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History

The WSANZ Knockout Cup has been contested since 1994, and is women's soccer's national club knockout competition, which effectively determines the premier women's soccer club in the country.

Because of New Zealand's geographic spread, the competition has, to date, been played on a regionalised basis right up to the final. Two Northern Region teams play each other in one semi-final, while the Central Region winner plays their equivalent from the Southern Region in the other semi.

The final is played on the last weekend in September as part of a double-header, with the Chatham Cup Final, the equivalent competition for men's club teams in New Zealand, following it, as part of the traditional ending to the New Zealand soccer season.

Because the strength of the game in New Zealand lies very much in the Northern Region, this part of the country has largely dominated the competition to date, but the only team from the area to enter the competition in its inaugural season was Waikato Unicol.

Christchurch's Nomads United were the inaugural winners, beating Unicol in the final. The following year would see the Waikato club pick up the silverware, before the start of the Auckland-based dominance, initially at the expense of Wellington club Petone.

In four consecutive finals from 1995, they were the beaten finalists. Come 1999, however, the capital’s leading club team was beaten in the quarter-finals by Wairarapa United, who have subsequently succeeded Petone in the role of competition bridesmaids.

Lynn-Avon United were the first team from the Queen City to win the cup, their 1996 triumph emulated a year later by Three Kings United, who went on to retain the most prestigious honour in New Zealand women's club soccer in 1998, and recorded a "three-peat" in 1999.

The trophy returned to Lynn-Avon’s cabinet at the end of the 2000 season, as they notched a record cup final victory, 6-0 over Wairarapa United at North Harbour Stadium.

SWANZ international Amanda Crawford became the third player to score a hat-trick in the final in that match, following in the footsteps of Three Kings’ Beth Clark and Petone’s Maureen Jacobson, who both achieved the feat in the 1997 extravaganza, the only year the WSANZ Knockout Cup Final has featured on television, in the form of a ten-minute highlights package shown a fortnight after the event.

In 2001, Lynn-Avon’s grip on the trophy was prised loose by Ellerslie. In the first all-Auckland final, following the move to make the semi-finals an open draw affair in light of the one-sidedness of the showpiece of the previous season, the debutant finalists upset the holders 1-0.

The only two-time winner of the final’s Most Valuable Player honour until the 2007 event, Maia Jackman, collected a then unprecedented fourth winner’s medal from as many appearances in the final of the competition with this result, having

been a member of Lynn-Avon’s first cup-winning side in 1996, before helping Three Kings to victory in both the 1998 and 1999 finals.

The 2002 affair was a cracking contest, again featuring Ellerslie and Lynn-Avon. This time, it was United's turn to savour the silverware, for the third time in the competition's history, after one of the best scoreless draws you could wish to see. United won 5-3 on penalties, with both finalists going through the entire competition without conceding a goal.

A year on, and the pair traded blows once more, but this was the most one-sided contest of the final trilogy, with Lynn-Avon completely dominating their opponents. 4-1 could easily have been an awful lot more, but as it was, Sara Clapham bagged a hat-trick for the winners, on a day when only three Ellerslie players truly did justice to the shirt, compared with all eleven members of the cup winners, who claimed the trophy for a record fourth time with this win.

The 2004 final saw the clash of the clubs who had won the cup most often in its history, with Lynn-Avon aiming to repeat the "three-peat" achievement of Three Kings United by downing them in the final. They prevailed 1-0 in a battle royal, a dubious Rebecca Parkinson penalty separating the sides, and leaving Lynn-Avon as five-time winners of the cup.

A year on, and the juggernaut which is Lynn-Avon made it four consecutive cup wins, a brace of goals from Michele Keinzley clinching a 2-0 win over Eastern Suburbs, who were making their maiden Uncle Toby's Women's Knockout Cup Final appearance.

That was also the case for Western Springs in the 2006 final, in just their second season of senior level women's football. They more than matched Lynn-Avon throughout the first forty-five minutes, but the perennial winners changed gears in the second half to win the cup for the fifth straight year with this 3-0 triumph.

A year later, Springs were back, a year older and with a sprinkling of experienced players in their ranks, who helped them to overcome maiden finalists Glenfield Rovers 2-1 in the first final not to be played on neutral territory - Western Springs had home advantage.

Cup Final MVP Nicky Smith won the award for a second time thanks to her two-goal haul, while Maia Jackman equalled Terry McCahill's record of eight cup final appearances, and set a record which is unlikely to be beaten anytime soon, Western Springs being the fourth club with which she has won the trophy.

Terry McCahill and Lynn-Avon set another record in 2008, as eight-time winners of the competition. Western, the first South Island finalists since fellow Christchurch club Nomads United won the cup in 1994, copped a 6-2 hiding from the nine-time finalists.

National Women's Knockout Cup Finals

Year	Winners	Score	Runners-up	Most Valuable Player
1994	Nomads United won 4-3 on pens	0-0	Waikato Unicol
1995	Waikato Unicol M. Anderton, J. Bradley, S. McKeown	3-1	Petone "oggie"
1996	Lynn-Avon United T. McCahill (2), M. Jackman, D. Hearn	4-2	Petone W. Henderson, K. Nye	Maia Jackman (Lynn-Avon United)
1997	Three Kings United B. Clark (3), P. Andersen (2), H. Exler, J. Simpson	7-5	Petone M. Jacobson (3), K. Murray, K. Nye	Maria Wilkie (Three Kings United)
1998	Three Kings United P. Andersen, M. Oostdam, J. Simpson, M. Wilkie	4-2	Petone T. Horne, J. Patterson	Maia Jackman (Three Kings United)
1999	Three Kings United A. Goaziou, M. Jackman, J. Kelley	3-2	Wairarapa United A. Bain, W. Henderson	Nicky Smith (Wairarapa United)
2000	Lynn-Avon United A. Crawford (3), L. Pedruco, M. Reber, A. Vujnovich	6-0	Wairarapa United	Amanda Crawford (Lynn-Avon United)
2001	Ellerslie S. Gregory	1-0	Lynn-Avon United	Priscilla Duncan (Ellerslie)
2002	Lynn-Avon United won 5-3 on pens	0-0	Ellerslie	Yvonne Vale (Lynn-Avon United)
2003	Lynn-Avon United S. Clapham (3), M. Keinzley	4-1	Ellerslie M. Bowker	Sara Clapham (Lynn-Avon United)
2004	Lynn-Avon United R. Parkinson	1-0	Three Kings United	Melissa Ray (Lynn-Avon United)
2005	Lynn-Avon United M. Keinzley (2)	2-0	Eastern Suburbs	Michele Keinzley (Lynn-Avon United)
2006	Lynn-Avon United S. Gregorius, R. Percival, M. Hansen	3-0	Western Springs	Ria Percival (Lynn-Avon United)
2007	Western Springs N. Smith (2)	2-1	Glenfield Rovers A. Bresnahan	Nicky Smith (Western Springs)
2008	Lynn-Avon United A. Hearn, K. Hoyle, E. Kete, H. Moorwood, V. Rainbow, M. Ray	6-2	Western B. Lawry, A. Phillips	Kirsty Yallop (Lynn-Avon United)

National Women's Knockout Cup Biggest Scorelines (15 goals +)

Date	Recorded by	Over	Score
22/6/03	Three Kings United	Onehunga-Mangere United	20-0
22/6/97	Waikato Unicol	Hibiscus Coast	19-0
17/6/07	Western Springs	Papatoetoe	18-0
19/5/02	Claudelands Rovers	Cambridge	17-0
4/7/04	Three Kings United	Bay Olympic	15-0
1/7/07	Western Springs	Bay Olympic	15-0
29/6/08	Claudelands Rovers	Cambridge	15-0

National Women's Knockout Cup Results