Winning ways at Cambridge

Cambridge, off to a sound start in the Northern League football championship, will look for a second successive win when it hosts Ōtorohanga in the top Waikato club league on Saturday

The league, an amalgam of last year’s Southern Conference championship and Waikato first division, threw up a couple of surprises last weekend.

Among them, for at least one coach, was news that the competition allows rolling substitutions in a game  – enabling players to come off and go back on again.

Claudelands Rovers have two teams in the league – Wallys and Squatters – and they accounted for seasoned southern conference campaigners Te Awamutu and Ōtorohanga on foreign soil last weekend.

Te Awamutu has dropped down from the Southern Conference premier league while Otorohanga won the championship last season.

The championship was abandoned for 2025 because of club withdrawals – including that of Otorohanga which could not meet football league requirements.

Cambridge is buoyant in both men’s and women’s competitions. Its top women teams has opened with two narrow losses on its Northern League championship campaign debt  and its WaiBop team beat Tauranga Moana 5-3 last weekend.

 Cambridge Football Club.  Photo: Mary Anne Gill.

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