Champions Seacliff (1st title) Championship match score 4 – 0 | Runners-up YMCA | |
Dates 22 September – 1 October 1923 Championship venue Athletic Park, Wellington | ||
The 1923 Chatham Cup was the first annual nationwide football competition in New Zealand.
Contents
The competition was run on a regional basis, with separate northern and southern tournaments, with the winners of the two meeting in the final. Very few teams entered the competition, including only two from the southern South Island; Seacliff easily won the only match played there, thumping Oamaru 7-0, and repeated this in the final, accounting for Wellington's YMCA 4-0.
Of the teams taking part, it is known that four were from Wellington; contemporary reports indicate that Diamonds, Hospital, YMCA, and Waterside took part. There is some suggestion that the Auckland regional winners, Northcote required a play-off against North Shore United to progress. There is some confusion as to the spelling of the name of the champion Manawatu side, it being listed in various publications as either Daubers or Dawbers, and either with or without an apostrophe.
There is some confusion about the earlier rounds of the competition, with various Charity Cups being held to decide entrants to the Chatham Cup, and with regional qualification finals, island finals, and the national final all simply being referred to in contemporary reports as "finals". Compounding this, different regional football associations were allowed to choose their champion team by whatever method they liked, meaning that some regions (such as Auckland) used league position to determine their entrant for the inter-regional matches, rather than a knockout competition. Compounding matters further are the incomplete records held by the NZFA, which omit several matches (including the semi-final between Seacliff and Oamaru Rangers).
The 1923 final
In the final, YMCA had the better of early possession, but Seacliff gained the upper hand as the match progressed. Centre-forward Bill Hooper scored the first goal just before the half-time interval. Shortly after the break Reg Baxter doubled the lead. Late on right wing Malcolm McDougall scored again, followed only a minute later by a second from Hooper. The line-up of the first Chatham Cup winning side was as follows: Charlie Rivers, Jock Anderson, George Anderson, Bill Rogers, Hugh McKechnie, Bill Murray, Malcolm McDougall, Reg Baxter, Bill Hooper, R. "Tommy" Burns, Wattie Hanlin.