England Korfball League – Week 6 Review
TROJANS 18-14 NOMADS (HT 10-5) – Referee: Steve Jones
The opening match of Week 6 of the England Korfball League saw current champions Trojans host Nomads at Trinity Sports Centre in Croydon.
The last time these two sides met Trojans won by a single goal 18-17. With Trojans suffering from two recent defeats in the league would Nomads inflict further pain on arguably England Korfball’s most successful club team of recent times?
Trojans coach Gary Brooks gave a first team starting debut to new signing Toby Clarke. Clarke helped Trojans into an early lead, unfortunately for the 21-year-old an ankle injury forced the Trojans coach into an early substitution on 20 minutes. Clarke was replaced by Stan Dunn.
With less than 15 minutes to go in the match the scores were level at 13-13… this forced Trojans to call a timeout. The break in play had the desired impact with Trojans moving into a four goal lead which they never let slip. Final score 18-14.
Nomads coach Dave Butters said: “Giving Trojans a 6-0 head-start, meant it was always going to be a difficult ask, but we got back level with 15 mins to go but couldn’t find the goals needed to close the match out”
Speaking about the result Trojans and England international Steph Allen said “Good result today. We started really strong, 7-1 after 15 minutes. After the start of the second half Nomads scored some great long shots to take it to 13-13. We then took control of the rest of the game and won 18-14”
About the result Trojans coach Gary Brooks said: “Good to get a win today against one of last years top 4 teams. We continue to make progress towards the Europa Cup”
Trojans captain, David Brooks top scored in the match with 7 goals. Nomads and England International Sytze Bijker top scored for the visitors with 6 goals in the match.
Nomads drop down one place to 4th in the league, with Trojans remaining in 2nd place on 8 points.
TORNADOES 20-15 BIRMINGHAM CITY (HT 9-5) – Referee: Frank van der Wens
The experience of former Great Britain senior international Dave Buckland and current England u21 internationals Daniel Brown (5) and Owen Bailey’s (4) goals helped Tornadoes secure their first win of the 2014/15 season with a 20-15 victory over promoted Birmingham City.
Speaking immediately after the match Tornadoes coach Corinne Buckland said: “Finally paid off, all the hard work the youngster put in week in, week out. They found the belief in themselves that they can do it. I was very pleased with the players, how they handled the slippery floor and other difficult elements to the game”
KV 22-12 NORWICH KNIGHTS (HT 10-3) – Referee: Brian Carswell
The second match of the day at Aylesford Sports College was between KV and Norwich Knights. KV’s player/coach James McDonald top scored in the match with an important haul of 6 goals.
Knights coach Joe Stirling was disappointed with his teams performance scoring just three goals in the first half.
“Obviously disappointed with our result and also for the first time this season, parts of our performance. We didn’t hit the levels we expect of each other today.
Stirling said “Credit to KV, who are a very organised outfit and performed well. However, we didn’t disrupt their play or take them out of their comfort zone.”
Top female goal scorer in the match was KV’s Sam Medcraft who found the back of the korf on five occasions. The win for KV moves the club into 3rd place in the league.
KINGFISHER 18-28 BEC (HT 10-15) – Referee: Dean Woods
The final match of the day was a passionate affair between two of the league’s current inform teams, Kingfisher and Bec.
Kingfisher coach Ross Carr-Taylor who with his new style of play, moving away from the routine static block rebound into a more free flowing style of korfball was keen to see how his players would deal with many people’s odds on favourites for this years league title, Bec.
From the first whistle it was clear that every loose ball was going to be contested by both teams. At the halftime break the visitors from London were ahead by 5 goals.
The second half followed a similar pattern to the first, with both teams scoring goals. However it was Bec that were converting a higher percentage of their chances. England International Ben King received a yellow card in the second half for a foul on Liam Geddes.
Bec coach Dave Buckland handed a first team debut to recent signing Irina Casado Pozanco from Catalonia’s Korfbal Montcada.
The u21 Catalan international scored 6 goals on her debut – certainly a player to watch out for in this year’s England Korfball League!
Kingfisher coach Ross Carr-Taylor said after the match: “We had three first team boys missing today so it was always going to be hard, that coupled with 9 out of the 10 that featured for Bec being England senior internationals.
“To be honest we didn’t have our best day and for most of the game we were out shot and out muscled, however we weren’t out played, we put in a good shift today and it’s a good marker for where we are in preparation for 2015.
“We will go into the Christmas break with our spirits up and confidence still high from last weeks result”
Speaking about the win Bec coach Dave Buckland said: “Very pleased with the result today. We were missing players today so it was good to try out players from the squad. They stepped up to the challenge and preparation for the Europa Shield is going in the right direction.
“Regarding Kingfisher it was pleasing to play a team who for the last 6 years have walked the block again and again and again. It was great to see a more creative team.
“BEC dominated the game and scored 28 goals. The surface we played on made it very difficult today so we are very pleased with the result. Looking forward to the next game against Nomads”
Bec’s Ben King top scored in the match with 8 goals, followed by Irina Casado Pozanco with 6 and then Bec’s captain Davesh Patel with 5 goals.
Luke Francis impressed for Kingfisher on his return to the England Korfball League after a two year break.
The England Korfball League returns next week (21 December) with Nomads hosting Bec at Epsom College’s Sports Centre.