Caversham AFC
Caversham is an association football club based in Dunedin, New Zealand. They compete in the ODT FootballSouth Premier League.
| Full name | Caversham Association Football Club |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Cavy, Train |
| Founded | 1931 |
| Ground | Hancock Park, Dunedin |
| Capacity | 500- 536 |
| President | Phil Collings |
| Manager | Hamish Vodane |
| Coach | Richard Murray |
| League | ODT FootballSouth Premier League, Southern Football League |
| 2018 | ODT FootballSouth Premier League, 4th |
| Website | Club website |
They are named for the suburb of Caversham to the southwest of Dunedin's city centre, best known for its former international sports venue Carisbrook. Caversham AFC, however, are based not there but at Tonga Park, located one kilometre to the south in the suburb of Forbury.
Club history edit
Caversham AFC was founded in 1931, and has been based at Tonga Park throughout its history.
Caversham's premier team home strip is a white jersey with wide red band, white shorts, and red socks. The away strip is forest green shirt, greenish-white shorts, and forest green socks. Until 2009, their home strip was a red shirt with a broad horizontal black band edged in white, red shorts with a similar band across the left leg, and black socks. That kit is now used by the club's second XI.
Caversham competed in the former New Zealand national league from 1971 to 1973 and from 1975 to 1977, competing in the first of those seasons as part of an amalgamated Dunedin Suburbs team.[1] Their best performance came in 1976, when they finished third. They have reached the semi-finals of the Chatham Cup on six occasions (in 1970, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2011, and 2012), though they have yet to appear in a final.
Caversham won 15 titles from 2000 to 2017.
Caversham had a poor 2018 by their standards in the ODT Football South Premier League, finishing fourth after eight games. [2]
Notable Former squad members edit
- (GK) Jason Batty
- (FW) Nathan McCullum[3]
- (DF) Alex McGregor
- (GK/DF/MF/FW) Richard Murray
- (DF) Rupesh Puna
- (DF) Maurice Tillotson
Tonga Park edit
The club's home ground is Tonga Park. This lies immediately south of Caversham in the suburb of Forbury. Caversham's clubrooms are located on the west side of the ground, on Surrey Street (45°54′10″S 170°29′25″E / 45.90278°S 170.49028°E).
The park is bounded on two sides by schools – the twin single-sex secondary schools of King's High School and Queen's High School, and Macandrew Intermediate School. Originally used for rugby league and known by a variety of names, including Mammoth Park, The Stadium, and The Speedway, it was renamed Tonga Park (the Māori word for south) after it was purchased by the Dunedin City Council in 1932.[4]
References edit
- ^ "Caversham". The Ultimate New Zealand Soccer Website.
- ^ "Football South - Otago Senior Competitions". www.footballsouth.co.nz. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
- ^ Meikle, H. (5 August 2010) "Late bloomer *has no regret over switching pitches." Otago Daily Times, p.19
- ^ Goodall, M., and Griffiths, G. (1980) Maori Dunedin. Dunedin:Otago Heritage Books. p. 50.
External links edit
- Dunedin City Council's Tonga Park page[permanent dead link]