1 May 2000
The Marlborough Express
by Matt Porter
[deleted the preceding match report of Marlborough v Nelson]
Meanwhile, Pete Mortimer played through the pain of a broken toe to become the hat trick hero for Marlborough in their 5-8 Chatham Cup loss to Christchurch Rangers on Saturday.
Mortimer broke the big toe in his left foot the previous week and was not intending to play but heeded the call of his coach who was short on personnel.
With a metal guard covering his toe Mortimer stole the show.
His best effort was a stunning over the head scissors kick which latched on to a headed through ball from Richard Marsden to send the ball rocketing into the back of the net to make it 3-1.
He scored again from a goal mouth scramble to have Marlborough poised nicely at 3-2 with time nearly up in the first half, but in a freakish occurrence Rangers scored twice in the space of a minute to take the halftime lead.
Rangers kicked on in the second half with striker Jason Stapley finishing with a five goal haul and Shem Banbury getting a double to swamp Marlborough in a deluge of goals.
Skipper Mike Irving was Marlborough's solitary scorer in the second spell.