Double won in year of first league title

FOOTBALL

WAINUI last won football’s Eastern League Division 1 title in 2005, when they also won the Bailey Cup.

It was the first time the club had won the league.

A check of Gisborne Herald sports draw pages shows 1990 as the first year senior teams named Wainui took part in organised local football.

Club stalwart Mike Vita, who joined the club in its second year, thinks Wainui had links to the High School Old Boys football club, because one of the club’s original trophies has the High School Old Boys name on it.

He, himself, joined Wainui from the Thistle Boardriders team and brought with him a Boardriders trophy he’d won.

Vita said that Ronnie Young, long-time Thistle committee member and current president, told him he might as well take the trophy with him as the Boardriders were disbanding.

Football draws from 1989 have Boardriders in Eastern League Division 1 and High School Old Boys in Division 2.

In 1990, the draws have Boardriders still in Division 1, but no HSOB team in any division. Two new teams, Wainui Old Boys 1 and 2, appear in the Division 2 draws.

In 1991, Boardriders are nowhere to be found. Division 1 draws include Gisborne Hotel Wainui; Division 2 draws include Wainui Sharks and Dago’s Famous Pizzeria Wainui.

Vita says early Wainui club members included Julian Kohn, Tom Grimson, Mark Turnbull, Jonathan Bell, Neil Koevoet and Sandy Stirton.

When Sandbar Wainui won the league and cup double in 2005, Vita and Michael Ferguson, who joined in 1995, were the longest-serving members of the team.

Others were Matt Smith, Kane Stirton, Scott Hales, Jody Ure, Grant Dickson, Jeff Allen, Simon Blaker, Noel Amor, Greg Judd, Rory White and Nic Somerton.

Wainui beat Irish Rover Thistle 2-0 in the Bailey Cup final. Somerton scored both goals.

Thistle players in that game included Raymond Rickard, Dudley Meadows, Jared Owen, Regan Bailey, Ross Niven, Stu Clark, Jason Scott, Craig Stirton and Lytton High School students Albert Geuze and Jason Venema.

In 2005, Wainui also had a team in Division 2 (Wainui Sharks) and Division 3 (New Wave Wainui Demons).

The league and cup double is still possible for the 2021 team.