The 1961 Chatham Cup was the 34th annual nationwide knockout

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

competition in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. The competition was run on a regional basis, with regional associations each holding separate qualifying rounds. Other teams known to have taken part in the final rounds included Otangarei United (Whangarei),

Hamilton Technical Old Boys Melville United AFC is an amateur Association football, football club in Melville, New Zealand, Melville, Hamilton, New Zealand, Hamilton, New Zealand. It competes in the Northern League (New Zealand), Northern League. History The club was form ...

, Kahukura (Rotorua),

Eastern Union Gisborne City AFC was an association football club in Gisborne, New Zealand. Founded in 1939 as Eastern Union, the club changed its name to Gisborne City after winning the Central Districts League at the first attempt in 1967. As Eastern Union, ...

(Gisborne),

Moturoa Moturoa is a coastal suburb of New Plymouth, in the western North Island of New Zealand. It is located to the west of the city centre, bordering Port Taranaki and the Sugar Loaf Islands. One of the islands, Moturoa, the largest, shares it ...

(New Plymouth), Napier Rovers, Wanganui United,

Kiwi United Red Sox Manawatu is an Association football and netball club in Palmerston North, New Zealand. The club caters for men's, women's and youth football teams and women's netball teams. Riverside RedSox is affiliated to Red Sox Manawatu and caters ...

(Manawatu), Nelson Thistle and Timaru Thistle.

The 1961 final

Northern won the cup for a second time, having previously been champions in

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

; North Shore United made their third consecutive finals appearance, having won the cup in

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Ja ...

. The match was thus both a match between the two previous winners and also a rematch of the 1959 final, with the same team winning on both occasions. Seven Northern players and six North Shore players played in both finals, these six latter players - among them England and New Zealand international Ken Armstrong - also having played in the winning side of 1960. The final was a free flowing affair, but no goals came until the half hour mark, when Northern took the lead through George Little. The score remained 1-0 until two minutes from the end of the match, when Bruce Campbell doubled Northern's lead. p.73

Results

Second Round

Third Round

Fourth Round

Fifth Round

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals ("Island finals")

Final

References

Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation New Zealand 1961 page
Chatham Cup

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 2022 winners Auckland City, who defeated Eastern ...

August 1961 sports events in New Zealand {{oceania-footy-competition-stub