Cambridge Win the Over 35s
Cambridge sealed the Waikato over 35s league on Saturday 27th August with a comfortable 5-0 away vs Te Awamutu,
Goals from Pablo Harmazobal (2) Grant McIlmurray and Robbie Greenhalgh had them with the Champagne on ice at Half Time, a 2nd half strike from Miguel Peterle put the seal on the game and led to much popping off fizzy wine.
It all started back in February as a core group started training in the late summer heat - by the time of the first proper friendly game vs Papamoa came around on Feb 26th the team was starting too look fairly settled a 3-3 draw vs a very good Papamoa team was a good result - but even better was the positive results all round from the first wave of Covid,
A masterstroke by manager Brett Clark got most of the teams immunity up for the long winter ahead. By March the team was gelling quite nicely on the training ground, a series of interclub friendlies keeping us ticking over until the opening game of the season.
30th April - away to Melville Old Boys on what could only be described as a dust bowl, it looked like something left over from Woodstock 99' and maybe setting fire to it would have been a good idea. Cambridge tried to play some football but it was near impossible the Mevlille boys apologised for the state of the pitch and Cambridge gladly took 3pts, a 1-0 win - Grant McIlmurray with the 2nd half winner.
Into May and a first home game vs The Statesmen - a great performance from the team running out 10 nil winners - goals by Pablo Hormazabel (4) Miguel Peterle (2) Marcello Stiaque, Andrew Taylor, Darren Johnson and an OG.
Next up were defending champions Ngarawahia Presidents - on a sun battered pitch the game was an evenly contested battle which ultimately finished 0-0 although a last minute penalty which was waved away by the home ref should surely have seen Cambridge take all 3pts - it wasn't too be and a draw was a fair result based on the run of play.
The rest of May and June seen Cambridge have 12-0 win vs Claudelands Unathletico, and 8-1 win vs Te Awamutu - a 3 nil default win vs Melville (Covid thanks again Brett) a 15-0 win at home vs Cambridge Well Over 35s, 8 -1 win vs Northern Seniles, 5-0 vs Claudelands - during this time Ngarawahia were going on a similar run winning heavily each week and it was becoming obvious that the return match at Cambridge was going to decide the league winners.
A home game on the Athletics pitch vs Northern Gaffers was proving tricky going in 0-0 at half time on the small pitch seemed to suit the larger pack weight of the Gaffers - and they were certainly thrilled going in level at HT - however Robbie Greenhalgh drilled a 30 yarder into the top corner in the 46th minute and our South American strikers Miguel and Deivis followed up with a brace each, in the end a great 5-0 win.
Solid wins over The Statesmen (3-0), Claudelands (7-1) and Northern Gaffers (7-1) had set up the return game vs Ngarawahia - remarkably another 0-0 draw, which suited Cambridge due to goal difference - was another almighty battle with Ngarawahia pushing Cambridge deep into injury time but Cambridges defence which conceded a miserly 4 goals all season held firm and set themselves up for the final game away to
Te Awamutu to claim the league. Top Goalscorers Deivis Castillo - 13 Miguel Peterle - 13 Kieran Hill - 9 Paul McCann - 1 Scoring goals was the easy part - keeping clean sheets is never easy and massive credit to all the defence and Paul McCann for an outstanding season. A big thank you to our management team of Brett, Adrian, Jamie, and Robbie for running a well organised team and to our team Sponsor Ricoh for their support of the team.
