British Korfball Association National League Roundup 8th
and 14th-15th January
The situation at the top of korfball’s National League
is still extremely tight. Second-placed Invicta Sharks defeated
Croydon on January 8th to keep pace with leaders Mitcham,
who came through a tricky tie against third-placed Trojans.
However, Invicta then flew out to Slovakia to compete in the
Europa Cup and Mitcham promptly won their game in hand to
restore their two-point lead at the top of the table.
Mitcham hosted Trojans on January 8th in their first Premier
Division match of 2006, and despite starting slowly and losing
Ella Wright to injury early in the second half, saw off determined
opposition 17-12 with Great Britain captain Dave Synott scoring
seven goals.
Invicta, meanwhile, travelled to Croydon hoping to avoid
a repeat of the previous season’s slip-up, as Croydon
had pulled off the shock of the season in 2004/05, which nearly
cost Invicta the league title. Despite playing the more fluent
korfball in the first half, Invicta were only 9-6 up at half-time
and the shock was still a possibility; however Invicta managed
to extend the lead to 17-11, with five goals from Dave Butters
not enough to save Croydon from their sixth league defeat
in seven.
Six in seven promptly became seven in eight on January 15th,
as Croydon lost again, this time to another Kent side, Kwiek,
albeit narrowly by 17 goals to 15. Despite Kwiek player-coach
Dave Buckland choosing to only name himself among the substitutes
and only make an appearance late in the game, Kwiek still
secured the win.
Croydon, however, avoid being bottom in the league, as relegation
rivals Nomads, also only with one win so far, lost 16-2 to
leaders Mitcham in the most one-sided scoreline of the season
so far, with Aimee Evans top scoring with four goals and three
other Mitcham players netting hat-tricks.
In another one-sided match, third-placed Trojans comfortably
saw off London rivals Bec 17-3, with Bec unable to keep as
close this time as in the season’s first encounter which
had finished 17-9.
Kingfisher still lead the chase for promotion in Division
One, despite following up a 13-11 win in Cambridge with their
first dropped point of the season as they were held to a 12-12
draw away to an injury-hit Supernova team in Battersea on
January 15th. Supernova had, the week before, ended an away
match at Norwich Knights two players due to injuries, and
had lost 12-8 to give the Knights only their second win of
the season.
Manchester defeated Norwich City 12-10 on January 8th but
then lost 11-8 to North Downs on January 14th, enabling the
Surrey side to narrow the gap with Kingfisher to only one
point. The match against Kingfisher on February 26th now looks
likely to decide who wins the division.
Cambridge bounced back from their Kingfisher defeat to see
off Norwich City 15-10 to leave the Norwich side at the foot
of the table.
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