Kingfisher compete at Europa Shield

Between 24 and 26 January 2014 Kingfisher represented England Korfball at the Europa Shield tournament in Catalonia. The Europa Shield is the International Korfball Federation event for European clubs (excluding Belgium and Netherlands).

Kingfisher finished the tournament in 7th place with two defeats and two wins.

The opening match for last season’s runners up in the England Korfball League was against Adler Rauxel of Germany. The match ended in defeat for the side from Kent, England; the final score was 7-17, with Liam Kirby and Mallory Gore top scoring for Kingfisher with two goals each.

There were two matches on Saturday, 25 January for Kingfisher, first was CCCD from Portugal and then against the current holders of the Shield trophy; Vallparadis from Catalonia.

CCCD raced into a 7-1 lead in the first match before Kingfisher started the fight-back. However the ‘blues’ left themselves with too much of a challenge and ended up fading in the final stages of the match. The final score against CCCD was 17-9.

Kingfisher’s final match on day two of the Europa Shield was against Vallparadis. In a reverse of the days earlier match it was the side from England that raced into an early lead this time. Vallparadis found themselves chasing the match. Ryan Medhurst top scored in the match for Kingfisher with five goals. Final score 13-10 to Kingfisher.

Kingfisher’s final match at the 2014 Europa Shield was against Szentendre from Hungry in the 7th/8th play-off match. At the end of normal time the score was tied at 12-12 after Adam Balpataki equalised for Szentendre with a medium distance goal with just 15 seconds to go. The match would be settled by golden goal. Both teams failed to score at their first attempt, which meant that the winner would be the first team to score. Up stepped Kingfisher’s Kenzie Baldock… who scored her fourth goal of the match. Kingfisher therefore finished the tournament in 7th place.

The final of the Europa Shield was between Vallparadis (CAT) and CEVG (CAT) with England Korfball league referee, Dean Woods. The match finished 10-14 in favour of CEVG.