Welsh National Squad Trials

Trials for the Wales national squad will be on the 6th September at Talybont Sports Hall in Cardiff. More information is available on the WKA site. There will also be national squad training there on the 20th September.

Wales search for a new coach

Following Steve Jones’ decision to step down after a very successful period as coach of the Welsh National Team, the WKA is currently advertising for a new coach and assistant coach to ensure the continuing progress of the squad.

Full text of the advert below:

Are you looking for a new challenge? Do you have what it takes to coach a national korfball squad? Wales is a new korfballing nation but has already achieved much success under our previous coach. We were runners up in the European Bowl 2007 and were placed 24th in its first ever IKF ranking.

We are looking for an enthusiastic, experienced coach and assistant to consolidate this success and take us to the next stage. Training sessions are based in Cardiff therefore the willingness to travel is essential. Travel expenses will be reimbursed.

With ever increasing player numbers and teams in Wales, there is plenty of optimism for the future. Do you want to be involved?

For more information please don’t hesitate to contact us using the details below.
Closing date for applications 13/04/08

ianosullivan@yahoo.com Ian O’Sullivan – Chairman
susan_belfourd@hotmail.com Susan Belfourd -Secretary

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

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.

Welsh team friendlies

As a warm-up for the tough challenges in the Interland tournament and the Eurobowl final in November, Wales played a couple of friendlies against the GB u19 and u16 squads. Although ostensibly the u19s played Wales A and the u16s, Wales B, there was some overlap in the squad.

The results were:

Wales A 6 - 16 Great Britain under 19

(Nick Wilkins 4, Steve Jones 2)

Wales B 13 - 8 Great Britain under 16

(Remco Broekhuis 4, Steve Jones 4, Kevin Jones 3, Lorna 1, Nick Wilkins 1)

A full report can be found on the WKA site. 

Welsh Squads Announced

Welsh squads for the Interlands Tournament in Groningen on the 3rd and 4th of November and the Eurobowl final on the 9th have been announced.

Eurobowl Squad:

Steve Jones (Wildcats)

Nick Wilkins (Birmingham City)

Ceri Jones (Cardiff City)

Lee O’Sullivan (Cardiff Dragons)

John Williams (North Downs)

Dave Buckland (Kwiek)

Tammy Kentfield (Wildcats)

Kim Jones (Wildcats)

Rebecca Lewis (Bec)

Susan Belfourd (Cardiff City)

Zoe Gabica (Cardiff City)

In addition to these 11, the following players are in the Groningen squad:

Dave Thomas (Cardiff Dragons), Kevin Jones (Manchester Warriors), Remco Broekhuis (Cardiff Dragons), Jack McNamara (Cardiff Dragons), Rebecca Lewis (Bec), Ruth Campbell and Katherine Smith (Cardiff City).  

Wales get first IKF ranking

On the 8th September, the International Korfball Federation (IKF) updated its national ranking list which assesses the relative strength of the national teams of its 51 member nations. This took into account results in the European Bowl, the first tournament Wales have participated in that counts towards the ranking, and so Wales position of 24th represents their first appearance on the ranking list. They are just behind France (21st) and Luxembourg (23rd) who they finished ahead of in the Western Section of the Bowl, so they will hope to move further forward shortly. Slovakia, who are to face Wales in the Bowl final on November 9th, are ranked 17th.

The Netherlands remain top ahead of Belgium, while Chinese Taipei have moved ahead of the Czech Republic into 3rd. England take over Great Britain’s ranking of 6th place, Ireland are 29th, while Scotland share 30th position with Bulgaria and Romania.

Wales to face Slovakia in European Bowl final

The Eastern Division of the European bowl was held in Serbia over the 16th and 17th of June, with Slovakia emerging as comfortable victors, winning all 4 of their games. The hosts finished second, ahead of Greece, Romania and Bulgaria.  The Slovakian side (ranked 18th in the world in the most recent IKF rankings) are likely to prove tough competition for the Welsh squad, with the 22nd ranked French team being their biggest scalp so far.  The final is to be played in Brno, during the European Championships, though the exact date is still to be finalised.

Wales win Eurobowl

In their first tournament as a fully ratified independent country, Wales went to Luxembourg and came back as winners of the Eurobowl western division. An exceptional achievement by the team and congratulations to all concerned.  They will next meet the winners of the eastern division (to be determined in June)  as part of the World Championships to be held in Brno, Czech Republic in November.

The Eurobowl is a recent innovation, designed in response to the growing number of national korfball federations in Europe, competed for by teams that didn’t qualify for the European Championships. The other participating teams were the hosts, Luxembourg, the pre-tournament favourites and most established korfing nation, France; Ireland and Sweden, competing in their first tournaments; as well as Scotland which like Wales was newly formed following the division of British korfball into 3 national associations.