1895 Cup details confirmed for 2026: Format, Draw, Round dates…

The 1895 Cup will take place this year with a straight knockout format, and the draw for the first two rounds will be made on Sunday, February 15 live on BBC Radio Leeds.

First introduced in 2019, there had been uncertainty over whether the 1895 Cup would form part of the fixture calendar in 2026.

There is still no confirmation as to where the final will take place, but it won’t form part of Challenge Cup finals day, as has been the case since the competition’s inauguration.

But, the 1895 Cup will still be played out this year. The 19 Championship teams will battle it out with the aim of being in the final on August 31, wherever it’s played.

Notably, Halifax Panthers are not among the 19 after their membership was revoked by the Rugby Football League (RFL) having entered compulsory liquidation.

Format

The competition will consist of five rounds – Preliminary, First, Quarter-finals, Semi-finals and Final.

Each of those stages will be a straight knockout.

Three ties will be played out in the Preliminary Round to make the competition consist of an even 16 teams when the First Round proper comes around.

So, it’ll be…

• Preliminary Round: Three ties
• First Round: Eight ties
• Quarter-finals: Four ties
• Semi-finals: Two ties
• Final: One tie

Draw

The draws for both the Preliminary Round and First Round will be made on Sunday (February 15) by Hull KR assistant Luke Gale live on BBC Radio Leeds at around 5.40pm.

Ex-England international Gale formed part of Wakefield Trinity’s side as they lifted the 1895 Cup back in 2024.

As described above, six balls will be pulled out of the hat to make up the three Preliminary Round ties.

Goole Vikings, Keighley Cougars and Oldham will not be in the hat for that section due to their involvement in the Challenge Cup Fourth Round next month, which comes on the same weekend as the Preliminary Round of the 1895 Cup.

Once those six balls have been pulled out to draw the three Preliminary Round ties, the draw for the First Round will be made.

Goole, Keighley and Oldham’s balls will be put into the hat alongside the remaining ten, and the three home balls from the Preliminary Round ties will be placed back in there.

Those three balls will represent ‘X OR X’, the winner of the respective Preliminary Round tie.

Eight First Round ties will be pieced together accordingly.

The ball numbers for Sunday’s draw can be found below:

1. Barrow Raiders

2. Batley Bulldogs

3. Dewsbury Rams

4. Doncaster

5. Hunslet

6. London Broncos

7. Midlands Hurricanes

8. Newcastle Thunder

9. North Wales Crusaders

10. Rochdale Hornets

11. Salford RLFC

12. Sheffield Eagles

13. Swinton Lions

14. Whitehaven RLFC

15. Widnes Vikings

16. Workington Town

On the conclusion of the draw for the preliminary round, balls 17-19 to be added:

17. Goole Vikings

18. Keighley Cougars

19. Oldham RLFC

Round dates

The dates for this year’s 1895 Cup games can be seen below…

Preliminary Round: March 14/15

First Round: April 18/19

Quarter-finals: May 16/17

Semi-finals: June 13/14

Final: August 31, venue TBC