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50th Anniversary 1959 - 2009
Pictured are some of the hundreds of members young and old that attended the 3 day festival to celebrate Papakura City Football Club's 50th anniversary in October 2009.
The planning had been going on for many months with the aim to try and involve as many age and skill groups as possible and to include some competitive games along with demonstration displays.
The Clubrooms were decorated with photographs of the past 50 years and members came from as far away as Australia and our South Island to attend. An informal meet and greet evening on Friday night started the weekend off and Saturday daytime events were housed on our main Stadium Pitch and included a display from our 5th,6th and 7th grade teams on small sided pitches. This was followed by a superb training and skills display by Brian Derby and his Papakura Academy team. The more serious games then followed with our Ladies 1st team narrowly defeating out U17's by 1 goal to nil in a great open ended game. The main feature followed with our Championship winning 2004 team re-uniting not only physically but in their performance on the day, holding out and taking their chances well to defeat our current men's First team 3 nil – featuring a superb Dirk Oostdam lob from 30 meters over the keeper Russell Dixon.
Saturday was completed with a wonderful dine and dance evening, featuring MC, Radio Sports Andrew Dewhurst, and an open opportunity for people to speak on their recollections over the years, including a presentation to Dennis Parker – a member of our 1959 1st team, of an antique football signed by all the members of our 1st team, made by his son and current 1st team member Phil Parker. Another highlight was the drawing of The House of Travel sponsored raffle which included as 1st prize a weekend trip for 2 including flights, accommodation and tickets to the return leg of New Zealand's World Cup qualifier against Bahrain in Wellington – won by one of many organisers Juan Collister. Also of particular note was the release of The Anniversary Book, compiled by Life Member Ian Paton recording our full history in story and finer detail, with great pictures from start to current teams and newspaper clippings of the significant events of which there have been quite a few to record. Dinner guests danced the night away to local band, Wanted.
Sunday, after a slow start featured the return leg of the Papakura City FC V Manurewa FC Coaches and Managers game – taken out by Papakura 4-0, and this was followed by a great U19 game from the same Clubs eventually resulting in a 1 all draw.
All in all a fantastic weekend and a great opportunity to catch up with old friends and make new acquaintances, celebrating a Club with a proud history and a terrific future ahead of it.
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