Chatham Cup Games To Start Today

Press, Volume C, Issue 29506, 6 May 1961, Page 5

Chatham Cup Games To Start Today

SOCCER'S national interclub competition, the Chatham Cup, will make its 1961 start in several centres today. The Chatham Cup is the nearest thing in the Dominion to a national league, and as such it draws interest from all centres. Twelve teams have entered in the Christchurch section of the competition, and they will play a knock-out series of matches to determine the local winner. After playing off with winners from other centres, a South Island finalist will be found to meet the North Island finalist in Wellington later in the season. Winners of the local section of this competition in the last three seasons have been Technical in 1960, Western in 1959, and City in 1958. These appear again to be the three strongest teams in the competition. Last year Technical lost in the national final to North Shore (Auckland), in 1959 Western lost in the South Island final to Northern (Dunedin), which later beat North Shore to win the Cup, and in 1958 City lost in the final to Seatou'n (Wellington). Technical reached the final in 1957, and

Shamrock in 1956. Western won the Chatham Cup in 1955. It should not be hard to nominate the winners of today’s matches. Technical and City have shown good form this season, and should be able to cope with Neerlandia and the second division side, Lyttelton. Old Boys and Shamrock, although not playing as well, could be a little better than their opponents. Rangers and Wanderers.

The strong Western side will play a Hurley Shield fixture with Nomads, and Wigram (second division) and Thistle (third division) will also have byes. The Thistle players will be keen to do well in this competition to support their claim that they should have been placed in the second division. All the members of the competing teams will be seeking the coveted Chatham Cup medals which go to the winners. There are several who will be playing in this year’s local competition who already have such medals from previous victories These include K. Olley and M. Shardlow (Western), W. Logan (Technical), and P. Sanderson (Wanderers). Olley has two medals, being in the winning Western team in 1955 and also that which drew with North Shore in 1952. Shardlow was also in the winning 1955 team. Logan gained two medals with Seatoun in 1957 and 1958, scoring two goals in the 1957 match. Saunderson was in the Western side which won in . 1955, and he scored three goals in that match.