Caversham AFC

Caversham AFC

Full name	Caversham Association Football Club
Nickname(s)	Cavvy
Founded	1931
Ground	Tonga Park, Dunedin (Capacity: 500- 536)
Coach	Richard Murray
League	ODT FootballSouth Premier League
2010	1st
Home colours Away colours

Caversham is an illustrious association Football club in Dunedin, New Zealand. They are competing in the ODT FootballSouth Premier League.

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

Caversham's premier team home strip is red shirt with white sleeves, plain white shorts, and white 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, but that kit was inherited by the seconds as a hand-me-down.

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. Their best performance came in 1976, when they finished third. They have reached the semi-finals of the Chatham Cup on five occasions (in 1970, 2006, 2007, 2010, and 2011), though have yet to appear in a final.

In recent years, Caversham have enjoyed great success in the ODT FootballSouth Premier League, winning six consecutive seasons from 2004 to 2009.

Current 2011 Squad

Jeremy Wild

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Callum Flaws 3 DF Simon Ward 4 DF Tom Schwarz 5 DF Mike Smith 6 MF Hamish Chang 7 MF Reid Usedom 8 FW Tom Jackson 9 MF Seamus Ryder 10 FW Anthony Hancock 11 MF Anton Ross

No. Position Player 12 DF Jeremy Wild 14 FW Evan Jones 15 FW Darren Overton (captain) 16 MF Patrick Fleming 17 DF Tim Horner 18 MF Harley Rodeka 19 DF Ben Hawkey 20 MF Harry Shaw RGK GK Dave O'Donovan RRGK GK Neil Birch

Former squad members

• (GK) Jason Batty
• (FW) Nathan McCullum^[1]
• (DF) Alex McGregor
• (GK/DF/MF/FW) Richard Murray
• (DF) Rupesh Puna
• (DF) Maurice Tillotson

Tonga Park

The home ground of Caversham 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, at 45°54′10″S 170°29′25″E / 45.90278°S 170.49028°E / -45.90278; 170.49028.

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.^[2]

The Mosgiel goalkeeper stops a Caversham cross from reaching its target, Tonga Park, Dunedin, 31 July 2010. Caversham are playing in the red and white strip.

References

1. ^ Meikle, H. (5 August 2010) "Late bloomer *has no regret over switching pitches." Otago Daily Times, p.19
2. ^ Goodall, M., and Griffiths, G. (1980) Maori Dunedin. Dunedin:Otago Heritage Books. p. 50.

External links

• Club website
• SoccerOtago Caversham page
• Dunedin City Council's Tonga Park page