The carved taonga will be contested whenever Gisborne Thistle play Napier City Rovers, and is intended to celebrate the success of both clubs.
Len Cudd died on April 26, 2021, at the age of 73.
Despite Saturday’s loss, City Rovers remain on top of the Central Federation League, with six points from two wins, while Thistle are second, with four points from a win and a draw. They had the bye in the first week of the five-team competition.
Now Thistle must lift themselves for another away match, this time north of the Bombay Hills, when they take on Papakura City in a Chatham Cup preliminary-round match at McLennan Park at 1pm tomorrow.
All Saturday’s game needed was for someone to shout, “Next goal the winner,” for the park-like atmosphere to be complete. But had that call been made, spectators would have been denied the last two goals — both scored deep into stoppage time after the 11th goal had been scored in the last minute of normal time.
Veteran goal-sniffer Davie Ure came on for the Jags in the second half to play a crucial role in the closing stages. He scored Thistle’s fifth and seventh goals with two sharp pieces of play in a crowded penalty area.
Early in the first half, Thistle had gone two goals down and it looked as though the Jags would be in for a long, hard afternoon.
Smith, having switched from the left wing to the right, gave Thistle hope when he broke through, one on one with Napier goalkeeper Ben Graney, who narrowed the angle and turned Smith’s shot away for a corner.
Attacking midfielder David Salmon’s right-wing corner was headed out by a Napier defender, but only as far as the D of the penalty area, where Jags winger Sam Royston hit a right-foot volley that cannoned down off the crossbar into the back of Graney and across the line.
Napier went 3-1 up with a goal from the penalty spot after referee Grant Bundle ruled handball when a Napier shot appeared to hit centreback Cai Maclean’s leg and then his hand.
Close to halftime, Smith closed the score to 3-2 when he took on the Napier leftback, beat him with pace and fired a blistering shot from a narrow angle into the far corner of the goal.
Smith continued tormenting the Napier defence after the break. He attacked down the right again, beat his marker to the byline and cut the ball back to Somerton, whose first-time sidefoot shot from six metres levelled the scores.
Within five minutes, Somerton had put Thistle ahead, 4-3, with a carbon copy of their third goal, Smith again getting to the byline and cutting the ball back for the striker’s first-time finish. A minute later, Napier attacked down their left flank, cut in and equalised with a shot from the edge of the penalty area.
Former Thistle player Alex Davies joined the fray for Napier midway through the second half but could do little to restore sanity to a crazy game.
Thistle goalkeeper and captain Mitchell Stewart-Hill had made several good saves in the first half and kept Napier from regaining the lead with another good save. But he was powerless to stop a shot that hammered the underside of the bar. The ball bounced down and away, and Thistle breathed easier, for a while.
They went 5-4 up when Salmon’s right-wing corner was cleared as far as rightback Sam Patterson, whose shot fell to Ure around the penalty spot for him to stab into a corner of the goal.
By now it was almost inevitable that the ball would go down the other end and Napier would score, which is what happened, by way of a right-wing attack.
Smith’s second-half performance will give Napier’s defenders nightmares for weeks to come. He broke through again and Graney narrowed the angle and saved well.
Almost immediately, Smith repeated the dose, and this time he was brought down in the penalty area.
Somerton took the kick, Graney blocked it and Somerton buried the rebound to bring up his hat-trick and give Thistle a 6-5 lead.
Into stoppage time, anything seemed possible as Napier surged forward. Thistle conceded a free kick on the edge of their penalty area, possibly for hand ball, it doesn’t matter. They took too long to set up and Napier took advantage, playing the ball in to a player in space big enough to park cars . . . 6-6.
Three minutes of stoppage time had passed. Two more were almost up when the ball fell to Ure again in a packed penalty area. He kept his nerve and beat a player to give himself room for the left-foot shot that decided the game. Thistle go into tomorrow’s Chatham Cup game knowing they can score goals. Stopping them at the other end is the challenge.
The Thistle players who started in Saturday’s memorable game were: goalkeeper Mitchell Stewart-Hill, fullbacks Andre Baple and Sam Patterson, centrebacks Finn McAuley and Cai Maclean; midfielders Ash McMillan, Nick Land and David Salmon; and forwards Sam Royston, Jimmy Somerton and Oska Smith. Ander Batarrita, Ure and Daniel Venema came on as substitutes in the second half.
