Trip down Challenge Cup final memory lane always welcome - Gareth Ellis

Like many rugby league fans, I watched the BBC’s fine programme about the greatest Challenge Cup finals on Saturday.
MAGIC MOMENT: Gareth Ellis lifts the Challenge Cup trophy after leading Hull FC to victory over Warrington Wolves at Wembley in August 2016. Picture : Jonathan GawthorpeMAGIC MOMENT: Gareth Ellis lifts the Challenge Cup trophy after leading Hull FC to victory over Warrington Wolves at Wembley in August 2016. Picture : Jonathan Gawthorpe
MAGIC MOMENT: Gareth Ellis lifts the Challenge Cup trophy after leading Hull FC to victory over Warrington Wolves at Wembley in August 2016. Picture : Jonathan Gawthorpe
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We were all supposed to be in Cup action this weekend – Hull drew Sheffield Eagles – until Covid-19 struck so it was great to get a fix in this way instead and see the reaction the footage brought for so many people.

With Leeds v St Helens in ‘78, that classic between Wigan and Hull from 1985 and Robbie Paul’s hat-trick in defeat as Bradford Bulls lost to Saints in 1996, there were some brilliant highlights.

TOUGH DAY: Gareth Ellis, second right, shows his disappointment during Hull FC's 2013 Challenge Cup final defeat to Wigan. Picture: Bruce RollinsonTOUGH DAY: Gareth Ellis, second right, shows his disappointment during Hull FC's 2013 Challenge Cup final defeat to Wigan. Picture: Bruce Rollinson
TOUGH DAY: Gareth Ellis, second right, shows his disappointment during Hull FC's 2013 Challenge Cup final defeat to Wigan. Picture: Bruce Rollinson
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Bulls were on again when they beat the Rhinos in 2003 before our game – probably the highlight of my career – when we defeated Warrington Wolves in 2016 rounded off things with the fifth decade of action.

It did get me thinking about all the great Challenge Cup stories over the years.

I’ve got a few personally.

I remember going to Wembley in ‘86 to watch Castleford versus Hull KR at the old Wembley.

MAGIC MOMENT: Castleford's John Joyner holds aloft the Challenge Cup trophy at Wembley in 1986.MAGIC MOMENT: Castleford's John Joyner holds aloft the Challenge Cup trophy at Wembley in 1986.
MAGIC MOMENT: Castleford's John Joyner holds aloft the Challenge Cup trophy at Wembley in 1986.

I was a Cas fan and some of my favourite players of that era played that day like Martin Ketteridge and John Joyner.

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I remember Jamie Sandy going over at the end for that famous try, too, and Cas winning by a point.

But before that, there’s a Challenge Cup final story surrounding my birth.

Like a lot of people do, or especially did do, in the past, my dad went down for the Wembley weekend.

I was due around that time in 1981. My dad had asked my mum what he should do and she told him to get himself off as she didn’t think it would happen any time soon. However, I was actually born on the day of the final, the third of May and I think during the actual game between Widnes and Hull KR!

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Back in those days, it wasn’t as easy to get in touch but my dad made a couple of telephone calls, checked everything was okay, celebrated the birth of his son – having had two girls previously – and it was a good weekend for him.

I went again to watch Cas in ‘92. I can remember little bits of the ‘86 one but ‘92 was the one I can really remember.

They got beat this time but Wigan were really, really dominant at that point and in the middle of that amazing run of winning the Cup eight years on the bounce.

Cas put up quite a good fight but Wigan were too good on the day.

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Having supported Cas, then, they were my main experiences of the Challenge Cup and Wembley in those early days.

To think, though, 13 years later, having left Wakefield and got nowhere near with them, I managed to get to the final with Leeds Rhinos in 2005.

It was my first ever final of any sort and against Hull. It was at Cardiff and something, at the time, I probably took for granted.

I’d just joined Leeds and a few months later was playing the Challenge Cup. We lost but I probably didn’t take it as hard as I’ve taken losses since then; I probably got a bit spoilt and thought these opportunities would come every year.

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But then moving to Australia meant I didn’t get another chance for a long time and – when I did – it was especially disappointing in 2013. The game itself against Wigan was terrible; if there was a BBC programme on the worst Challenge Cup finals I think that would be number one.

Certainly us being on the losing team made it even more disappointing.

But going back to that subject of births on Challenge Cup final day, there’s another one as my daughter was born that day.

My first thought after losing was disappointment but then it was straight to my wife Rachel and whether she was okay. Motu Tony came over and said she’d gone into labour but had said not to panic and she thought she’d be a while.

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I got back to the hotel and managed to have a couple of minutes with my mum and dad and then, because we’d lost, there was plenty of volunteers to whisk me back to Harrogate.

I don’t think anyone wanted to be in London to celebrate. James Clark put his hand up and he brought me back and my daughter was born in the early hours of the following morning.

But then came 2016. In terms of the history of the Challenge Cup – like we saw on Saturday’s programme – and everything involved with it, it was amazing.

When you think about the things we’d spoken about when I joined, like about being the first captain to win at Wembley, you do sometimes think it might never come to fruition.

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So for it to finally happen like that was a dream come true four years ago.

It’s something I’m really, really proud of and always will be.

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