With the British Army having been knocked out of the 2025 Challenge Cup yesterday afternoon by Wests Warriors, the only remaining armed forces side, the Royal Navy, sought progress towards a third-round home tie against the Leigh Leopards but faced a daunting task as they entertained Workington Town.

A win today would see the Navy into the third round for only the third time in their Challenge Cup history, but the bookies favourites were professional side Workington Town, who lifted the trophy in the 1951-52 season after beating Featherstone Rovers at Wembley.

London Broncos travelled from Plough Lane in Wimbledon to Derwent Park in Workington in a bid to get their season on track and move out of the bottom two in the Betfred Championship against bottom placed club Workington Town, who were themselves seeking to get their own season underway with a first win.

The hosts' coach Chris Thorman refused to underplay the importance of the game for the side promoted from League 1 last year, but insisted the main thing he was looking for was consistency and performance against the team just above them with a record of one win and one draw.

A place in the Betfred Championship awaited the winners of the League One play-off game between Workington Town and Doncaster as the two sides battled it out to join the Barrow Raiders in promotion after reaching the end of season crunch match.

Doncaster won both encounters between the two sides in 2021 including a 26-24 win the last time that they visited Derwent Park at the end of May.

Workington Town, who finished the regular season as runners up to their near neighbours, were slight (-2) favourites with the bookies they entered the arena for this ‘all or nothing’ encounter after both clubs had scares in their semi-finals.

Betfred One knockout football was hosted in Newcastle as the Thunder took on Workington Town for a last semi-final place against Doncaster next weekend.

There was a couple of belting matches between these two sides on back to back weekends earlier in the season which saw Workington triumph on both occasions but only by the narrowest of two and one point margins.

When the sides last met it was at Kingston Park when it was the home side who scored a 48-10 win on the 30th June.

Newcastle finished the season eight points ahead of todays opponents and were favourites for the win today and the chance to have another shot at Doncaster, especially as Workington only arrived with a squad of fourteen players.

Eight Betfred Championship league one teams kicked off the opening round of the inaugral 1896 Cup, which will culminate in a Wembley final on Challenge Cup Final day, the 24th August.

They will be joined by the twelve English Championship sides for round two to be played over the first weekend in June.

The South Leeds Stadium was the venue as Hunslet faced a Workington Town side under the new custodianship of Chris Thorman, who was only appointed towards the end of last week following the sacking of Leon Pryce.

Workington reportedly travelled to Hunslet with a squad of just fourteen players and the home side were clear favourites, currently sitting in second place in the league ladder.

A place in the Championship was up for grabs as Leon Pryce’s Workington Town travelled down the M6 to take on Stuart Littler’s Swinton Lions in the last game of the domestic season.

Having finished bottom of the Championship ladder the Lions knew that they would be up against as they welcomed the side who pushed York and Bradford all the way in Championship One and now hoped to join them in the second tier next season.

This crucial game was being held at Swintons home ground of Haywood Road in Sale as the lower division side were forced to travel.

The two sides last met over two years ago when Swinton won by 19-12, but with Swinton not having won in their last four, this was anyones game as the Lions took on the Marras.

After suffering their first defeat of the season in the opening game of the Championship One Super 8s at the hands of the York City Knights, the previously all-conquering Toronto Wolfpack travelled to Cumbria to take on Workington Town.



The Wolfpack demonstrated their vulnerability last week, and after Workington Town registered a victory over Newcastle Thunder in the opening round of the eights, they came into today's game full of confidence.



Poor weather conditions were a potential leveller but Toronto were still firm favourites.