The Winters Cup, a trophy played for in memory of Lavinia Winters, partner of former Ngongotaha AFC keeper (and current Te Puke Young ‘uns) Scrubber and a close friend of Shaun and Jo Kapua (as well as the rest of the club), has finally ended up in Ngongotaha’s trophy cabinet.

Te Puke arrived in style in their Corporate Box coach and were clearly intending to make a good day of it. Stembridge Road welcomed them with a cool southerly wind and temperature of about 8c.

With Scott Martin and Tristan Shannon joining the squad the Villager’s clearly were out to finally take to cup; some youth also made the 15 man squad with young Alex hardy strating and Nathan Tina on the bench.

First blood went to Ngongotaha with Uish tapping in a parried shot from Scott Martin; Ngongotaha dominated for much of the rest of the half, but with about 10 to go one of the two Te Puke strikers, found some space, pivoted and slotted a stunning shot into the top right corner. But clearly Ngongotaha were not in the mood for caving in; about two minutes later a Scott Martin corner was swung in from the left side and cleared everyone, only to be deflected home by a Te Puke player.

The second half had Te Puke opening brightly putting considerable pressure on the Ngongotaha backline, who were fortunate to have Chris saving everything chucked at him. The introduction of Dave Thomson and George Thompson was a touch of genius (allegedly) from coach Alan King – Dave’s first touch sent Uish through to a one on one with Scrubber the Te Puke the keeper, with the Nepalese striker finishing well.

A game that was played in excellent spirits and enjoyed by both sides.

The trophy will be again at stake in the next match between the Baywide sides.