Modern Developments
The county leagues were abolished in 1970, and the county cups followed in 1993. New competitions have replaced them, and at times there have been up to six cups. The only team to win all the silverware on offer since Swinton was Wigan, who achieved a four cup triumph in 1994-95. They won the championship, beat Leeds 69-24 in the Premiership final, defeated Leeds again 30-10 in the Challenge Cup final and overcame Warrington 40-10 in the Regal Trophy final.
Bradford won the 2002-03 Challenge Cup final 22-20 against Leeds, were the Super League leaders in 2003, won the 2003 Championship 25-12 against Wigan and beat Penrith Panthers 22-4 in February 2004 for the World Club Challenge. They thus held all four 'modern' cups at once, though they were not from the same season, strictly speaking.
St. Helens repeated Bradford's feat by winning the Challenge Cup, League Leader's Shield and the Championship in 2006 and the World Club Challenge in February 2007.
There are currently four trophies available to the top clubs:
- Challenge Cup (available to all clubs)
- Super League Championship
- League Leader's Shield
- World Club Challenge
Read more about this topic: All Four Cups
Famous quotes containing the words modern and/or developments:
“A building is akin to dogma; it is insolent, like dogma. Whether or no it is permanent, it claims permanence, like a dogma. People ask why we have no typical architecture of the modern world, like impressionism in painting. Surely it is obviously because we have not enough dogmas; we cannot bear to see anything in the sky that is solid and enduring, anything in the sky that does not change like the clouds of the sky.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“The developments in the North were those loosely embraced in the term modernization and included urbanization, industrialization, and mechanization. While those changes went forward apace, the antebellum South changed comparatively little, clinging to its rural, agricultural, labor-intensive economy and its traditional folk culture.”
—C. Vann Woodward (b. 1908)