Bec win Bronze with a 15-8 victory over Kingfisher

Bec bagged the bronze medal on the final day of the England Korfball League season as they saw off a spirited challenge from Kingfisher.

Joe Bedford scored five for the South London side as they earned a 15-8 victory.

It brought the weekend to a happy close for them after they suffered a defeat against Norwich Knights in the semi-finals yesterday, meaning they missed out on a fourth consecutive final.

Kingfisher put in a good performance themselves, but they seemed to lack the stamina to match their rivals towards the end of the match.

The early exchanges were evenly split between the teams as they both came close to scoring, but neither were able to make their shots count.

Six minutes had passed before the deadlock was broken as Sara Roberts was called for an out-of-hand foul by the post and Ryan Medhurst stepped up and converted the chance.

Kingfisher had been defending well, but Bec skipper Davesh Patel did manage to shake-off his man to get under the basket, only to throw a weak shot, but his division colleague Bedford did make it 1-1 not long after.

A minute later Kingfisher were back in front as Liam Kirby got a big step away from Patel and fired home, although this was cancelled out by Caitlin Fitzgerald as she found the target from the back of the court.

Proceedings became somewhat cagey with no score for more than seven minutes as the defences from both sides took control, although they also squandered chances.

It was Bec’s Helen West who ended the mini drought, but Liam Geddes soon found an equaliser.

Bec put together another good move in attack as they looked to start applying pressure and this gave Blake Palfreyman room to score.

Despite looking to in charge, Bec could not stretch their lead and with four minutes left in the half, Kingfisher moved the ball round their division and opened a gap for Shannon Jones to run in and equalise.

They should have gone into half-time with the lead, but decent chances for Lauren Hall and Geddes were missed.

The opening eight minutes of the second half saw the sides being a lot more prolific than they had in the early exchanges of the first with Kenzie Baldock and Hall hitting the target for Kingfisher and Bedford, Fitzgerald and Palfreyman scoring for Bec.

Ho Yei Knauss should have made it 8-6 to Bec as she found space under the post, only to miss, but her team-mates Bedford and Palfreyman helped extend their lead.

Kingfisher were not being overawed and good work collecting while in attack led to Rachel Turner getting on the scoresheet.

But although they were staying in the game, the Kent-based outfit were unable to find what they needed to get on level terms as Bec kept them at arm’s length with goals from Ben King and Bedford making it 11-7 with 12 minutes left.

And when Roberts and Andrew Hall scored for Bec to open up a six point gap, the game was in affect over for Kingfisher with seven-and-a-half minutes left.

Jones gave Kingfisher’s support something to cheer with a goal with just under three minutes to go, but before the finish, Bedford and Palfreyman found the mark again.