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NEWS
WOLVES EDGE FLAMES 2-1 IN SEASON OPENER
Has anybody here seen Kelly!
Those old lyrics from a popular song of many years ago were spoken more than once as fans, friends and dignitaries associated with Oshawa, the Durham Region and the CPSL�s Durham Flames assembled at the Civic Stadium in Oshawa Saturday to honour a Canadian with a split personality.
But while Durham Flames took the opportunity to honour Superfan Terry Kelly, they went down 2-1 to St. Catharines Roma Wolves in the CPSL season opener.
Terry Kelly may well be Canada�s greatest soccer supporter ever.
But other sports also lay claim to the man known through the decades as Terry Kelly�Superfan, a widely traveled Canadian who has visited a host of sporting events throughout the globe. Think of a sport, and he�s been there. Think of a world event, he�s seen it.
Ask him about any sport and he�ll break out in a smile as big as a soccer ball to articulate some history of the sport, why �it�s a good game,� and where he saw the sport at the highest level
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Terrence Vincent Kelly, Q.C. can also be a stern, gruff prosecutor of those who flout the most serious of Canadian laws. Like drug smuggling. He is in fact a criminal lawyer and federal crown prosecutor. And, it is said, one of the best.
Durham Flames and St. Catharines Roma Wolves opened the CPSL season in what turned into a spirited but even contest bringing a result that could have gone either way. The Flames ended last season in fifth position with a 7-10-2 WLT record in the Eastern Conference, while St. Catharines ended fourth at 6-7-6 in the west.
Carlo Arghittu of St. Catharines scored the first goal of the new season at the 36th minute mark with a strike from 12 yards that gave Flames'goalkeeper Serge Desbiens little chance and Gary McGuchan made it 2-0 after 54 minutes for the visitors with a neat chip from 25 yards.
Referee Manuel Orellano had to sort out some shirt pulling in the St. Catharines penalty box at the 65th minute and awarded a penalty kick to Durham. Jahmo Welch made no mistake, his spot kick had Wolves goalkeeper Claudio Perri going the wrong way for what turned out to be a 2-1 final score.
It is the CPSL's sixth season since the 1998 launch of what is now Canada�s only professional soccer league with 12 teams in Ontario and one in Quebec. The kickoff on May 24 through to the last league game on September 28 will be punctuated by the league�s Open Canada Cup competition which got underway during last week's Victoria Day weekend and continues with games each long holiday weekend through to the final on Labour Day, September 1. Following that, the CPSL will focus on its last month of the league season and playoff games early October, with the CPSL Championship Final and Annual Awards banquet on October 5.
�Kelly has pledged to be at every CPSL ground this season,� said Rick Boulton, a close friend for many years who once flew to Europe with the Superfan �just to see a soccer match�any soccer match,� said Boulton recently.
�We flew to London first and I was looking forward to seeing Stamford Bridge, home of mighty Chelsea�or perhaps Arsenal.�
But we ended up on the northeast coast of England, close to the high waves of the North Sea on a rainy cold night, got wet watching fourth division Hartlepools United play Lincoln City.�
Terry thought this was great�even when he had to buy an umbrella from a store just round the corner to watch the game.�
There are 92 grounds in first class soccer in Britain, and Terry Kelly has visited 77 of them. Kelly is Toronto-born, raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland, he�s been to 10 World Cups�has never missed the big event since his first in 1966.
He was born in 1931, the year Maple Leaf Gardens was built.
He was a director of the Maple Leafs for nine years.
He is a former president of the Ontario Soccer Association. He�s a Life Member.
Kelly is in his 18th year as chair of the Selection Committee for Canada�s Sports Hall of Fame.
Terrence Vincent Kelly Q.C. has received a host of awards since graduating in law from the University of New Brunswick in 1953�now 50 years in law.
Like the Queen�s Jubilee Gold Medal for 50 years of public service, and that includes being a fund-raiser par excellence for the City of Oshawa where it is said that certain buildings wouldn�t be there but for the efforts of Terry Kelly.
The second game of the new CPSL season has Hamilton Thunder, fresh off a training session in Bermuda and now under new coach Duncan Wilde, at home to Toronto Supra next Thursday, May 29, an 8.30 p.m. kickoff at Brian Timmis Stadium.
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