A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
LACK of training could be an excuse for Carpet Court Thistle’s slow start to the football season.
They are up and running now, though, and on Saturday they beat a competitive Bohemians side 4-2 at Nelson Park to record their fourth win in a row and move to third on the Eastern League Division 1 table.
His side have coach Ron Young pulling his hair out one minute and smiling indulgently the next.
“They’re a great bunch of guys,” he said.
“On Saturday they were feeling so good about the game they said they’d try to train on Thursday. Normally, they don’t have a set training night. Some of them train with the first team, and any others who turn up train with John Stirton’s Thistle Massive team.”
Young wasn’t holding his breath about that training session tonight. His side are a mixture of old heads who know their way around a football field and eager young bucks willing to cover every blade of grass on it.
Young gave them a pep talk before the game; told them to try not to concede the first goal of the match.
They responded with 20 minutes of beautiful football, passing triangles, the lot . . . and two goals, courtesy of rightback and stand-in skipper Stefan Faber and left-flank midfielder Lief Keown, two of Thistle’s best on the day.
But the Bohs came back at them and the second half of the first spell was a battle. It was no surprise when Matt Sowerby, helping out the first team, got the decisive strike in a goalmouth scramble to halve the deficit for the Bohs.
“We were relieved when halftime came,” Young said.
“I told the guys we had to get back to the sort of football we’d played at the start. They did that, and we scored two quick goals, through Olly Tilley and Dave Watson.
“Olly is our top goalscorer at the moment and is playing well in attack. Dave is a big influence in midfield for us, and he had another good game despite feeling ill.
“He and our player of the day, Reece Brew, played just in front of the back four and fed Riva Crosbie on the right and Lief on the left, and linked up with Phill Gill in the middle.
“Riva sent in cross after cross and caused their defence all sorts of problems, and Lief’s battling play was rewarded with his first goal of the season.”
Young made special mention of goalkeeper Raymond Rickard, who played on despite a heavy leg-knock he received in the first half.
Thistle had several players unavailable, and only one reserve. By playing on — and for any injured player this can be dicing with the possibility of more serious injury — Rickard allowed the outfield players to be rotated.
In central defence, Daniel Venema and Tim Hofman continued their solid form.
The Bohs kept testing Thistle and got some reward near the end when Brent Cryer scored with a header.
For Bohs, player of the day Caleb Craig on the right wing, centreback Tyson Maraki, central midfielder Sowerby and striker Steve White were outstanding.
Referee Ian Sambrook controlled the game well.
In other Division 1 games, Wainui Demons drew 2-2 with Riverina at Wainui, second-placed United beat United (2) 3-0 at Anzac Park, and table-topping Thistle Massive beat Gisborne Boys’ High School 8-1 at Childers Road Reserve.
This Saturday, Carpet Court Thistle have the opportunity to avenge their first-round 3-1 loss to Demons. The teams meet at Wainui at 2.30pm.
Division 2 got goal-happy at the weekend. Competition leaders Wairoa Athletic beat second-placed Thistle Vintage 8-4 in Wairoa and last-placed Liquid Thistle Allsorts lost 5-4 to mid-table battlers Smash Palace Shockers at Childers Road Reserve.
Upset of the week, though, belonged to Bohemians (3), who beat Ngatapa Silkies 3-1 at Nelson Park, the week after the Bohs second team lost 2-1 to Ngatapa at Patutahi.
The thirds stay in ninth place but their victory helped the club’s second team vault the men from Patutahi into third place.
In other games, United (3) beat Campion College 3-1 at Anzac Park, Lytton High School and Boys’ High (2) drew 1-1 at Lytton, and Bohemians (2) beat Boys’ High (3) 10-0 at Nelson Park.
Division 2 game to watch could be sixth-placed Shockers against seventh-placed Lytton, at Lytton at 12.30pm.