A goalscorer’s celebration was judged to have gone too far and caused the player to be sent off in Eastern League first division football last Saturday. Xavier Priestley, a central midfielder with Gisborne Thistle Youth A, scored five minutes...

Pieces of the puzzle are clicking into place for organisers of the 100th edition of New Zealand’s oldest sailing trophy event, which starts in Gisborne tomorrow. Gisborne Yacht Club is hosting the 2024 Sunshine Brewery Sanders Cup and Javelin...

For 34 minutes it seemed as if Gisborne Thistle might frustrate Palmerston North United at Childers Road Reserve on Saturday. But in the 35th minute, centreback David Lava swung a leg in an attempted tackle on PNU striker Benjamin Mori, missed the...

Liverpool great Alan Hansen secured his place in the history of football punditry when he said, “You can’t win anything with kids”. Never mind win . . . Electrinet Gisborne Thistle coach Tam Cramer would settle for a draw when his “kids”...

Call them the Cramer Kids, if you like. It doesn’t have the ring of, say, the Busby Babes, but it gives you an idea of the nature of the team. They’re young, inexperienced and the best rebuild option available to Electrinet Gisborne Thistle...

It’s hard to see Gisborne Thistle catching a break in the first two months of football’s Central Federation League. Coming off a 3-0 away loss to Taradale, Electrinet Thistle are away again tomorrow . . . to defending league champions Palmerston...

Gisborne club football was back at the weekend, with all the verve of interclub rivalry and the novelty of teams having a tilt at higher competition. Two sides who moved up from last year’s Division 2 — C & G Plumbing High School Old Boys...

Gisborne United got their competitive season off to a winning start with a 3-2 victory over Palmerston North side Takaro Jokers in a Central Federation Cup match at Marewa Park, Napier, on Saturday. The day before, Thistle lost their cup match 6-3...

Kick-off at 1pm in Hawke’s Bay tomorrow could be called Electrinet Gisborne Thistle’s moment of truth. Thistle face Taradale in the first game of the nine-team Central Federation League competition. All the preseason training and speculation...

Weekend celebration sets up Gisborne Thistle for the next 100 years, says president.

Seven Tairāwhiti individuals or teams won gold at the waka ama and canoe racing secondary school national championships last week, and one paddler won silver in all six of the events he entered. This was the first time the secondary school waka am...

A silver medal performance in the girls’ under-15 coxed four was a highlight for Gisborne Girls’ High School at the New Zealand Secondary School Rowing Championships at Lake Ruataniwha, near Twizel. Crews from Gisborne Girls’ and Gisborne...

Youngsters showed promise and older hands showed a bit of class as Gisborne football teams had a pre-season hit-out in the Geoff Logan Memorial Tournament at Childers Road Reserve on Saturday. Thistle’s Central Federation League team won a hotly...

ROWING Gisborne Girls’ High School’s under-15 coxed four came away from the North Island Secondary Schools Rowing Championships at Lake Karāpiro with bronze medals. Alexia Mackay (stroke), Tillie King, Ruby Jefferson, Bonnie Mason and cox...

Gisborne Thistle have appointed their first director of football. He is 41-year-old Lee Smith, who moves into the role from his position as Central Football’s Tairāwhiti Gisborne community development officer. He will provide administrative...

Waikato-based former Gisborne rower Oscar Ruston had a stellar national championship regatta at Lake Karapiro from Tuesday to Saturday last week. He is following up with his participation this week in trials at Karāpiro for the New Zealand men’s...

OBITUARY Adrian Cave Admirers of Adrian Cave’s watercolours might be surprised to learn that the artist was more proud of his farming than his painting. And while exhibitions of his work doubled as events on the Gisborne social calendar, the star...

Gisborne waka ama paddlers Vesna Radonich and Bec Hoani were first and third in the master women’s division of the James “Bhutty” Moore-morial race in Tauranga last weekend. Strong winds and rough seas persuaded organisers to change the...

Tairāwhiti paddlers dominated the 250-metre races that traditionally close the Waka Ama Sprint Nationals at Lake Karāpiro. Kaiarahi Toa had just won the final teams race of the champs — the premier women’s W6 500 metres — for Self Storage...

Kaiarahi Toa led the Horouta medal charge on the last day of the Waka Ama Sprint Nationals at Lake Karāpiro on Saturday. Women’s teams bearing the Kaiarahi Toa name raced in the premier, master (40-plus) and senior master (50-plus) divisions and...

Paddy Stewart travelled all the way from Gisborne to Christchurch to take part in an invitational tournament . . . and won it. He teamed up with an old Canterbury bowling mate, Kerry Becks, to win the Rawleigh’s Stewart Buttar Invitation Burnside...

Tairāwhiti paddlers are setting new marks before racing even starts in the waka ama national sprint championships at Lake Karapiro tomorrow. Self Storage Gisborne Horouta Waka Hoe Club has 264 registered paddlers competing at the nationals. They...

Gisborne has the chance of another title on the last day of the national surfing championships at Dunedin tomorrow. Saffi Vette, 21, comfortably reached the final of the open women’s division with a second placing in her Round 1 heat yesterday...

John Gisby won his 40th title at the National Surfing Championships at Dunedin’s St Clair Beach this week . . . 40 years after winning his first.

After winning nationals over-70s division, Gisby said: “I’m feeling so fit, and paddle-fit . . . I’m going to keep going”.

OBITUARY Roy Skuse Sports champion, businessman and Gisborne city councillor Roy Skuse extolled the attractions of his home town, but loved getting out to see the world. For 28 years until 2019, Roy and his wife Colleen organised and accompanied...

Tom Zwinnen grew up in Belgium, home to some of the world’s best footballers, but he had to come to Gisborne for his talent as a junior football coach to be recognised. This month Zwinnen, 47, was named the McDonald’s Community Football Coach of...

A 62-year-old Glasgow-born Partick Thistle supporter is Gisborne Thistle’s new coach. But while Tam Cramer has yet to come to grips with the playing strength at Gisborne’s oldest surviving football club, he is no stranger to the city. His wife...

‘We medalled in every race we entered’.

Gisborne’s Nathan Trowell has been selected for the New Zealand indoor bowls team — “the Mat Blacks” — to play Australia at Pukekohe in May next year. Trowell is one of seven new caps in the seven-man/seven-woman team named for the 25th...

Life Education Trust is celebrating the successful return of the Five Buck a Duck Race and looking ahead to the next one. “After expenses, we have netted around $22,000, but we have yet to make donations to Rotary and the Gisborne Yacht Club for...

Gisborne-Tairāwhiti under-12 girls were runners-up in their age-group Central Football Federation tournament in Napier late last month. Yet they were left wondering what might have been, after going into the tourney undefeated this season. “It...

Life Education Trust is bringing back the Five Buck a Duck Race in Gisborne after a break of almost three years. It will be held at 12.30pm on Saturday, November 18. The race is a game of chance in which numbered yellow plastic ducks are dropped...

Title the culmination of a six-year journey for many in the Gisborne Tairāwhiti team.

Waka ama clubs were ready to engage contractor but council now aims to have ramps cleared next week.

Rotary district governor Bill Robinson returned to his birthplace last week with a message for the Gisborne members of the service organisation. “Membership is the lifeblood of Rotary,” he said. “If we don’t have membership we are out the...

Six goals for six players . . . Wainui Riverina shared the joy around as they completed a Women’s Eastern League-Braybrook Cup double at Childers Road Reserve on Sunday. Gisborne Laundry Services Wainui Riverina had won the women’s league with...

Upsets were in short supply in Gisborne football cup finals at the weekend, but passion was out in force. High School Old Boys completed an Eastern League second-division double by beating Gisborne Thistle Youth 3-1 after extra time in the Chris...

Players and supporters of Gisborne Thistle AFC will celebrate the club’s 100th anniversary at Easter Weekend next year. Gisborne Herald journalist John Gillies sets the scene by looking back at the Jags’ history. A hundred years of history...

It’s finals weekend for Gisborne football. The Chris Moore Cup for Eastern League second-division teams and first-round Bailey Cup losers will be held at Childers Road Reserve at 2.30pm tomorrow. Second-division champions High School Old Boys will...

Gisborne Thistle had the second-best scoring record in Central Football’s Federation League, and the worst defensive record. Their goals for couldn’t keep pace with their goals against and so they finished second-last in a five-team competition...

Little bags of sunshine were packed by members of the Rotary Club of Gisborne for Tairāwhiti people affected by Cyclone Gabrielle. About a dozen Rotarians and friends gathered at a suburban garage and filled 101 supermarket bags with goodies aimed...

Gisborne Thistle have completed their season in football’s Central Federation League by climbing off the bottom of the points table, without kicking a ball. Scheduled opponents Palmerston North United (PNU) and Napier City Rovers Reserves...

Tairāwhiti paddlers showed they were world class when they won gold and silver medals at the waka ama long-distance world championships in Samoa. The Aotearoa New Zealand crew of Hinekahukura Brooking, Marnie Toloa, Kaiarahi Brooking-Haapu...

Gisborne Thistle’s Jags have three more points in their bid to avoid last place in football’s Central Federation League. Palmerston North United (PNU) have defaulted the game against ALH Gisborne Thistle that was to have been played at Childers...

Talk about doing the hard yards. Dara Mulrooney has made Central Football’s Girls Youth National League squad and faces a weekly round trip of just under 800 kilometres to go to training in Palmerston North. And that’s before weekend travel for...

The High School Old Boys name will be back on Gisborne football silverware following the success of the team that revived the name. HSOB won the Eastern League second division competition on goal difference from Smash Palace Shockers. It has been...

Three goals in the last six minutes blew out the scoreline of football’s Bailey Cup final but the result was a fair reflection of the game. Heavy Equipment Services Gisborne United completed the Eastern League-Bailey Cup double by beating Coates...

Multiple sclerosis is a serious, so-far-incurable condition but treatment, physical therapy and social interaction can ease the symptoms, slow their advance and help make life worth living. John Gillies talks to someone who has learned to live with...

Two grade wins in two years have Gisborne Girls’ High School Senior A netballers walking on air. Next year they will contest the A Grade competition at the Upper North Island Secondary Schools Netball Tournament in Waitakere. They won promotion as...

Wainui Demons will run on to Childers Road Reserve No. 1 tomorrow in pristine condition for football’s Bailey Cup final against Gisborne United. The reason? Well, they don’t train for a start . . . no pesky training injuries for them. Even their...

Gisborne Boys’ High School’s first 11 football team finished an “unlucky” fourth in the Rex Dawkins Tournament in Napier last week, but they have inspired their coach to aim much higher. “We were super unlucky not to reach the final,”...

Oska Smith marked his return to Federation League football with two goals in Gisborne Thistle’s 4-2 away win against Palmerston North United (PNU) on Saturday. But celebrations were muted by the sending-off of Thistle players Campbell Hall and...

Richard Ralph was a full-time St John ambulance officer for 27 years and experienced the highs and lows of tending to people in life-and-death emergencies. His humble background and supportive grandparents stood him in good stead for his calling...

Three hat-tricks, good. Four hat-tricks, better. My apologies to ALH Gisborne Thistle striker Jimmy Somerton. In my addled arrogance, I trusted my memory in its recall of two hat-tricks before last Saturday’s effort in a 5-3 loss to Palmerston...

Wainui Beach will be the place to be for knockout football action tomorrow. Wainui teams Demons and Sharks will have home advantage over Thistle and Gisborne United respectively in a Bailey Cup semifinal double-header at the beach ground off Wairere...

Jimmy Somerton scored a hat-trick for Gisborne Thistle on Saturday — his third of the season — and still ended up on the losing side. Palmerston North United beat ALH Gisborne Thistle 5-3 at Childers Road Reserve to clear the first hurdle in...

Two bankruptcies and three businesses going into receivership were bumps in the road for publisher John Woods but didn’t slow the workaholic and his hedonistic lifestyle . . . a massive stroke 11 years ago gave him pause, but it wasn’t until...

Gisborne Thistle play reluctant kingmakers in the run-in to the end of their Central Federation League football season. On Wednesday night, Palmerston North United beat league leaders Palmerston North Marist 2-1 with a stoppage-time goal that could...

Gisborne United won football’s Eastern League 1 title with a 100 percent win record and a nine-point margin over the runners-up. They won all 13 of their games, scoring 85 goals and conceding only 13 for a goal difference of 72. Heavy Equipment...

Palmerston North Marist showed in Gisborne on Saturday why they will probably win football’s Central Federation League this season. They beat ALH Gisborne Thistle 4-0 at Childers Road Reserve, and looked every bit as good as their position at the...

Gisborne Thistle couldn’t have asked for better opponents than those they face at Childers Road Reserve tomorrow. Palmerston North Marist are nine points clear at the top of the Central Federation League table. Who better to play for a shot at...