British Korfball Association National League Roundup 26th-27th
November
It may be the equivalent of Crystal Palace and Gillingham
leading the way in the Premiership, but British korfball’s
strongest teams hail from South London and Kent, and two of
the best came head-to-head last Sunday.
If the football analogy was continued, then British korfball’s
national league would also show the equivalent of Nottingham
Forest in the Premiership, Manchester’s strongest team
only in the Championship, Cambridge still in the league and
Norwich boasting not one but two Championship teams.
However, back to the matter in hand - last weekend’s
korfball matches. The National League korfball season’s
first major clash between title favourites Invicta Sharks
and Mitcham, played at Invicta’s home ground Cornwallis
School in Kent, went the way of the visiting team, as Mitcham
took a large step towards claiming the title after winning
a low-scoring encounter 13-10.
As would be expected in a match between the UK’s top
two teams, the teams were neck-and neck for much of the match,
although at a lower scoring rate than might have been expected,
after Invicta used the “rebound defence” tactics
used by most clubs in the Netherlands to prevent key Mitcham
players from gaining control of the area round the basket.
Invicta opened the scoring with two goals from Great Britain
international Robbie Williams, but Mitcham pulled the score
back to 2-2 and a similar pattern continued. Until 45 minutes
into the match, there was never more than two goals between
the two sides, but Mitcham then found an extra gear to stretch
out into a four-goal lead, and survived a brief response from
the home team to see out the match. The two sides are not
set to meet again until a potential title-decider on the final
day of the season. If only football’s Premiership could
go into the final day of the season with the title still up
for grabs, but then, as of yet, no Abramovich equivalent has
invested in korfball.
At the other end of the table, Croydon picked up their first
points of the season and leapt out of the relegation zone
after beating Nomads 16-14, and confining their opponents
to bottom place in the league in the process. In a match where
the lead changed several times, Croydon recovered from 2-0
down to 5-2 up and then fell back to 8-7 down at half-time,
but an improved second-half performance saw Croydon take the
points, with former international Dave Butters top-scoring
with five goals.
Nottingham got back to winning ways after three consecutive
defeats, with an 18-11 win at home to a below-par Bec team
who now slip to seventh place in the table. Nottingham led
11-5 at half-time and never looked back, with all eight members
of the team getting on the scoresheet.
Yet another South London team, Trojans, remain third in the
table after defeating Kent team Kwiek 16-11 in the weekend’s
final Premier Division match. Daron Hockney later resigned
as Kwiek coach, and former international Dave Buckland will
take over as player-coach. Maybe that’s something else
in common with football –managerial changes starting
to happen at this time of the season. However, unlike Milan
Mandaric’s likely targets, Buckland was already with
the club as a player.
In Division One, there were only two matches. Surrey club
North Downs have now opened up a four-point lead at the top
of the table after travelling to Battersea to convincingly
defeat hosts Supernova 21-12. However, Kent team Kingfisher
also remain unbeaten, and with two games in hand, after a
20-8 win over Norwich Knights. One of those 100% records will
have to go next weekend, when North Downs and Kingfisher play
each other. Just like in football, this battle for promotion
is likely to go down to the wire.
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