Wednesday night results, and Somerset's fantastic achievement

In last night’s Southern Championship catch-up game at North Chigwell, South Hobart beat Olympia Warriors 4-2.

Umberto Tucceri put South Hobart in front after 17 minutes and Josiah Otto doubled their lead with a goal in the 34^th minute.

Anthony Mamic pulled a goal back for Olympia 3 minutes before the interval, but Otto struck again on the stroke of half-time to give South Hobart a two-goal buffer at half-time.

A goal by Olympia substitute Samuel Cummins in the 56^th minute made it a goal the difference but Mulugeta Smith’s goal in the 62^nd minute made the game safe for South Hobart.

I didn’t know until recently that Olympia had parted company with coach Kurt Reynolds back in late June.

Alex Holmes has been in charge since then, assisted by Jacob Herbert and John Moutsatsos.

I’m sorry to see Reynolds go, for personal reasons it is said.  As a former Australia Under-20 and Under-17 captain, I have always thought the Launceston boy had so much to offer the game in Tasmania.

In last night’s Southern Championship 1 game at North Chigwell, South Hobart downed Olympia Warriors 5-0 through two goals by Nicholas Fraraccio and one each by Hugh Blacklow, James Thiessen and Oscar McLean.

In a Southern Social League Division 4 game at Lightwood Park, Kingborough Lions United Black overcame Kingborough Lions United Blue 4-2.

Wayne Quinn hit a hat-trick for Black, whose other goal came from Gavin Wailes.

Andrew Kent netted both goals for Blue.

*****

Congratulations to Somerset for completing the 2023 Northern Championship season with 21 wins from 21 games.

That’s a fantastic achievement, equalled only by Launceston Juventus (now Launceston City, of course) in 1959, according to expert statistician Keith Roberts.

Launceston Juventus also played 21 games that year and won all 21.

Keith also tells me Launceston Juventus won all their 11 league games (fewer teams in the league) in 1965, and all their 18 games in the 1969 season.

In the south, Metro played 12 and won 12 league games in the 1950 season, while Caledonians won all their 13 league games in the 1956 season.

At a lower level, in the Division 1 North Reserve League in 1954, a team called Riverview played 10 games and won all 10, but the interesting fact was that they conceded not a single goal while scoring 31 goals.

Thanks go to Keith for this information and I must say I’m pleased that we play more games nowadays than in 1950, 1954, 1965 and 1969.

Perhaps there were a few more cup competitions in those days, though?