A couple of decades ago this would have been a worthy Challenge Cup Final, but in 2024 it was a round four clash to determine who would move forwards into the four-game round five and a chance to take on a Super League side as Bradford hosted Widnes in an all-Championship affair.

The two sides have never actually met in a Challenge Cup Final although they did meet twice in the Championship in 2023 with honours being shared at a win apiece, but Widnes exited the competition at this stage last year at the hands of Dewsbury, Bradford progressing to round five where they lost to Halifax.

The Bulls were favourites for the win with the Vikings having been given a fourteen-point start on the handicap coupon.

The final game of Round Ten of the Championship took place in front of the Viaplay cameras at the Fox´s Biscuit Stadium as sixth placed Batley Bulldogs took on a Widnes Vikings side which started the game in fourth place in the table.

A forty-three-point win for Craig Lingard´s side would lift them above their opponents and into the top four while John Kear´s men needed a massive victory to go above the Sheffield Eagles and into third spot.

Batley were slight favourites with the bookies, but they were struggling to find much between the sides, Widnes getting just a two-point start on the handicap coupon for the Bank Holiday Monday game.

New Widnes Vikings coach John Kear returned to one of his eight former clubs as his Cestrian charges travelled over the Pennines to take on the Sheffield Eagles, the side which Kear steered to Challenge Cup glory twenty-five years ago in 1998 to play against a side now coached by the man of the match on that famous Wembley afternoon, Mark Aston.

The sides were sat in third and fourth in the table and knew that a win would take them level on league points with Featherstone Rovers and Toulouse Olympique XIII at the top of the table although either club would need to register a win of more than one hundred points to sit at the top of the pile.

It was an intriguing fixture and give us more idea of the true 2023 potential of these two sides.

Well established club Widnes - founded in 1875 - were the visitors at Kingston Park, still a relatively new venue rugby league as the home of Newcastle Thunder, on the Monday night championship game televised by Premier Sports The teams drew on their previous meeting and always looked likely too produce a tight game again.

Widnes were the team with the early pressure on the back of a penalty and set restart conceded by the Thunder.

Leigh came out on top and won through to the fifth round of the Betfred Challenge Cup in the Monday night clash between two of the Championship's more fancied sides.

The potential for complacency was Widnes Vikings worst enemy coming into today’s Challenge Cup second round fixture against Whitehaven as the cup kings of the seventies and eighties took on a side who have never made it to Wembley and who are looking forward to their first season back in the Championship after gaining promotion in 2019.

The bookies couldn’t see past the win for Simon Finnigan’s side who had done well to knock out the Dewsbury Rams in the last round a week ago.

Matt Cook and Paul Clough were making their first appearances for the Vikings and despite no fans being in the ground the home advantage, and i-pitch, would certainly count in their favour.

French side Toulouse Olympique XIII rolled into the Halton Stadium to take on a Widnes Viking side who are treading water in 2019 after their pre-season punitive points deduction.

A win would temporarily lift Toulouse into second spot ahead of the remaining fixtures but a loss would leave the door open for Leigh and Featherstone to overtake them and demote them to fifth come the end of the weekend.

A win for Widnes would lift them above the Dewsbury Rams into eleventh spot and come closer to guaranteeing their Championship spot for the 2020 season when they will look to launch their bid to return to Super League.

James Child was in the middle with the whistle, he must have been delighted when he was allocated a French side for the second weekend running.

With the London Broncos ripping up the form book earlier in the afternoon, Widnes’s hopes of a Million Pound game slot had slipped further below the horizon.

Mathematically they weren’t out of it, but they knew that they needed a big win over the Toronto Wolfpack in Canada.

Toronto were now increasingly desperate for a win and went into the game knowing that they would have to go to Headingley to play the Leeds Rhinos on the last weekend with two consecutive losses meaning that they, themselves, could drop out of the Million Pound Game.

It couldn’t have been any more tense.

After losing to London last week, Widnes travelled to Salford needing a win to keep their hopes of playing Super League in 2019 alive.

And for a brief moment, it looked like they might secure the points.

With just two minutes gone, Charly Runciman went over in the corner after the Chemics kick to end their first set beat Ed Chamberlain – who spent most of this season in a Widnes shirt.

Former Catalans player Krisnan Inu converted and at 6-0 the visitors looked good to kick-on and make a competitive game of it.

Two sides, still with an outside chance of avoiding the middle eights, met at the AJ Bell Stadium in Salford as the Red Devils took on a Widnes Vikings side under the new control of Francis Cummins.

A convincing win for Salford would see them up to ninth and snapping at the heels of eighth placed Huddersfield Giants and a win for the Vikings would lift them off the bottom and over Hull KR into eleventh.

Salford gave debuts to on-loan Greg Burke and Ed Chamberlain against their parent club while the Vikings also played their loan signing from Salford, Weller Hauraki.

The bookies fancied a Salford win but the Vikings were determined to pick up their first away win of the season.

A win for the Widnes Vikings, by more than twenty-two points, would send them top of Super League and condemn the Warrington Wolves to a third consecutive defeat at the start of the season.

A win for the Wolves, by more than six points, would lift them into the top eight and get their season belatedly underway.

The Vikings have had a great start to the season with an opening weekend win over the Catalans Dragons, and a single point loss to the Castleford Tigers last week.

Up the road in Warrington, teeth were already being gnashed after two consective defeats, coming on the back of an awful 2017 season.

On the artifical pitch at the Halton Stadium, it promised to be an intriguing early season match-up.

The opening game of round twenty-three of Super League, the last before the split into the Super Eights, saw a dead rubber game between two sides who were simply looking for form going into the middle eights competition.



Warrington Wolves were guaranteed ninth spot and four home games, while Widnes were likely to finish eleventh and couldn't manage any better.



The Wolves won the game in Widnes back in April by 19-10, and their home game in the cup by 34-20, but both sides wanted the confidence boost that a win would bring.

It could only be described as a basement clash as Super League's two lowliest clubs went head to head at the Halton Stadium.

Warrington Wolves were looking to build on last weekends win over the Leeds Rhinos as they visited a Widnes Vikings side coming into the game of the back of a hiding at Wakefield.



It had the promise of a low scoring affair as the league's two worst attacks were looking to improve on their average of just fifteen points a game.

The prize at the end of the night would be eleventh spot, not what either of these sides would have expected to be scrapping over at the start of the season.

Wigan Warriors had a score to settle as they travelled to Widnes to take on the Vikings after losing their home fixture 18-12 back in March.

A win for Widnes would be their first double over Wigan for twenty-seven years.



A win for Widnes would see them into fifth spot in the Super League table ahead of St Helens but Wigan needed the win to go back level on points with Hull FC at the top of the pile.



Wigan were without George Williams, John Bateman and Sam Tomkins, the first injured, the second suspended, and the latter rested.

The DW Stadium, where Wigan Warriors were unbeaten in twenty-five consecutive Super League games, saw the visit of top of the table Widnes Vikings who would need to penetrate the Wigan fortress to retain their top spot.



Wigan named and unchanged seventeen from the side that beat the Rhinos six days ago and were big favourites with the bookies to take the two points, and climb to the top of the pile.

It had been a stunning start to the season for Widnes but most commentators had tipped this as the round that they would come unstuck.



It was Widnes Vikings, the league’s best attack, against Wigan Warriors, Super League XXI’s strongest defence.

Super League XX got off to an exciting, if controversial, start as a twelve-man Widnes Vikings defied all the odds to steal a draw, and share the points with 2014 Grand Finalists the Wigan Warriors.



The largest Widnes crowd for over ten years, a shade over nine thousand, witnessed a match packed full of action, incident and a decent helping of contention which saw Patrick Ah Van red-carded after twenty-two minutes, Matty Smith sin-binned with four minutes left on the clock and Charnley and Brown both leaving the field to not return after falling foul of new ‘concussion’ guidelines.



But it wouldn’t be Super League without a bit of controversy.

Wakefield Wildcats’ charge to the playoffs continued with a 24-14 victory over the Widnes Vikings at the Rapid Solicitors Stadium.



The Wildcats made it four wins in a row in a bid to repeat last year’s run to the playoffs as they sit just a point behind Hull FC in ninth place, with a game in hand, in the Super League table.

Kevin Brown scored a hatrick but couldn’t help his side avoid a 36-52 defeat to an understrength Leeds side.



The Rhinos trio of Zak Hardaker, Rob Burrow and Liam Sutcliffe all played a key part in the ten try rout, the latter two touching down for two each.



Leeds led 38-6 and so had the game wrapped up at half-time but could have been accused of complacency after letting Widnes make the scoreline a little bit more respectable.

Wigan extended their winning run to thirteen games thanks to Scott Taylor whose first club try secured a 33-32 win.



The Young Warriors side, of which an astonishing 14 of 17 players came through the academy had to hold on in a nail biting finish when Patrick Ah Van scoring a hatrick just two minutes from time.

Points were shared for a second time in round 17 as Widnes came from behind to draw with Catalan 32-32.



Jack Owens levelled it up with a late penalty goal and with Scott Dureau in an ambulance on his way to hospital, Gregory Mounis missed a drop goal attempt.