"BOMBSHELL" TO SOCCER CLUB Evans Resigns As City Player-Coach

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31782, 12 September 1968, Page 17

"BOMBSHELL" TO SOCCER CLUB Evans Resigns As City Player-Coach

Less than a fortnight after leading his club to victory in the first southern league soccer championship, G. Evans yesterday announced his resignation from Christchurch City.

In a statement explaining his surprise move, he emphasised that he had not permanently retired from soccer, in any capacity.

Evans said that he made known his intention to resign to club officials on August 14 but it had been delayed for various reasons. However, it was now official.

“I have told the club directors that I will be vacating the position of player-coach at the end of the present season and its commitments,” he said. Demand On Time “Quite obviously, this was not a decision I came to easily. But at this time I feel I must take a break from the game or suffer the consequences. “Football for me has not just meant two nights a week training and playing on Saturdays. It has demanded of me much more than this in terms of preparation, analysis of games and individuals, and many such side issues that are an integral part of my methods of getting the best results from any group of players. “In this respect I have had the wholehearted co-opera-tion from all the players who have become more than just fellow team members. They have put as much into their training as professionals would in Britain, and I owe a great deal of my success at the club to them. “But it is also clear to me that I must devote more time to my family, home, and profession, all of which have been sadly neglected in the last few years. "The only way I could see of doing these things was to take a break from soccer. I felt I could resign at this time secure in the knowledge that the club will go on from strength to strength because of the precedents set in the last five years.

“Complete Break”

“Although my retirement may be only a temporary measure, I have told City that the club obviously cannot afford to treat it as such, and will have to seek a replacement coach on a permanent basis.

“My association with City has been a happy one and there are no ulterior reasons behind those I have given for my resignation. I have wanted to make a complete break from the game for some time, and this was the only way I could see of doing it” In the five years Evans has been player-coach of City he has transformed the club into the most successful in the country, City being listed as the outstanding team in the 1967 season by the “New Zealand Soccer Annual.”

Successive Victories

He came to Christchurch in April, 1963, from the London professional club, Crystal Palace, after his marriage to the former New Zealand table tennis champion, Miss Joyce Williamson.

City was then struggling near the foot of the Canterbury championship, but in the next four seasons won suc-

cessive Hurley Shield championships. The club’s senior team entered the southern league competition this season and won it after a stirring tussle with Rangers, while City’s second team this year representing the club in the Hurley Shield took the trophy for the fifth year in succession.

The only major title City failed to win during Evans’s period as player-coach was the Chatham Cup. The club reached the final in 1967 only to be beaten by the Auckland side, North Shore, against the run of play. He will still be available for Canterbury’s home-and-away matches against Otago for the Jones Cup on Saturday and the following Satur-

day, and to play for City against the central league champion, Western Suburbs, on October 6, if arrangements for this match are completed. The secretary of the City club, Mr E. P. Millward, said last evening that Evans’s decision would be “a bombshell to our supporters.” “The club is extremely sorry to lose Evans and is grateful to him for all the work he has done for City. We understand and appreciate his motives for resigning, but we hope that he might change his mind and rejoin the club when he has had a rest.

“In the meantime, however, the club will advertise in New Zealand and Britain for a player-coach or coach to replace Evans, although we know it will be extremely difficult to find someone to fill the gap.” Evans will not lack offers tempting him back into the game. Four Canterbury clubs approached last evening all expressed their interest. “Naturally, I would have to consider any offers that come along, but I would have to insist on taking the rest I need from the game,” he said.