York City Knight and Featherstone Rovers to meet at Wembley

YORK CITY Knights will face Featherstone Rovers in an all-Yorkshire 1895 Cup final at Wembley on July 17.
On target: Feratherstone Rovers' Craig Hall kicked three conversions and a penalty in the win over Widnes. Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.comOn target: Feratherstone Rovers' Craig Hall kicked three conversions and a penalty in the win over Widnes. Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com
On target: Feratherstone Rovers' Craig Hall kicked three conversions and a penalty in the win over Widnes. Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com

A 36-22 home semi-final win over Swinton Lions sent York to Wembley for the first time since 1931.

Liam Salter got the hosts off to a flying start with a try after just five minutes, but Mike Butt levelled soon afterwards and Swinton took a shock lead at the end of the first quarter when Ronan Michael touched down and Martyn Ridyard boosted his second conversion to make it 12-6.

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The Knights responded through Marcus Stock on 24 minutes and Ryan Atkins finished off some good work by Matty Marsh to give the North Yorkshire side a narrow 18-12 interval lead.

Kriss Brining gave them some breathing space with a try from acting-half two minutes into the second period and 14 minutes later Danny Kirmond crossed to make it 30-12.

A second try by Butt gave Swinton a glimmer of hope just before the hour, but Mikey Lewis sealed Knights’ place in the final with a spectacular long-range score 11 minutes from time, Kieran Dixon landing his sixth conversion.

Butt completed his hat-trick in the final moments, with Ridyard’s goal ending the scoring.

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Rovers will be back at the national stadium for the first time since their famous win over Hull in the 1983 Challenge Cup final as they battled past Widnes Vikings, 24-18 in a thrilling semi-final at Post Office Road.

Fev’s Brad Day opened the scoring after just five minutes and crossed again four later, before Craig Kopczak powered over and Craig Hall’s second conversion made it 16-0 after just 11.

Widnes responded with tries by Ste Tyrer and Adam Lawton, both improved by the former, but, crucially, Rovers grabbed another score before half-time, Frankie Halton going in from Nu Brown’s break, with Hall adding the kick to make it 22-12 at the interval.

Adam Lawton set the home side’s nerves jangling when he touched down just before the hour mark, Tyrer landing his third goal, but the only scoring after that was a Hall penalty goal for the victors.

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