29 December 2003 The Kingz, despite an injury crisis, batled valiantly at Waikato Stadium against big spending 3rd placed Parramatta Power last night. With 5 regular first teamers out, the Kingz went on to sustain another 3 injuries and lose 2 - 1. If the ref had spotted an obvious penalty box hand ball, they might have grabbed a shock draw. Five current or ex Plains Rangers players watched from the stands, but gave a good exhibition in a pre-match kick around outside the ground!. The longest away trip in World football against perenial top club Perth Glory loomz as a huge challenge for the Kingz this Saturday.

25 December Good news for the Kingz this week with signing of All White centre back Danny Hay and the backing of the club by Soccer NZ, with new majority shareholder Brian Katzen (also involved in Swansea City and Chelsea) the new boss.

10 December Kingz have a solid 1- 1 draw at Brisbane. Just two days till their next game! Soccer NZ has just done a big sponsorship deal with NIKE. Well done!!

30 November Kingz lose 0 - 6, coach Ken Dugdale has resigned in protest at travel arrangements to play South Melbourne. A 3.15 am start, an all day wait till 8 pm kick off, Harry and Harries injured, Jacko suspended. Who can blame him! Maybe Chopper will get a call up!

23 November The Kingz had their first win of the season, scoring three excellent goals. Alex Midtsian capped off the Norwegian appreciation day held by the fans, with a superb free kick. Visit our Kingz page for all the info.

16 November The Kingz break their drought in incredible conditions at Sydney Olympic: hailstorm, electrical storm. 2 - 2. Both goals by defenders. No TV coverage to watch all the fun either, only a Greek radio commentary via the internet!

28 October With the Kingz having a two week break ( a bye and a postponed game), there's not much for it 'cept to watch the rugby world cup. That's why the Kingz game at Wollongong was postponed, a rugby game was scheduled there!
At Awakeri, one of the Rangers junior clubs, family summer soccer is about to begin with ten teams.Visit the Awakeri site through our Links page.

21 October Greerton won the Caper Cup, beating West Hamilton on Saturday, 2 - 1 in extra time. The Caper Cup is a play off between the top two sides of BOP and Waikato 1st divisions. According to the rather partisan Greerton write up, ex-Kingz keeper Julio Cuello was outstanding for the West Ham side.

19 October The Kingz record their fifth straight loss. Duh! Click on our Kingz pages for memories of each game.

7 October Ngongy beat Kawerau 4 - 1 in a catch-up game to almost complete BOP Div One. It is unclear whether the remaining two games will be played, as they will not affect the points table.

2 October The Wolves beat the local selection 7 - 0, using their excellent passing game to run away in the second half. The locals had held them to 1 - 0 at half time. Hopefully the Kingz can get revenge when they play Wolves in a few weeks!

29 September International soccer in the Eastern Bay! On Wednesday an under 13 team from the Wollongong Wolves plays an Eastern Bay invitation team at Awakeri, kick-off 11 a.m. The backbone of the team is provided by Awakeri's champion 13th grade side.
Meanwhile, the Kingz went down in Aussie last night, despite a very good debut in goal by Ross Nicholson and the two Norwegian imports contributing pretty well on their debuts. The Kingz will be playing the Wollongong senior team in a few week's time!

23 September Confirmed today that Plains Rangers officially came 2nd in the league! Well done lads! Get your chests ready for the medals to be pinned on!

21 September The Kingz started poorly in Auckland today, although evergreen, former EBOP, player Harry Ngata scored a nice volley at the end.

20 September A very enjoyable end-of-year at Cuse and Becka's place. The "marrieds" beat the "singles" in a hard fought game, Thommo nabbing the golden goal winner. Jason Pullar scooped most of the awards, including Player of the Year and Stirrer (surprise, surprise!). Player-coach David Dennis paid tribute to the team and how they had made his job easy. He, Dan Logan, Barrie Hawkes and Matt Aberhart also collected trophies. Click on our honours board for the full list.

13 September Congratulations to Greerton and Finchy's Whakatane Dev team for winning the Tasman Cup and Bowl respectively.

12 September The Kingz kick off their NSL season next Sunday (21st), at home (Ericsson Stadium) at 12.15 pm, against Newcastle Utd. It'll be on Sky as well.

31 August Congratulations to Opotiki for winning BOP Div 3 undefeated. A great effort for a new club.

30 August A tough final league game at home to Otumoetai Two. Sjoerd Overdevest made his debut refereeing. He had to watch a seesawing game, that the visitors with an ounce of luck could have won. Instead, with the last move of the game, Brendan Cusack scored with a header from a Dan Logan cross. The players and crowd erupted! Rangers could well have cemented 2nd place.
The club break-up and prize-giving will be on Saturday 20 September.

24 August The Tasman Cup and Bowl semifinals draw is here.

23 August Another good team game in greasy conditions at Waipuna Park Tauranga. Rangers fairly comfortably beat Old Blues 2 - 0. Play of the day was the never-before-seen trick of keeper Matt Aberhart, who gathered in the bounce of a high ball, under pressure, by sitting on it! Read the report.

18 August Congratulations to Uni-Mt Wellington, who won the Chatham Cup on Sunday 2 - 1 against regional side Melville.

10 August A brilliant game against Tauranga City on Saturday. The eight goal victory will help boost the goal difference. Read the report. Dan Logan was able to converse with their four Brazilian players afterwards, using Spanish. These guys entertained the locals with some Ju Jitsu moves and flips. One of them spoke good enough English to be booked for swearing at ref Mark Varvazovski!
Today Rangers and some ring-ins helped prepare Trident HS 1st XI for tournament by giving them a hard game, Rangers winning 5 - 1. The highlight was Jason Pullar being penalised for coming onto the field (from an offside position)! Thommo was in much better condition than yesterday, and turned in a dynamic performance, culminating in a wondrous left foot volley.

6 August Here is the draft draw for the Football Kingz. First game 21 Sept at Ericsson Stadium.

5 August A few pics of the game against Ngongy are here. Congratulations to the Matata rugby team, unbeaten champions! No doubt Dan "Dutchie" Overdevest was a great asset to them. Rangers might be hard pressed to get him back on the soccer field for a while.

2 August At last a win! A great team performance and two Dan the Man goals at Ngongy. Read the report. Other goss... Cuse's blond hair is a transformation, JP reveals that he watches videos of football's worst fouls (he probably ticks them off on a list when he's carried them out), Wett playing for Whakatane against Ngongy's 1st team was subbed off with a rebroken nose.

1 August Incredibly, the Kingz have signed a deal with Chelsea FC to work together. The Kingz could well have two CFC reserve team players playing for them this season. Rangers look like they will take a bare eleven over to Ngongy tomorrow (could be cold!). Our usual reserve youngster Jeremy Hawkes had to have his knee stitched up after it was ripped open in a game at Mt Maunganui on Thursday, so he won't be playing. A sprinkler nozzle sticking up in the grass did the damage!

26 July Another loss, but a few memorable moments...ref Warren Silva issued 6 yellow cards, 5 to the vocal visiting outfit, gutsy performances from the injured Thommo (courtesy of a Chopper tackle at practice!) and the ill Buzza, Hori in the blood bin with a head wound, JP not quick enough to receive the 2 of a 1 - 2 with Bazza, and a beautiful sunny winter's day. Read the report.

23 July A second loss sees Rangers at the foot of the table. See all the tables up to date. Groan!!!

18 July News that the Kingz have lost one of their better players, Andy Vlahos, who has signed with Cercle Brugge in Belgium. Good luck Andy!
JP gets teased that he gets his photo in both the local papers. He quips that the photographer is coming over to Rotorua tomorrow, specially to get another pic! Yeh right! See Dan's pic in Photo of theWeek.....

12 July Rangers are out of the Tasman Cup, beaten 2 - 0 by 1st div Kawerau. Rangers had plenty of the game, hit the woodwork twice, but their luck wasn't in. Report.

5 July Rangers had a tough first round home loss to start the new BOP Div 2. Western Boy top quaifiers TCU Two took the points with a 4 - 2 win. Keeper Matt Aberhart was back in action, coming back from his injury five weeks ago with a very good performance.

2 July In a surprise move, teams from the two qualifying second divisions have been split into three divisions, making a 2nd, 3rd and 4th division. Rangers is the only Eastern Bay team in the new 2nd div, and will be disappointed to miss the chance of getting revenge on Finchy's Whakatane team, who are with Opotiki in the 3rd div. Meanwhile Kawerau reserves end up in div 4.

30 June Nick Jago is off to Oz. Don't teach those Aussie's any of your football skills Nick!

29 June A black day for Oceania football as FIFA overturned their decision to grant our area an automatic place at the World Cup finals.

26 June No game for Rangers again this weekend, as Western Bay plays their last round before combining with our Eastern division. No friendly organised either as all other local teams have fixtures or friendlies arranged. Well, at least training was entertaining, typified by Cuse felling Buzza , driving the ball into the back of his head at a corner. Great to see Matt Aberhart back training between the sticks again, unfortunately Sjoerd and Ruitie are still out.

24 June Greerton has drawn former national league club University Mt Wellington in the 4th round of the Chatham Cup, while West Ham is at home to national league side North Shore. Round to be played 6 - 7 July. Come on the giant killers!

22 June Only Greerton of BOP's soccer teams are left in the Chatham Cup. Local team Whakatane went down 2 - 3 to West Ham(ilton) where experience on a fairly muddy pitch helped the home team to put away their chances. NZ's All Whites put in a much better display against Colombia, leading for half the game, but going down 3 - 1 in the end. Chris Killen's red card weighed heavily upon his team.

20 June The All Whites were outclassed by Japan, mind you Brazil lost too! The Kingz have axed 8 of last year's squad, including Jonathan Perry, Paul Urlovic Patro Almendra & Hiroshi Miyazawa, all of whom have had great moments for the team. Rangers have a weekend off, should help some of the injuries to recover. The top six of their league will go through to an 11 team division two. Opotiki, in their first season of senior football, scrape in as well.

18 June Whakatane's development team beat RBHS 4 - 2, to secure a berth in the new 2nd division.

17 June The Confederations Cup is only hours away! Have you bet money on NZ yet??! The odds on NZ winning the Cup are over $100 to 1.

14 June A typically chilling day for the Best Insulation tournament. Rangers made the plate semifinals, but could only watch in the gathering darkness as Ngongotaha two teams won both the Cup and Plate finals in penalty shoot outs. Well done Ngongy! The Rangers report is here.

11 June News that Tauranga Boys College are withdrawing from the next league, where they would have been certain of playing in the 2nd div. Rotorua City and Taupo wish to enter extra teams in div 3.

9 June The All Whites turned in a good performance for 70 min against the USA, losing to an unlucky deflected goal 1 - 2. Vaughan Coveney scored with a superb volley. The Confederations Cup is only a week away. The draw is here.

7 June It took an hour to get on top of Whakatane, but Rangers earn another three points. Read the report.

5 June It gets worse. Sjoerd Overdevest injured - dislocated collar bone courtesy of motocross. A hard out training shows the boys are in good heart nevertheless.

2 June More bad news, Simon Ruiter injured in car accident, will keep him sidelined. All 3 surviving local BOP teams win their Chatham Cup games, with Whakatane drawn to meet West Ham(ilton) in 3rd round (June 21 / 22). BOP's national league team Tauranga City Utd knocked out.

1 June News that keeper Matt Aberhart's injury will keep him out for a few weeks was not what Rangers wanted to hear.
Meanwhile Perth Glory have won the NSL final 2 - 0 over Olympic Sharks, after a protracted ten week playoff series. Remember when the Kingz were playing!! The play-offs have been that long!

31 May A gutsy effort wins the points at Ngongy. Memories... the ambulance collecting the wounded on the sidelines, Nick Jago's overhead kick, a howling wind that only blows when the home team are playing that way. Read the report.

28 May The New Zealand All Whites pull off a good result after only a few days preparation, drawing with Scotland 1 - 1. Ryan Nelsen scored the vital goal (again!). Next week the All Whites travel to play USA in another warm up game before the Confederations Cup in mid-June.

27 May Pete's gallery! Some great pics of Saturday's win. Cuse has his hair done specially!

24 May Dan the man strikes again! Four goals in a one man crusade! Logan 4 Kawerau 0. Keeper Matt Aberhart shows goalkeepers can do strange things when they're bored! Read the report!

17 May RBHS had more of the game and edged out Rangers with a goal late in the game. Muggsy's new boots impressed everyone. Jason Pullar showed just how far you can test the limits without getting sent off, by neatly catching the ball just outside our penalty area! Read the report.

12 May Nick Jago says he's bought some boots that fit. Now he'll have an unfair advantage! Hopefully he'll be back down this way sometime soon.

10 May A Dan Logan hat-trick gives Rangers a well deserved 4 - 1 home win against Te Puke. Read the report.

4 May The effects of kiwifruit picking and duck shooting seasons saw Rangers travel to Taupo with only ten men. However a supreme effort brought a 3 - 1 win! Read the report. Here are some cool action pics (thanks Fay).
Our West Hamilton friends ended up in quite a scrape recently, with four of them arrested for playing soccer on Rugby Park's fine surface. One of the police remarked they wouldn't have been arrested if they hadn't been playing soccer!

26 April A testy clash between Rangers and Suburbs kept ref Brett McDonald on his toes, and put Bas Overdevest and two Suburbs players off injured. The 1 - 1 draw a fair result, halting Suburbs' unbeaten run. Read the report.

25 April Rangers are primed ready for their home clash against league leaders Rotorua Suburbs tomorrow. Missing for Rangers will be Mark Thompson, suspended for one week for his red card against Whakatane. On the sideline will be last year's player of the year Ryan Wilson, watching his mates play before he heads off to Australia, where he will link up with Joel Ogilvy. Maybe they could start a Sydney branch of Plains Rangers with the Monika brothers! By the way, congratulations to Joel's dad Tony for winning the World Masters' Surfing Champs (50 -55 age group) recently. Sad to see our nearest national league team Tauranga City United at the bottom of the table at the moment.

21 April Bored with the Easter break? Try livening your day with some hilarious excerpts of soccer commentaries from the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/ then click on Listen Live and choose from the list. Favourites are "I've gone mad", "Go on Jimmy" and "Poor old Derek"!!!

18 April Many thanks to Pullar Builders for their donation of two match balls to the club. Jason promises to put one of them in the back of the net next Saturday against unbeaten Rotorua Suburbs!

16 April League tables and results up to date. Daniel Overdevest continues to grab the headlines, playing rugby for Matata. His team are on an unbeaten run of four matches, with Dan making a big impression as a lock. Rangers could have done with his slashing defence on Saturday.

13 April A shock heavy defeat at Whakatane. Rangers went down 6 - 2, never recovering from a horror first ten minutes. A second half red card as well.

5 April Rangers open their season with a hard fought 1 - 0 win at home to newcomers Opotiki. Sjoerd Overdevest launches a classy long range free kick into the top corner. Defender Jason Pullar surprises everyone by catching the ball in his own penalty area, after an obvious hand ball by an Opotiki attacker. Referee Norm Howe surprises by calling offside! Jason Shaw is surprised by being pinged for hand ball and jersey pulling when commiting neither offence. Finchy, whose Whakatane team has no game, comes to spy on next week's opposition, takes the linesman's flag and creates his own bit of mayhem! Match report.

1 April The schedule of games is listed for Rangers and also the whole BOP, which has been split into Div One (10 teams), Div Two East & South (11 teams), and Div Two West (11 teams). Here we go, here we go, here we go... Watch our for some cool photos of last Saturday's friendly in the Beacon later this week.

29 March A pre-season friendly against 1st division side Kawerau was a good warm up for the beginning of the league next Saturday. Kawerau raced out to a 4 - 1 half time lead, the return of dangerous frontrunner Aaron Searle notable through a first half hat-trick. However, the arrival of Bas Overdevest evened the two sides up. Rangers goals: Dan Logan from the penalty spot after he was tripped, own goal and Simon Ruiter turning well despite tight defence to beat the keeper.
Other points of interest: Mark "Thommo" Thompson played for Rangers against his own club and should be a signing, Billy Boylen filled in for Rangers against his old club, Rangers keeper Matt Aberhart had an excellent game, and was named player of the match, news that Christian Wetting (Rangers) and Gavin Rothwell (Kawerau) have signed to play for Whakatane, and that Daniel "Dutchie" Overdevest could be playing rugby this season.

16 March The Kingz lose their final match of the season 4 - 5 in an entertaining thriller. The top six teams now embark on two full rounds of playoffs. Click here to see our Kingz and NSL pages.

9 March It came too late, but the Kingz scored a good away win over 3rd placed Newcastle in the NSL on Friday night. Unfortunately, no-one saw the game, the TV coverage was cancelled, there was no radio coverage and even the press reports have been scanty! Their final game of the season is a midday kickoff at Ericsson next Sunday, against arch enemies South Melbourne. Could be fun!
Click here for the pics from Rangers' game v Whakatane on Thursday night..

6 March A valuable friendly was played between Rangers and Whakatane Reserves. Both sides used the game to try out combinations, and patches of good football were played. Highlights in the 1 - 1 draw were... Daniel Logan's finish of a nice move, Matt Dalgity playing on his visit home from England, Chopper hauling an opponent back by the shirt, saying "he was clearly offside!", and Becks enjoying the 'lightning' display on the sideline. Look out for some interesting pics of the game in a few days. Rangers are booked to play in the Kawerau pre-season tournament on Saturday 29 March. This is a week before the league kicks off.

23 February The Kingz dominate the game, but Brisbane keeper in top form, and some slack defending means a 0 - 3 loss. Plains Rangers intend to do the opposite as they prepare for their season!

15 February The Kingz get slaughtered in Sydney, 7 - 0 by Parramatta Power. They now cannot make the top six and will play the rest of the season for pride.

13 February A big day for soccer! A good turn out at Plains Rangers first training run for the season. 17 players, with a couple absent. Rangers look to have lost prolific scorer Ryan Wilson, now living in Auckland, but welcome back former striker Daniel Logan. Other newcomers include Jason Pullar from Whakatane and Muggsy, who was also on Whakatane's books last season. Training will be each Thursday, 6.30 pm at the Rugby Club. Check out new player coach David "Chopper" Dennis.
New Zealand has been drawn to play hosts France, also Japan and Columbia at the Confederations Cup in June. It will be an exciting time for Kiwi soccer, hopefully as exciting as neighbours Australia beating England in a friendly this morning. Click here for the Confederations Cup draw.

2 February Utting brilliant as Kingz pull off an away win. Tauranga City start with a win too. Click here for our Kingz pages.

26 January The Kingz game in New Plymouth could spell the end of their season, as they slip to 2nd bottom. Even with the return of Chilean star Almendra next week, it could be too late.

18 January The Kingz deserve better as they go down away to champs Sydney Olympic 1 - 0. Chilean defender Mauro Donoso makes a sound debut.

11 January 2003 Andy Vlahos finally scores for the Kingz. Patro gets sent off, as does Dino Mennillo. Jacko has to shove the ref out of the road. Both the Kingz and Wolves have a goal disallowed. It was quite a game!

18 December 2002 Oceania Confederation wins automatic entry to the World Cup. All the Aussies think this means them, but alas...

8 December 2002 Plains Rangers player of the year Ryan Wilson shows he can do more than score goals, appearing on national television in an ad for Cheapskates, on primetime in between a documentary on the making of Lord Of The Rings. Ryan appeared as himself, an accomplished skateboarder. He also works for Cheapskates in Manukau Auckland. This had better not put your appearance fees up Ryan! Plus, the Kingz are now up to 5th in the NSL. See the table.

There is lots of fascinating news and trivia from previous years. To see it, click here!

Click here to see Photo of the week

Action Photos
Away to Ngongotaha August 2 2003
Away to Kawerau 1st team Tasman Cup July 12 2003
Home to Kawerau May 24 2003
Away with ten men to Taupo May 3 2003
Home in friendly to Whakatane March 6 2003
Home to Rotorua Suburbs August 24 2002
Best Insulation tournament 8 June 2002
West Ham v Whakatane Sept 29 2001
Away to Greerton July 21 2001
Away to Tauranga City Utd July 14 2001
Away to Whakatane April 21 2001
Home to Rotorua City August 5 2000
Away at Otumoetai July 1st 2000
Edgecumbe v Whakatane, June 19, 1999.
Edgecumbe v Ngongotaha July 28, 1999.