Minor Association Teams Do Well In Chatham Cup

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30511, 5 August 1964, Page 15

Minor Association Teams Do Well In Chatham Cup

170 R the first time in the - 1 41-year-old history of the Chatham Cup—the supreme club competition in New Zealand soccer—teams from two minor associations may meet in the final: Nelson Rangers and Thistle (Palmerston North). Both will be playing in the island finals next Saturday, Rangers against Dunedin Technical at Nelson and Thistle against Mt Roskill at Wellington. In 1962, Hamilton Technical Old Boys became the first minor association team to win the cup when they beat the Dunedin club, Northern, 4-2.

Thistle caused the biggest Chatham Cup upset for many years when it overwhelmed Miramar Rangers, the Wellington champions, 6-0, in a North Island zone final. Nelson Rangers caused another upset, in a South Island zone final, by defeating the Christchurch champions and last season’s national finalist. Nomads, 3-2, after extra time.

A victory for either of these teams in the national final would give minor association soccer another tre-

mendous boost, but they face difficult tasks winning their island finals.

Mount Roskill put paid to the hopes of last year’s cup winner, North Shore, in the Auckland provincial final. H. Darby scoring the deciding goal of five with a diving header in the last minutes of extra time. Two of Roskill’s outstanding players in this game were the New Zealand world tourist centre-half, J. G. Kemp, and the brilliant goalkeeper, A. Cozens. . Dunedin Technical, which lost to North Shore in the final of the Rothmans tournament after beating Nomads in the South Island final, has had an easy passage since winning the Otago competition. It reached the zone final with a 7-0 win over Oamaru, and then outplayed the Invercargill club, Waihopai, 9-2. However, both these games were played on the Caledonian ground at Dunedin, and Technical may find, as Nomads did, that Nelson Rangers are a different prospect at home. The match will be played at Trafalgar Park which the Nelson Rugby Union has lent to the Football Association.

Technical and Rangers both have outstanding goalkeepers who have played for the South Island—B. Davidson and W. Milne respectively. Where Technical will probably have the greater advantage is in the half-back line of J. Kroon, E. Smith and B. Boomer. Kroon and Boomer are two of the finest young wing-halves in the country, while Smith, a South Island representative, was a trialist for New Zealand’s world touring team. Little is known of the Thistle team in the South Island, although it made one appearance in Christchurch, playing Nomads in a friendly

match before the season started. The game was played at Rangers Park and ended in a 2-2 draw.

The players who starred in Thistle’s victory over Miramar Rangers were the left-back, J. Habets, and the young inside-left, R. Armitage. These two players controlled play for the Palmerston North club.