to be sure of is an RL nines competition would generate more interest than the RL CC final. I can guarantee it won't. Look at the magic weekend if you want to see an example of how a made up concept ranks in terms of interest and publicity. Now the novelty of the idea has worn off it just doesn't compare and neither would a nines competition which would be seen as a low prestige break from the regular season. Not a competition steeped in history which starts in January for the amateur sides and now even includes University teams.

And while some SL sides will eventually end up playing weaker opposition some do not when there are all SL ties and they are great games for the neutral and are invariably the televised matches.

There were also several coach loads of Hunslet fans there yesterday who were under no illusions as to the final result but had a great time. When they scored their first try we had 30 points on the board and they started singing "Easy, easy!" and when they scored again the chant was "One more than Bradford!".

Hunslet also get a share of the gate receipts and John Kear at Batley was recently reported as saying around 2,500 SL fans turning up for a CC game keeps Batley going for a month.

I think you have a very limited view of just how much money and interest the CC generates and the idea a nines competition could or should replace it is as I said bonkers.

We'll know the RFL really have well and truly lost the plot if they get rid of the Challenge Cup!