Cambridge FC

The club was founded in 1948 and has played at John Kerkhof Park, Cambridge, New Zealand, since 1967. The teams play in red and white, a legacy of the club's first president Vic Butler's support of Arsenal F.C..[5]

The club achieved its first significant success at senior level, winning the Northern League's 4th Division (South) in 1984 and again in 1986. In 1989, it won the Northern League 3rd division title.

Cambridge reached new heights in 1993, winning the Northern League 2nd division without losing a game. In 1995, it won the first division and earned promotion to the Northern League's premier division, the highest level the club has played in its history. After only one season, the club was relegated and a year later was relegated again, dropping to the 2nd division.

After almost 40 years in the Northern League, Cambridge was relegated from the Lotto Sport Italia NRFL Division 2 in 2011 after finishing 12th and losing the challenger series playoff vs Manukau City AFC.

The club elected to drop two divisions into the Waikato Bay of Plenty Football Federation Division Two to rebuild under coach Karl Dagnall and won promotion in 2012 to Waikato Bay of Plenty Football Federation Division One.

In 2014, the club finished runners-up in Waikato Bay of Plenty Football Federation Division One and won the WaiBOP Federation Challenge Shield.

In 2015, the club won the WaiBOP Premiership and qualified for play-offs to win promotion to the Lotto Sport Italia NRFL Division 2 but lost the two-match series to Auckland champions Waitemata FC.[5]

The club were runners-up in the 2016 WaiBOP Premiership.[6]

In 2017, Cambridge won the WaiBOP Premiership[4] and the WaiBOP Championship, the Waikato/Bay of Plenty's top competitions.[7]

The club also retained the WaiBOP Challenge Shield, as well as winning the Waikato Women's League.[8]

Cambridge's U-19 youth team won the 2017 Satellite Final of the National Youth Tournament in Napier.[9]

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  NZL Fraser Nicholls 2 DF  NZL Elliot Cooper 3 DF  SCO Thomas Purves 4 DF  NZL Patrick Woodlock 5 MF  FRA Auguste Hirsinger 6 MF  FRA Hugo Stalin 7 DF  NZL Kieran Hill 8 DF  NZL Daniel Clarkin (Captain) 9 MF  NZL Marc Glenister 10 FW  NZL Dylan Blair

No. Pos. Nation Player 11 FW  NZL Ewan Donald 12 DF  NZL Kerin Vollebregt 13 MF  COL Fabian Munoz 14 FW  NZL Joshua Nooijen 15 FW  NZL Joshua Clarkin 16 MF  NZL Michael Cosgrave 17 FW  NZL Tom Woutersen 18 FW  NZL Zac Mayo 21 DF  NZL Blair Pennell 22 GK  PAK Fazeel Aqil

The club appointed the following coaching/management teams for recent seasons:

2012: Karl Dagnall (coach), Andrew Jones (team manager).

2013: Karl Dagnall (coach), Andrew Jones (team manager).

2014: Norm Rose (coach), Ray Pooley (director of football), Robbie Greenhalgh (assistant coach), Kim Brierley (goalkeeper coach), Shane Ridgway (manager).[10]

2015: Brett Clark (co-coach), Mike Woodlock (co-coach), Robbie Greenhalgh (assistant coach), Kim Brierley (goalkeeper coach), Chrissy Goodin (team manager).

2016: Brett Clark (co-coach), Mike Woodlock (co-coach), Kim Brierley (goalkeeper coach), Chrissy Goodin (team manager).

2017: Mike Woodlock (coach), Steve Thomas (assistant coach), Kim Brierley (goalkeeper coach), Chrissy Goodin (team manager).

2018: Mike Woodlock (coach, retired in May 2018),[11] Paul Richardson (coach, appointed in May 2018), Ray Pooley (assistant coach), Kim Brierley (goalkeeper coach), Chrissy Goodin (team manager).[12]

2019: Paul Richardson (head coach), Richard Wade and Blair Hoad (assistant coaches), Kim Brierley (goalkeeper coach), Fairlie Morton (team manager).[13]

2020: Paul Richardson (head coach), Richard Wade and Blair Hoad (assistant coaches), Kim Brierley (goalkeeper coach), Nicola Brierley (team manager), Clarke McKenzie (physio).[14]

Since January 2017, former All Whites player and coach Ricki Herbert has been the Technical Director for the club.[15]

In October 2017, the club and the Ricki Herbert Football Academy announced a partnership to run a young player development programme at the Cambridge club.[16]

Every summer since 2011, the club has staged the Cambridge Sevens[17] which are one-day tournaments for men's and women's teams drawn from the upper North Island of New Zealand.

In 2013, the club hosted premium events such as the Soccer Shop Waikato Cup Final,[18] the Waikato v Bay of Plenty All Stars game,[19] and the WaiBOP Women's All Stars v WaiBOP National League side.

After successfully hosting these games,[20] the club was appointed as the home ground for five ASB Premiership matches for new franchise WaiBOP United.[21] This meant Cambridge became one of six bases for national league football in New Zealand (the others are Auckland, Napier, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin).

The appointment led to the club becoming an all-year operation, with investment in better facilities including upgraded playing surfaces, new changing rooms[22] and a new irrigation system. In late 2014, WaiBOP United announced Cambridge would continue to be the team's home base with five more ASB Premiership matches played in early 2015. For the 2015–16 season, WaiBOP United announced they were moving their home games from Cambridge's John Kerkhof Park to Waikato Stadium to enable a television deal to cover ASB Premiership games.

National league football returned to Cambridge in 2018 when the club hosted a match for ISPS Handa Premiership team Hamilton Wanderers and two of that club's National Youth League fixtures.[23] In 2019, the club hosted a national league double header when Hamilton Wanderers played Auckland City in the National Youth League and the ISPS Handa Premiership.[24]

In 2016, the club's John Kerkhof Park became the training base and home ground for the WaiBOP team in New Zealand's National Women's League, hosting three NWL games in each of the 2016 and 2017 seasons. In 2019, Cambridge was named as the host club for six NWL games and the training base for the WaiBOP team.[25]In 2020, the ground was again named as the host venue for WaiBOP's ISPS Handa Women's Premiership fixtures.[26]

The club staged its first international match on 25 May 2015 when Hungary and Fiji met in a warm-up match[27] for the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup being held in New Zealand.

The club hosted the finals of the Soccer Shop men's Waikato Cup and Plate in 2013, 2016, 2017[28] and 2019.[29] It hosted the women's Waikato Cup and Plate finals in 2016, 2018[30]and 2019.[29]

The club's first significant off-field achievement was winning Waipa District's Sports Club of the Year award in 2001, an award it won again in 2014 and 2015.[5]

The club's success at hosting regional and national matches led to it winning the Supreme Award at the 2014 Trustpower Waipa District Community Awards,[31] and the club represented Waipa at the national community awards[32] in Wellington in March 2015.

The club had previously won the Trustpower Waipa District Community Awards (Sports) award in 2010.[5] The club won another award for community service in December 2016, the Waikato Community Partnership Award, for its work with those ordered by the courts to perform community work.[33]

In June 2014, the club was named Club of the Year for the Waikato/Bay of Plenty,[34] winning WaiBOP Football's Colin Bell/Ron White Memorial Trophy.

In November 2014, the club was named Sports Club of the Year at the Waipa Networks District Sports Awards[35] and in January 2015 was a finalist for the Waikato Sports Club of the Year.[5] Former club chairman Greg Zeuren was named Sports Administrator of the Year at the Waipa awards[36] and won the Waikato Sports Administrator of the Year title in 2015.[37]

In 2014, the club won two WaiBOP Football Best Practice Awards, for its sponsorship practices and for the participation of women in the club.[33]

The club won the New Zealand Match Programme of the Year Award for 2011,[38] and the publication was highly commended in the awards for 2012 and 2013.

In August 2015, the club was awarded New Zealand Football's Quality Club Mark (QCM), Level 1 Star, which is a quality assurance standard used to measure the proficiency of clubs. Cambridge became one of the first clubs in the Waikato/Bay of Plenty region to attain the QCM.[39]

In November 2015, the club won the Waipa Sports Club of the Year award for the second year in a row.[33]

The club's WaiBOP Premiership-winning first team won the 2017 Waipa Sports Team of the Year award.[40]

Long-serving club president Peter Martens was awarded a Queen's Service Medal for services to football in the 2020 New Year Honours. [41]

In January 2020, the club jointly won (with Cambridge Junior Cricket Association) an award for Innovation in Sport at the Sport Waikato annual awards after forming a ground-sharing partnership with the cricketers.[42]

Probably the club's best known past player is New Zealand international striker Chris Wood who joined English Premier League club Burnley in August 2017 from English Championship club Leeds United[43] after he moved to Leeds in July 2015 from Leicester City.[44]

Other full internationals who played their junior football at Cambridge FC include All White Che Bunce and Football Ferns Katie Duncan and Tayla Christensen.[5]

Two New Zealand international women's players, Maria Anderton and Andrea Rogers played senior football for the club with Anderton receiving a Special Achievement Award when retiring from competitive football in 2014 after more than 800 matches.[5] Rogers was named the club's women's Player of the Year for 2017.[45]

Former player Robbie Greenhalgh is a former New Zealand Under 17 player, while one of the club's former junior players, Jamie Woodlock, represented New Zealand at the Oceania Under 17 Championships in January 2015.[46]

Former Cambridge junior and youth player Grace Wisnewski scored three goals at the 2018 U-17 FIFA Women's World Cup in Uruguay in which New Zealand came third at the tournament. [47]

Goalkeeper Patrick Steele has represented New Zealand at futsal, playing for the national U-18 team.[48]

Captain Patrick Woodlock was named the WaiBOP Premiership's Player of the Year for 2015 and 2017[49] and won the club's Jim Barry Player of the Year[50] trophy for the sixth time in 2017, setting a new club record.

Since 1991, the club has awarded the Jim Barry Memorial Trophy to its Player of the Year.

Chatham Cup

Cambridge have reached the third round of New Zealand's oldest cup competition 12 times, the furthest the club has progressed.[52]

Waikato Cup and Plate

In 2008, Cambridge won the Waikato Cup.[53]

In 2013, Cambridge were beaten finalists in the Waikato Cup, losing 5–1 to Hamilton Wanderers. The club's C team won the Plate in 2013, beating Waihi 4–3.

Cambridge again reached the final of the Waikato Cup in 2017 when the club's B team lost 2–0 to Otorohanga.[54]

Waikato Women's Cup and Plate

The club's women's first team won the 2014 Waikato Cup.[55] They were beaten finalists in 2013, 2015 and 2018.[56]

The club were runners-up in the 2016 Waikato Plate.

Cambridge's U-19 youth team, coached by Adrian Clark, won the 2017 Satellite Final of the National Youth Tournament in Napier.[57]

It was the club's first success at the tournament since 2007 when the Mike Woodlock-coached Cambridge team won the Satellite Final 2–1 against Dunedin Technical.

In 2006, the Cambridge team won the Satellite Final 1–0 against Ellerslie but were deemed to have breached tournament rules. The squad included future All White Chris Wood and he was ruled ineligible to play at the tournament because he was 14 (and the minimum playing age was 15).[58]

In 2009, Cambridge (again coached by Woodlock) were beaten 1–0 in the Satellite Final by Dunedin.

• Club website
• WaiBOP United website