Sunnyside Exhibition

Sept 4 1926, the Sunnyside Club had without doubt it's proudest moment when Jim Callaghan led the Premiers out onto the hallowed turf of The Basin Reserve, Wellington, for what would turn out to be one of the most one sided Chatham Cup finals in the history of the great event.

'Twas with similar pride, and a lump in the collective throat of the Strikers, that Roni G led them onto the Sunnyside #1 Ground, September 15 for the inaugural playing of the Archie Trotter memorial trophy; a match played between the two highest ranked Sunnyside teams for a crate of the best.

A mix of barmy tropical weather, and some colorful supporters led to quite a carnival atmosphere, with Steven McGroggan a.k.a The Ginger Ninja taking The Fred Astaire award in the early minutes for some of the fanciest footwork seen since Laughts tripped the light fantastic with a marques pole at Boka's farewell. A stunned Sunnyside A squad regrouped well to their credit, and early into the second stanza slipped one by Jesus who was left flummoxed. Fingers were pointed with gay abandon, but the Strikers new what they had to do, and set about doing it. A swaray of missed attempts led to The Fonz taking matters into his own hands, dribbling the length of the field and crossing the perfect ball for Packers big long neck to get onto, only to be ruled that he had crossed the goal line, thus the goal was disallowed. Moments later however, Dirty Dave Bird put through the ball of the day, which only an oath could have blundered. Lucky for Drag'M it struck him kindly on the shin pad, and found the bottom left of the A's Onion sack. 2-1 to the Strikers, and some niggly defence by the ever present back four, saw the shop well and truly shut up.

Special credit must go out to Girls Farts, The Enforcer and Matty Mark Mike, who were all good enough to have a run for the opposition, whilst The Fonz and Trig did a sterling job with the whistle. Big ups must also go to Roni G's managerial brilliance, which saw an attempt to pull the old "slip an extra player on at half time, no one will notice" maneuver, which was sadly foiled by some quick counting by Bobby Brown who had in fact been ball boy when Archie Trotter scored his hat trick in 1926 to see the "Sunnyside Invincible's" bring home the bacon against a hapless North Shore.