Masterton Athletic 'were first'

Wairarapa United will be following in the footsteps of Masterton Athletic when they play Waitakere City in a Chatham Cup quarterfinal football match at the Pugh Sports Bowl on July 24.
In a letter to the Times Age, New Zealand Football honorary historian, Barry Smith of Auckland, says reports that Wairarapa United were the first team from this region to make the quarters in the 89-year history of this knockout competition are incorrect.
That honour fell to to the Masterton Athletic squad who who were among the last eight standing in 1956.
Mr Smith writes: "Under the cup format at that time, and one followed from 1923 until 1971, football associations throughout the country ran their own qualifying competitions. The winners of these advanced to one of the four provincial series - Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury and Otago.
"The arrangement was logical as a team from the main centres normally had to survive three or four more rounds to represent their association, whereas a team from a smaller centre normally had a much easier path. This was the case in 1956, with Masterton Athletic being the only Wairarapa Chatham Cup entry.
"In the first of the provincial games, Masterton Athletic had to travel to Palmerston North to play the Manawatu representative Kiwi United. In a match, acclaimed by many as the most thrilling game seen for a long time, the score see-sawed before Masterton finally triumphed 5-4 after extra time of 15 minutes each way. At the time, Kiwi United was regarded as one of the strongest clubs outside the main centres. Goal scorers for Masterton were Cam McEwing, Stuart Ruck, John McGorram, Trevor Bailey and Eldert Venema.
"In the next round, Masterton Athletic faced Napier Athletic at South Park, winning comfortably 2-0 to advance to the provincial semifinal. The scorer of both goals was Kees Donsen.
"Again Masterton had home advantage, a significant factor considering the opposition was Taranaki club Moturoa, who had eliminated Wanganui Settlers 5-3 in the previous round.
"After a solid performance, Masterton led 5-1 late in the second spell but Moturoa came back to narrow the score. A sixth goal from the home team made the final score 6-3. A feature of this game was the three goals scored by Masterton inside right Ruck. McEwing, Venema and McGorram contributed the other goals.
"And so to the provincial final against Stop Out from Wellington, again played at Masterton.
"The venue for the provincial final alternated between Wellington (odd years) and a provincial location (even years). Thus Stop Out had to travel to Masterton for the 1956 Wellington provincial final.
"With 10 minutes to play, Masterton Athletic trailed 3-4. Unfortunately left half Jo Groot received a bad injury. He did not leave the field but his immobility allowed Stop Out winger Brian Sargent to roam free. Stop Out capitalised on this to score three more goals and take the match 7-3. The goal scorers for Masterton were McEwing and Donsen (two).
"While a 3-7 loss might appear a trouncing, the score was exactly that by which the winners Stop Out prevailed over Eastern Suburbs of Auckland in the North Island final of the Chatham Cup three weeks later.
"Consider, too, that in 1956 Wairarapa had no senior competition so securing matches was a problem. Apart from Chatham Cup fixtures, Athletic had little other than friendly Sunday matches with Wellington clubs to measure itself against.
"Many critics were of the opinion the Chatham Cup winner in 1956 would come from the North Island final and indeed that was so, with Stop Out downing Shamrock from Canterbury 4-1 in the national final."
The Masterton Athletic squad for the 1956 season contained seven Dutch, five English and three Kiwi players. It was: Treno Marnett, Peter Jacobs, Jo Vunderink, Bill Sewell, Jimmy Knight, Eldert Venema, Jo Groot, Peter Bailey, Charlie Beard, Trevor Bailey, Stuart Ruck, Kees Donsen, Cam McEwing, John McGorram, J. Rikki.