NUAFC 1968-2018

1998
There’s only one Ngaruawahia
SUNDAY NEWS, August 2nd 1998
Ngaruawahia has had its share of problems but a local soccer team is proving
there is still a heartbeat in the Waikato heartland.
Dylan Cleaver reports
Ngaruawahia translated means the pits (for storing
food) broken open.
If 11 local lads perform near miracles in two week’s
time, several pits or fridges in Dunedin will be broken open.
Then they’ll be ransacked for food, drink and
anything else the gathering throng of Ngaruawahia United
Association Football Club followers can get their hands on.
And throw in a couple or twenty bottles of
champagne with that lot too.
But the atmosphere will be deathly quiet in the
clubrooms at Centennial Park, Ngaruawahia’s home ground.
Every ardent supporter is doing their best to ensure they get
down to Dunedin to follow the team in their Chatham Cup
semi-final.
They’re lobbying hard to get the date changed from
Sunday, August 16th to Saturday August 15th. The reason is
simple according to club president Maxine Williams.
They’re just young fellas mainly and they need an early night
on Sunday.
“Everybody wants to go down and support them and
it makes it easier when you can get back on Sunday,” she
said.
It’s a minor miracle they’ve made it to the semifinals
of New Zealand’s most prestigious soccer competition.
If they progress past the favoured Dunedin
Technical into the final it could be compared on a less
grandiose scale to the Maldive Islands qualifying for the
World Cup finals or the Netherlands Antilles beating the
White Sox at softball.
Wait a minute, that happened. And Wimbledon beat
Liverpool in the FA Cup final and Sunderland beat Leeds and
Munster beat the All Blacks and Spinks beat Ali . . . you get
the point.
Strange things happen, just ask Mulder and Scully.
Ngaruawahia
Population 5400, about 6500 in the ward.
Like many small towns around Godzone it’s a
struggle to get good press. As Williams can testify locals
could do with some.
God yeah. In 18 months first we had the train crash
and then the floods.”
And riding above these acts of human error and
nature is the general perception the Waikato hamlet is a town
going nowhere ... fast.
The area’s big employer, the Affco freezing works at
Horotiu, is not the force it once was and high unemployment
is the result.
But United are living proof community spirit and a
tight-knit circle of friends can rise above the ordinary. In a
league stronghold, soccer is now hogging the limelight thanks
to the determined few.
Established out of Ngaruawahia High School in
1967 [sic], United is essentially a family club. Nothing new
here, most clubs appeal to prospective members by
announcing they are family oriented.
In United’s case this should be believed.
Stalwarts of the club, Andy is best known for
preparing the ground in the morning, going home to get
changed, playing in the afternoon and whirling the sticks as a
drummer in the band which provides clubroom entertainment
long into the night.
Maxine Williams isn’t president by fluke either.
Her son Matthew, 20, has played for the club since he was
four and has captained United on its giant-killing run.
Maxine’s partner has been the manager of the side.
The treasurer’s husband plays in the team. And then
there’s Charlie.
Despite their cup heroics, United is floundering in
mid-table in Northern League Division One. Last week it lost
to struggling South Auckland 1-0 at home. But as Maxine
said: “We weren’t on old Charlie’s ground.”
Old Charlie Gorman’s son was a founder playing
member of the club and Charlie coach the club’s first junior
team, known in posterity as “Charlie’s Angels.” When he
died he requested his ashes be spread over his favourite
ground; Centennial Park No 1. His spirit is said to be a great
help to the team. especially where his ashes are spread.
Ngaruawahia
Captained by a 20-year-old and held together by two
young centre-backs of quality.
Captain Williams gives his Green & White army
every chance of beating the bad boys from the big smoke.
He says they are a “bloody good team”, a fact which
has been lost with all the sentimentality surrounding their cup
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