TKU 8th Grade win Digger Douglas Tournament at Onehunga – 7 May 2006.

On Sunday, Morocco the 8th Grade representative side won the Onehunga/Mangere Digger Douglas tournament.  In what was a tough competition so early in our season the boys performed extremely well to come away with a 2 goals to 1 win over East Coast Bays in the final. In the round robin they defeated Papakura Rangers 4 nil, Onehunga/Mangere Kiwis 12 nil, Birkenhead 3 nil and drew 1 all with Central Jedis.  The winner went straight through to the final.

Congratulations to the whole team.

Back row – Coaches Paul Tombleson and Richard Sullivan

Middle row – Oliver Hall, Finn Sullivan, Ryan Curtis, Gabriel Sutton, Henry Russell

Front row – Bradley Sauvarin, Jacob Brown, Benn Tombleson, William East

TKU Junior Girls –9th Grade versus Metro Club

(19 April 2006)

An eagerly awaited first real game of the season for the 9th grade girls was recently played against a visiting Metro team (of 9th and 10th grade girls) from Mt Albert.  The weather was brilliant, the temperature cool and the anxiety amongst both teams was high. It might have been because this game was being filmed by TV 2 Disney network programme for kids.

From the kick off, TKU started to show the efforts of their pre-season development squad training under the guidance of Selwyn Bradley, and Mark Carter’s academy coaching. It took a little while for both teams to settle down. Martine Puketapu opened the scoring for TKU in the first half with a fine effort strike. Metro attacked well, but the presence of diminutive “Sammy” ensured no one was getting past TKU’s last line of defence. Some excellent passing by TKU’s mid field enabled Margarita Babich to secure TKU’s second goal, and by half time, Martine had added another goal to make it 3 – 0.

The half time break was longer than usual. The TV film crew wanted every valuable minute with the girls from both teams, to share their feedback of the first half, and comments as to their second half strategies.

Well, whatever the strategies, Martine managed two further goals before full time. To their credit, Metro scored a very good and well deserved last minute goal to make the final score 5 – 1 to TKU. Thanks to both teams, parents, coaches and supporters (and the TV crew). 

Be watching the real highlights of the game - ‘Half Time’ on TV 2, on Saturday April 29th, from 7-8:30am (it is only a 3 min segment).

Back L to R: Annabelle Malone, Martine Puketapu, Grace Harrison, Catherine Rose, Danielle Taylor

Middle: Samantha Hayr, Zoe Bertenshaw, Nicole Lawrence Front: Margarita Babich, Charlotte Leece.

8th grade TKU Girls v Metro

The 8th grade girls played their first game of the season against the Metro Girls 9th grade. Although they did lose 2-0 with both goals coming in the first half they really played well with a lot of desire and determination.

The player of the day for the team was Isabella Nucifora who played a tenacious game especially in the second half on defence.

Special mention should also go to Hilary Lindsay who played her first game ever at goalkeeper and did a great job under pressure and also to Emma Phelps playing superb in her first season of soccer.

Ian Campbell.

 Back L to R: Rachael Banbury, Emily Ball, Isabella Nucifora, Brooke Whiteman, Hilary Lindsay

 Front: Emma Phelps, Veronica Gregan, Celina Campbell, Emily Steven

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