The Pioneering Years - The First Women's Challenge Cup Final

As Sunday 15 January 1989 dawned, two groups of women on either side of the Pennines were preparing to make history on a muddy pitch in Rochdale.

Words by Liz Byrnes

The occasion was the first women’s Challenge Cup final with Halifax Ladies set to face Warrington-based Crosfield Ladies for the honour of lifting the inaugural trophy.

The west Yorkshire side were seeking to do the double after winning the English Ladies League and boasted among their ranks the likes of Lisa McIntosh, who would go on to captain Great Britain and become one of the first inductees into the RFL Women’s Rugby League Hall of Fame.

While Halifax were favourites, the teams had traded victories in the league with the Cheshire side inflicting a first defeat on their opponents during their run to the title.

Julie Archer didn’t even know what rugby league was when she saw an advert in the paper looking for women to form a team in Halifax in November 1987.

The 22-year-old had only just moved up to west Yorkshire to start her first job as a social worker in children’s services with Calderdale Council.

A seasoned hockey player, being outdoors and playing a team sport while meeting new people appealed to Archer.

“I didn’t know a soul, I just turned up there and as I walked down the drive I met Lisa McIntosh and I’m great mates with her now,” she said.

“I’d never seen a game of rugby league, I didn’t know there was a difference between league and union, I knew nothing.

“We could only produce nine a side, we were struggling for players all the time, we were just kind of training and trying to get a couple of friendlies and then we entered our first proper season in 1988.”

The team trained twice a week at Illingworth before moving on to Heath with the women given full use of all the facilities and equipment.

“From the very outset, Halifax as a town supported us phenomenally, said Archer.

“I don’t think anyone ever said no, people were fabulous.”

A little under 50 miles away to the west, Crosfield Ladies were also in their infancy.

Angie Potter had been a season ticket-holder at Warrington since childhood.

She set out to form a team in 1986, placing notices in the local paper and putting up posters on the vending machines at the sewing factory where she worked as a seamstress.

Bernie Mills had been playing football until her team moved to Liverpool but being unable to drive, she turned her attention to rugby league with the pair driving on the club in those early days.

The duo would go on to play for Great Britain and form a friendship that endures to this day.

After playing at Latchford and Woolston, they eventually settled at Crosfield, playing their first game in 1987 against Guiseley Ladies as the Leeds side ran out 70-34 winners.

A tough start but they were undeterred and continued - completely self-funded - to drive the team forward.

They’d train twice a week, scraping a kit together and with limited opposition locally the women would squeeze into Mills’ red Mark 3 Ford Cortina to go in convoy over the Pennines to take on the Yorkshire teams.

It was in contrast to the organised set-up of the clubs in the White Rose county.

Potter said: “We just loved rugby and wanted to play and you look back and you think what we did.

“The money we spent going in our own cars, booking referees, booking pitches which nowadays is all done for them. 

“But we had to do all that, the background behind it all which we didn’t think anything of – we just wanted to get a ref, get a pitch and play a game, we loved it that much.

“You look back and think wow, yeah we did that. It’s nice to see it now – the girls that are playing, we love watching them as well. We think how much it has come on, is just amazing.

“I think they’re really lucky now because at school it was only hockey or netball, you mention rugby league…girls playing rugby was a no-no.”

On to 1989, and Crosfield navigated their way to the final, drawing attention from local and national media including The Guardian and Granada Reports.

BBC North-West was there on the day at Rochdale Mayfield’s stadium, filming as Halifax emerged from the team coach, smartly dressed in blue V-neck jumpers and white shirts.

Archer was “nervous and confident but just incredibly excited” with Halifax’s tactics to drive forward and use the width.

“We had a couple of really good centres and forwards: we had Lisa Mc and Lisa Coulter and they were very good,” she said.

“To be fair, we had a reasonable pack as well in terms of brute force, not a great amount of speed but we were good ball handlers.”

The pitch resembled a mudbath more than a playing surface that day.

“When you’re playing in that kind of level of mud it is horrendous because it sticks to you everywhere,” said Archer. 

“It’s heavy, you can’t run, your feet are in glue, it’s horrible and we came off and you couldn’t see our hoops because we were filthy, we were absolutely splattered in mud. 

“Who did that kit wash I’ve got no idea but I’m glad it wasn’t me.”

Despite that, Halifax went ahead after five minutes through McIntosh.

Crosfield hit back with two tries, buoyed by a partisan crowd of 200-plus people, before Lisa Coulter made it 12-12 at half-time.

The Warrington side extended their lead to 12 points before Coulter appeared to have reduced the deficit only for the try to be disallowed.

McIntosh went over with Lorraine Birkhead converting to draw within six points but Crosfield held firm to run out 24-18 winners.

It sparked celebrations with player of the match Ali Upton showering the team in champagne.

Mills lifted the trophy before putting it under her bed where it lay for a while when she handed it on to Warrington.

They in turn passed it to the RFL who have given it pride of place at the Etihad HQ. 

Mills and Potter attributed victory to the team’s desire, effort and tackling with the conditions also playing a part.

“I think it was defence more than attack, we just kept them quiet,” said Mills.

“We just tried to keep your people like Lisa McIntosh and your speedsters quiet. Maybe they didn’t like the heavy pitch because they were a fast team.”

Recalling the moment of victory, Potter said: “We loved it. That was our first time winning anything. 

“We were just beginning to pick up after starting out getting beat 70-34 because Yorkshire was going some years before us.

“So we built ourselves up to win that game and it was a big game. 

“Especially the Challenge Cup because everybody knew the Challenge Cup in the men’s game, it’s a big thing.”

Mills added: “I think for me it was just a bit of disbelief really. 

“A disbelief that we’d overcome all the challenges from where we’d started getting hammered week in, week out; still travelling across to Yorkshire all self-funded and that we won the first ever Challenge Cup and that will stay with us for the rest of our lives really.

“I’ve got that and I feel proud of that, I’m proud of lots of rugby achievements but that is the first major achievement.”

While Crosfield were celebrating, Halifax were “gutted” with the controversy of the disallowed try rubbing salt into the wounds.

“We’ll have come off the pitch going we were absolutely robbed,” said Archer.

“Yeah, just not okay and we wanted to win, we really wanted to win. 

“Can you imagine going into your first-ever season and winning not only the league but also the cup final?”

She added: “Their pack was enormous. They just ran at you like tanks.

“We weren’t like that but we were faster, even me and I’m not fast but I was faster than them.

“It’s harder to use your speed when you’re bogged down and it was an absolute bog….and they were just kind of slugging away at that. 

“But they’d have run out of steam I think and were running out of steam by the end.

“So those six points were massively controversial.

“We were in the next two cup finals and didn’t win them either although we did win in the end.

“It just became – are we ever going to win?”

NOTE: There was some overlap with the RFL running the Challenge Cup from 2012.

Women in Rugby League are identifying the league and cup competitions that have been contested in the women’s game.

When this has been done, we will finalise the timeline and record all the games appropriately according to the seniority of competitions.