Cardiff University fail to reach BUSA Nationals

At the University Southerns tournament held in Birmingham on Nov 24th, which acts as a qualifying tournament for the BUSA Nationals, Cardiff University finished in 9th place, one short of the position required to qualify. This is a significant disappointment for a promising team that probably lacked the experience required in a tournament hald so early in the season. Another factor may be the disbanding of the Excalibur Korfball League, which has reduced the level of competition in both Wales and the South West - it’s noticeable that Bristol University also fared worse than they have traditionally, qualifying only in 8th place.

The main factor has to be the increasing strenth of new university teams such as Kent and Aston and the impressive re-birth of London Uni who finished 2nd overall. Birmingham Uni were the tournament winners.

Date for WKA AGM announced

The WKA Annual General Meeting will be held on Monday 3rd December. It comes at a crucial time for Welsh korfball. There are some big positives like the continued growth in membership of Cardiff City and Cardiff Dragons and an excellent start to the season for the uni club,  as well as the success of the national team. However, the lack of competition for the top club players, illustrated in Cardiff City’s 22-1 demolition of Cardiff Uni, and the dearth of qualified coaches and referees in the region are areas for concern. There are also important issues as to how best to expand the game in Wales, and how Welsh korfball will fit in with the new regionalised structure being proposed by the EKA.

Wales lose in Eurobowl Final

Wales were beaten 14-6 by Slovakia in the Eurobowl Final in Brno on Friday. The Welsh team were unable to recover from a dreadful start when each of the Slovakian women in turn scored without reply inside the first 5 minutes. With Wales shooting not up to the mark, they finished the first-half 9-2 behind. The second half was more competitive, with Dave Buckland completing a hat-trick, Nick Wilkins also scored along with subsititutes Steve and Kim Jones. However, they were unable to bridge the gap in a match that highlighted 2 of the recurring problems for the Welsh national team in its short existence - the lack of tough competition for the players based in Wales and the lack of goals from the female players.

Eurobowl Final to be Televised

Friday’s match between Wales and Slovakia in Brno, Czech Republic, to see who will win the Jan Hanekroot trophy, as well as gain qualification for the next European Championships will be televised live and for free at www.korfball.tv

The game starts at 1.30 pm CET/12.30 GMT

Inaugral Welsh League Begins

The first match of the first ever Welsh league was played last evening between Cardiff Uni 2 and Cardiff Dragons 2. The students edged the first half, with almost complete domination of possession, finishing 2-0 ahead. In the second half, with both sides making several substitutions, the greater experience in the Dragons team told and they moved into a 4-3 lead. The university team did manage to equalise that, but Dragons scored again direct from the restart and went on to win 7-4.

Stadskanaal’74 Tournament

Both the Welsh national team and Cardiff City took part in the 7th international Stadskanaal’74 tournament in Groningen on Saturday 3rd Nov. The hosts came out victorious, with Wales in third.

Final Places:

1. Stadskanaal’74 (Netherlands)
2. Scheldevogels (Netherlands)
3. Wales
4. SDO Hillegom (Netherlands)
5. SKK Stockholm (Sweden)
6. Cardiff City (Wales)
7. KV Hoegrop (Belgium)
8. TuS Wesseling (Germany)

On the Sunday, Wales took on Sweden in a friendly match, winning 15-11.