Beth Clark

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Beth Clark

Clarkie goals

	BETH CLARK
Age / Birthdate	May 26, 1972
Nickname	Clarkie

Individual Achievements	1 SWANZ appearance, 0 goals
	SWANZ debut v. Papua New Guinea, November 7, 1996
	Auckland rep. 1988-98 - 37 appearances, 14 goals

Club Record	South Auckland Rangers, 1987-88
	Ellerslie, 1988-89
	Eden / Three Kings United, 1990-99 - 153 appearances, 89 goals

Club Honours	Northern Premier Women's League champions 1991, 1998
	Auckland Premier Women's Knockout Shield winners 1991, 1997, 1998
	Auckland Premier Women's Champion-of-Champions winners 1991, 1997, 1998
	WSANZ Knockout Cup winners 1997, 1998

Representative Team Honours	National Women's Soccer Tournament winners 1992, 1993, 1997, 1998

BETH CLARK

A Personal Appreciation

by Jeremy Ruane

Beth Clark was the joker in the pack of the Eden and Three Kings United teams throughout the 1990s.

Something of a “wild child”, with regard to her off-field interests, she certainly knew where the goal was, to the extent that when she hung up her soccer boots at the end of the 1998 season, she was the third most prolific goalscorer in the history of the team, with 89 goals from 153 matches.

“Clarkie” was absolutely delighted to earn a call-up for the SWANZ in 1996, a substitute against Papua New Guinea. She had previously been selected for the New Zealand U-19 team in 1991, as well as Auckland’s “A Team”.

Indeed, Beth was one of the youngest players to ever play for New Zealand’s champion province, scoring on her debut against Nelson in the 1988 National Tournament, less than three months after her sixteenth birthday.

Her career at provincial level fluctuated somewhat, as form, attitude and injury problems dictated her future at blue-and-white level. But she helped the “A Team” win four National Tournaments in all, and marked her final game in women’s soccer with a four-goal flourish for Auckland against Samoa in 1998.

Her senior career began eleven years earlier at South Auckland Rangers. She scored three goals that season for the eventual league runners-up, and netted another for SAR early in 1988, before transferring to Ellerslie.

In her time at Michaels Avenue, she was twice on the losing team in the Auckland Premier Women’s Knockout Shield final. Defeat was more painful for Beth personally on the second occasion, in 1989, as it was at the hands of her former club ... but she did have the consolation of scoring the first hat-trick of her career that season, against Otahuhu United.

She was to score seven more hat-tricks at club level, the remainder coming in the colours of Eden, later Three Kings United. Beth joined the “Gold Chicks” in 1990, and must have thought she was jinxed, as Eden finished runners-up in both the League and Knockout Shield, with SAR again her nemesis in the latter affair.

1991 will always be a year Beth fondly remembers, as she won her first winner’s medals, Eden clinching the League and Knockout double, and, with this, the Champion-of-Champions trophy.

The following year, the jinx returned - runners-up in both League and Knockout. With much of the heart of the team switching to Avondale United (later Lynn-Avon) at the end of that season, it meant Eden had to rebuild.

Beth suddenly found herself one of the senior members of the side, and responded by leading the goalscoring in 1993. Injury curtailed her 1995 campaign, while the jinx struck again a year later, as Eden fell to a heartbreaking last-minute winner by arch-rivals Lynn-Avon in the 1996 Knockout Shield final.

Cue 1997 - vengeance with a capital V! Although not initially, as Three Kings - Eden had amalgamated with Mt. Roskill in the close-season - finished runners-up to Lynn-Avon in the league.

But sweet revenge came in the Knockout Shield and Champion-of-Champions finals, and in the SWANZ Knockout Cup, as Three Kings dumped holders Lynn-Avon out of the competition, and went on to claim the trophy for themselves, Beth scoring the first-ever hat-trick in the final of the competition, as United edged Petone 7-5 in a quite spectacular match.

So to “Clarkie”’s final campaign, 1998. She certainly signed off in style, as Three Kings won the “Grand Slam” - League, Knockout Shield, Champion-of-Champions and the SWANZ Knockout Cup - and set new goalscoring records in both the League and Knockout Shield competitions in the process.

Beth herself scored the crucial equaliser in the Knockout Shield final, and enjoyed her best-ever return goals-wise, as well as honours-wise, netting twenty-three times. Without question, it was a fine way for this whole-hearted front-runner to finish off her footballing career - on top!

Stars of the Past