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Chatham Cup

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Chatham Cup
Organising bodyNew Zealand Football
Founded1923; 101 years ago (1923)
Region New Zealand
Number of teams128 (in 2024)
Domestic cup(s)Charity Cup
Current championsWellington Olympic (2nd title)
Most successful club(s)University-Mount Wellington
Christchurch United
(7 titles)
Television broadcastersFIFA+ (select games)
WebsiteOfficial website
2024 Chatham Cup

The Chatham Cup is New Zealand's premier knockout tournament in men's association football. It is held annually, with the final contested in September. The current champions of the Chatham Cup are Wellington Olympic, who defeated Auckland City on penalties in the final.

History

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The Chatham Cup trophy

The Chatham Cup is contested by teams from throughout New Zealand, and has been held annually since 1923 with the exception of 1937, 1941–44 and 2020. Typically between 120 and 150 teams take part, with extra time and penalty shoot-outs used to decide matches which end in ties. In the past, replays were used, and in the early years of the competition the number of corners won during a game decided tied matches.

The cup itself was gifted to the then New Zealand Football Association by the crew of HMS Chatham as a token of appreciation for the hospitality they had encountered on a visit to New Zealand. The cup, which cost £150, was presented to NZFA President Sir Charles Skerrett by Captain Cecil Burnaby Prickett on board the Chatham on 14 December 1922.[1] The actual trophy is modelled on the FA Cup.

The most successful teams in the Chatham Cup have been Christchurch United and Mount Wellington (seven wins, two of them since amalgamation with Auckland University); North Shore United has won six times. Most of the competition's winners have come from the main centres of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, though teams from Dunedin, Gisborne, Hamilton, Masterton, Nelson, and Napier have also won the competition, while the inaugural champions were from the small settlement of Seacliff, with many of the team being staff from the nearby psychiatric hospital.

The competition has been held every year since 1923 with six exceptions: the 1937 competition was cancelled due to a lack of entrants (only 12 teams applied to take part), four competitions (from 1941 to 1944) were cancelled due to World War II, and the 2020 competition was cancelled because of COVID-19.[2]

The early years

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Many of the early winners of the competition no longer exist, as competition was not effectively organised in New Zealand until the advent of a national league in 1970, and still remains largely amateur to this day. Many early New Zealand clubs have amalgamated with their neighbours or disbanded.

Prior to 1970, the final was held between the winners of separate North Island and South Island tournaments, with national semi-finals often being referred to as "Island finals".

In the early years of the competition, each regional association found its own champion to represent that region in the Chatham Cup, leading to confusion in many of the early records with regional finals, island finals, and the national final all often simply being referred to in contemporary reports as "finals". Further confusion is caused by the incomplete nature of many of the early competition records. It is only since the first publication of an annual New Zealand football yearbook in 1965 that any systematic record-keeping began to take place; earlier match reports and statistics are complete only inasmuch as the vagaries of newspaper sports reporting allowed.

Early Chatham Cup competitions were not well supported by the clubs, and the regulations surrounding entry to the competition were often financially prohibitive. The clubs themselves received only a tiny percentage of the money made in gate takings, and often had to travel considerably further to play matches than they did in the provincial leagues in which they competed. Concerns as to the costs involved and the limited financial support from the NZFA for entrants in the competition led to some teams disbanding as a result of the debts incurred, notably early winners Harbour Board.[3] The competition itself was so poorly supported by clubs as a result that it barely survived its first few seasons: only 30 clubs entered each of the first few years of the competition, despite over 450 clubs being registered with the country's football administration in 1924;[4] South Island participation in particular was poor, with only a handful of teams entering in the first few years, and the 1937 Cup was cancelled altogether due to only twelve teams nationwide having entered.

Despite this, large crowds often came to watch the matches, indicating their popularity with the public. The Wellington regional final in 1924 was played before a crowd of 1500 spectators,[5] one in sixty of Wellington's population at the time, and the 1928 national final was watched by a crowd of 6000.[6]: 68 

Post-war competition

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Support for the competition among clubs has gained momentum since travel has become easier around the country and the financial regulation of the competition have been eased. Since World War II, it has been typical for 100 to 150 teams to enter the competition.

Since the 1960s, tournaments have been organised with a preliminary round and (occasionally) a qualifying round, four or five rounds proper, quarter-finals, semi-finals, and the final. Competition begins in April, and the final is normally played in September. Early rounds are held on a regional basis, between teams within the country's three competition regions (northern North Island, southern North Island, South Island). Different publications often list different numbers for the rounds, making for some confusion as to whether the round before the quarter-finals is the fourth or fifth round in any particular year.

Between 1970 and 2003, when a national league was run between the country's top clubs, national league teams received byes to later stages of the cup competition. The current New Zealand Football Championship, which replaced this league, is contested between franchise teams rather than traditional clubs: these franchise teams do not compete in the Chatham Cup. There is currently no formal system of byes to later rounds (as there is, for example, in the FA Cup); several top sides do, however, gain byes through to the second round.

From 1986–1988, the final was contested on a two-match home and away series, but in other years the final has been a single match. In 1952, the final finished 1–1, and the title was shared. A replay was used to decide the 1970, 1972 and 1983 finals, and penalty shoot-outs decided the 1990 and 2001 finals.

Past winners

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See also: List of Chatham Cup Finals

Bob Smith Memorial Trophy

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The Bob Smith Memorial Trophy is traditionally awarded to the runners-up in the Chatham Cup, though this has not always been the case, notably in the years 1982 to 1997, when the trophy's location was unknown.[7] Details of each year's runners-up can be found in the individual articles on each year's competition.

Jack Batty Memorial Cup

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A Jack Batty Memorial Cup is presented annually to the player adjudged to have made the most positive impact in the Chatham Cup final. The trophy honours Jack Batty, who was both a member of the crew of HMS Chatham and also a three-time medallist in the early days of the tournament with Auckland Harbour Board, Tramways, and Tramurewa. The cup was donated by his son, John Batty, himself a Chatham Cup winner with Blockhouse Bay in 1970, and was first awarded to Greg Brown of Napier City Rovers in 1985.[6]: 176–177 [8]

Cup records

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Most cup wins

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Wins Club Years Notes
7 University-Mount Wellington 1973, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1990, 2001, 2003 First five wins as Mount Wellington
Christchurch United 1972, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1989, 1991, 2023
6 North Shore United 1952, 1960, 1963, 1967, 1979, 1986 Title shared in 1952
Eastern Suburbs 1951, 1953, 1965, 1968, 1969, 2015
5 Central United 1997, 1998, 2005, 2007, 2012
Napier City Rovers 1985, 1993, 2000, 2002, 2019
4 Waterside 1938, 1939, 1940, 1947
Western 1936, 1945, 1952, 1955 Title shared in 1952
Manurewa AFC 1929, 1931, 1978, 1984 First as Tramways in 1929, then Tramurewa in 1931
Miramar Rangers 1966, 1992, 2004, 2010
Cashmere Technical 1948, 2013, 2014, 2021 First win as Christchurch Technical
3 Petone 1928, 1930, 1949
Waitakere City 1994, 1995, 1996
Western Suburbs 1935, 1971, 2006 First win as Hospital AFC

Most appearances in final

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Finals Wins Club Most recent appearance Notes
12 7 University-Mount Wellington 2003* first 10 appearances as Mount Wellington
12 6 North Shore United 1995
10 7 Christchurch United 2023*
10 6 Eastern Suburbs 2022
10 4 Cashmere Technical 2021* first six appearances (including one win) as Technical Old Boys, seventh appearance as Christchurch Technical.
9 5 Central United 2017
9 4 Western 1966
8 5 Napier City Rovers 2019*
8 2 Northern 1962
7 3 Waitakere City 2016

NOTE: An asterisk in the "most recent appearance" column indicates that the team won the Chatham Cup in the year indicated [9]

Other records

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* Does not include two-legged finals. The 1972 match referred to is the first match, which finished 4–4.

Media coverage

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In September 2023, New Zealand signed a deal to have select Chatham Cup games streamed for free on FIFA+ worldwide.[10][11]

Notes

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  1. ^ Houston, J., (1952) Association football in New Zealand. Wellington: A.H. & A. W. Reed. p. 33.
  2. ^ "Chatham Cup a casualty as New Zealand Football cancel cup competitions in coronavirus crisis". Stuff. 23 April 2020. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
  3. ^ "Chatham Cup Fiasco". National Library of New Zealand. No. 1127. NZ Truth. Papers Past. p. 15. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  4. ^ "Soccer Sidelights". National Library of New Zealand. No. 958. NZ Truth. Papers Past. 5 April 1924. p. 9. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  5. ^ "Soccer". National Library of New Zealand. No. 972. NZ Truth. Papers Past. 12 July 1924. p. 8. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  6. ^ a b Hilton, Tony; Smith, Barry (1991). An Association with Soccer: The NZFA Celebrates Its First 100 Years. New Zealand Football. ISBN 978-0473012915.
  7. ^ "Missing trophy mentioned in 1998 final report". Archived from the original on 5 July 2008. Retrieved 28 September 2008.
  8. ^ Smith, Rab (18 June 2011). "Football: Top sides in Chatham Cup tie". Otago Daily Times. Archived from the original on 27 April 2021. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  9. ^ "Chatham Cup". Ultimate NZ Soccer. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
  10. ^ "New Zealand Football signs long-term partnership with FIFA+ to make international friendlies and domestic competitions free to watch". New Zealand Football. 22 September 2023. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
  11. ^ "How to watch New Zealand football live on FIFA+". FIFA. 16 October 2023. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
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