All Whites History

Cos you all seem to be loving the old stuff...

That goal kick right at the beginning looked suspiciously like a toe-hack!

Good old Newmarket Park. Always a great atmosphere.  Was at that game.

Losing Newmarket Park was the worst thing that's happened to NZ football.

Hi all, sharing our victory at the 2000 Merdeka Tournament:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4UbNVwVuNWskyzoZ...

Some memories from the 2001/2002 WC qualifying campaign.  Six games uploaded, including these 2 - interesting performance against the Cook Islands, and then the game v Australia that is summed up simply with the word "Batty:

Check out my channel and subscribe:

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Praven Jeram, there's a blast from the past. Decent goalkeeper too. Anyone know what he is up to these days? This whole thread is bringi g back a flood of memories from stuff on telly and also seen first hand. Alf Stamp as the gangly skinny striker that scored for fun or so it seemed at the time. Dereck Gibson-Smith, Brian Turner, Gisborne City, North Shore wearing those hibs kits, Stop Out, Blockhouse Bay. I know nostalgia is a dangerous thing sometimes but through the 60 and 70s we were really lucky here watching the game slowly develop. Ken Dugdale is another name I saw a couple of times.

Wow LG some names there from the past used to love watching the Hungaria boys back in the day,some days they were classic to watch just taking the piss with some insane ball skills.

I was at both of these matches - that Cook Islands game was pretty bad eh....we kept on chanting "give the ball to Noah" as he was the only player to show any desire. I think he started on the bench? I don't think ol' Duggers was overly impressed with that.....or maybe it was because we were chanting "Ru-fer, Ru-fer".

And Jason Batty.....nice little dink on to the Aussie players head, money well spent.....I bet he still thinks about it.

They really were the halcyon days of NZ club football Andy. Every team had a couple of real stars. And, wow, did we have some decent keepers back then. It was in the days before it was considered so important to be 6ft4 to play in goal. We had guys like John Morris, Kevin Curtin, Praven Jeram, Owen Nutteridge, Keith Bowley, Sandy Davie. Brings tears to my eyes....

Prevan's son was in a school team I coached a few years back - he used to come to every game and always volunteered to ref so I didn't have to... just a quality guy :)

Turned me into a football tragic at far too early an age.

Yep understand that completely,i was lucky enough to play in a youth team that was associated with them not that any of their silky skills ever found there way to my two leaden feet.

Frank Furjes who was in that Hungaria team passed away around Christmas year before last

Found this photo pretty quickly online - one year before Hungaria's only season in the National League;

What youth team was that?

The Polyanszkys were fantastic players

On the previous subject of keepers, I see Kel Munro in that pic. My dad used to rate him.

Great strip, Hungaria.

I played with Kel at Blockhouse Bay and Eastern Suburbs.

He was in the travel game. Top bloke.

No Imre Kiss, no Steve Nemet ... The Polyanskys & Benczik well into their 30's ... think by '69 even though they qualified for the new National League they might have been past their peak. 

NB Found on Google they won the Venus Shield (Wngtn First Div) 1967  - P 18 14 1 3 52 23 29 above Wharfies 12 2 3 41 20 27.

Anyone else on here see that mad game v Miramar at the Basin in front of about 6000? When the red mist came over Benczik and the croud near rioted? First time I'd ever seen grown men fight.

Reason I ask is because I persuaded my Onslow youth team coach (I was captain) to change us from the club's trad red & green hooped "rugby" socks to Hungaria's much cooler white socks topped with single red, single green band. Before we were able to do this we had to get Hungaria's permission, which they gave. Julius Beck handed out the gongs at Onslow's end-of-season junior prize-giving. Had a hot wife.

Which part of that story do you remember most? :)

Onslow still have an old shirt somewhere white with the red and green band around the centre and the hat the guys from the senior team gave to some of us.For the life of me cant remember the name of the guy from the first team who helped to coach us..

That Hungaria Kit was excellent, better than Wellington Dutch United's. Bruce Polyanski was a great player. I saw earlier on here Sandy Davies name. Always looked in a bad mood but was a decent Keeper. What's Derek Gibson-Smith up to these days? Always remembering him when I was a young fella and he looked 7 feet tall with a big Puku. but he could score goals for fun.

I  recall a Hungaria Youth Team that initially played out of Nairnville Park in the mid 1970s. There were some good players who went on to play at a high level.

Dave Shillson? Paul Van der Breggen? Laurie McColl?

They were all in my Onslow kids U-12/14 team I coached when I was still a schoolkid.

Back on topic: In their brief history four Hungaria players played for the All Whites: Julius Beck, Imre Kiss, Steve Boyland and Istvan (Steve) Nemet. Andy Polyanszky also played for an NZ selection against a touring English FA X1.

You could have a whole thread on Hungaria !

2 comments :

1. The 1969 photo won't have Steve Nemet as he was playing in Sydney then - came back in 1971 to play for Wellington City and there was huge problems over a transfer fee- and Imre Kiss was coaching Western Suburbs then.

2. I have vague memories of that Hungaria youth team - think it was coached by Keith Griffin . I think they actually played (and won ?) in a NZ Secondary Schools tournament  under Hungarias name - they were largely a Wellington College team.

That Miramar v Hungaria game - I think Hungaria ended up with only seven players on the field and were banned for 4-6 weeks - think it was in 1968 ? 

Yeah, I remember Keith G. You'd be right. He kind of took things over at the Onslow club. Re the Sec Schools tournament, I'd gone to Varsity by then - got lost in sex, drugs, rock'n roll.

And yes, the Miramar game at the Basin was before '69 so probably '68. I read the contemporary Evening Post write-up of it a few years back in the Wellington Library newspaper archive. It caused a lot of comment at the time. By god, it was exciting actually being there tho!

Might be off topic Jerzy Merino but hey let the memories continue to roll nice to see others have some good memories of those times.Yep thats the team chubbs had some good footballers in it but they wernt mostly a Wellington College team or not the one im thinking of and the bastards got me plastered on some horrible concoction that to this day gives me nightmares.

This was back in the day when you could still watch football at the Basin on a Saturday afternoon and from a fading memory most Chatham cup finals were played there. Not sure if i have the right guy i used to like watching John Wrathall think thats his name short guy looked like News (in size) only he was really good player.Seem to remember him getting 2 goals in a cup final not sure but think he may also have played for NZ.

John Wrathall ( Eastern Suburbs) scored two goals in the Chatham Cup final in 1968 but he also played in the 1965 final. He did play a couple of games for NZ. Was a fantastic goal scorer and also  a very good tennis player. He was selected to play for NZ but opted to stay with football.

He was a wonderful person and died at a very young age (40) playing tennis in the UK

Not sure if i have the right guy leggy was he of shall we say robust build

I think it may have been in that game that Atilla Varga was sent off and as he left the field he shook his fist at the crowd and shouted "wait for the return match in Budapest"  Atilla was a real character.

You are right. He was on the pretty hefty side.  Over 5 metres he was quicker than most and on a wet pitch he was unstoppable. He could hit a ball like a rocket with either foot very accurately. In two seasons I remember that he scored over 35 goals a season.

Just ask anyone that came up against him.

Thats him used to love watching him play great to see some of the names from the past reappear. Seem to recall there used to be some good crowds at some of the games in the late 60s early 70s.

So it was your fault - as a junior playing for Onslow we always hated playing Wellington City (Hungaria had gone by then) as they had the same socks as us and we would inevitably pass the ball to the opposition, although I suppose they did the same thing - still it taught us to look up rather than just at others legs! - I was still glad when they merged with Diamonds and started wearing orange socks!

BTW if you want to see a record of Hungaria in Central League, National League & Chatham Cup there is one here

Hi everyone, sorry to interrupt the Hungaria chat (I don't have any footage of them, sadly), but I recently found these matches and thought they might interest a few of you - they're not Newmarket Park old, but still old enough for me to realise I was in primary school when they were played...

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Yep my fault. My cool dress sense (aged 14) started the whole Onslow-Hungaria link-up. No apologies :)

A couple of brilliant saves by Van Hattam in the first one. Great to see Allan Boath playing with his socks around his ankles in the second one. Farina and Arnold both classy.
Haha, the All Whites score from a long throw!
Wouldn't it be great to have the Trans Tasman Championship still going!

Hungaria v Miramar a 1984 'replay' of the 1967 Venus Shield match.

Some sample pages from match programme:

Socks around ankles....those were the days!

Apart from those couple of saves, van Hattum looked more than a little bit shark to be honest.

And the less said about Darren MacLenans mullet, the better!