The full WKL season plan has now been updated and it’s looking pretty full! Will be a lot of busy Welsh korfballers this season.

The 2008 counties was played in Birmingham on some very odd looking artificial turf which played a bit odd too, but dealt very well with the horrible weather conditions that always seem to accompany the counties. Full report below:

Wales began with a game against Leicestershire. Leicestershire were fielding an ineligible side and all their games over the weekend were forfeit. However, Wales were the only team who actually managed to beat them on the pitch on either day, with Remco’s long shooting being the key to the win.

Wales 4-3 Leicestershire Remco 3 goals, Josh 1

Next up were Buckinghamingshire, in the first game of several which followed a frustrating course of Wales going ahead only to miss out on victory through a late goal, in this case an equaliser with just about the last action of the match. Again Remco had led the scoring, with Pete contributing 2 at the other end.

Wales 6-6 Buckinghamshire Remco 4, Pete 2

The next game was against Kent, last years winners and always featuring strong players. However, Kent had turned up under-strength, and were playing 2 girls short. Showing good tactical awareness to exploit this, Wales moved into a 5-3 advantage with 5 minutes to go. Unfortunately, again they were unable to kill the game off and Kent produced a gutsy comeback to clinch victory with a minute left.

Wales 5-6 Kent Josh 2, Ramzi 2, Remco

Next up was a very strong (and very tall) West Midlands side. The home team looked a class above for the first half of the game and Wales were clinging on. However, as the game went on Wales began to find their feet and tightened up defensively. 2 long shots from Remco got them on the score sheet, and when Susan won a penalty for Ramzi to score, a comeback looked possible. Time ran out though with Wales still trailing.

Wales 3-5 West Midlands Remco 2, Ramzi 1

The last game of the day was against South Yorkshire who’d lost all their other games, and it was a game that the Welsh should have won. However, a good start wasn’t built on and too many shots went wide, allowing S Yorkshire to claim a draw with another late equaliser.

Wales 4-4 S Yorkshire Jack, Josh, Ramzi, Zoe

Leicestershire’s ineligible team and other results in the group meant that Wales ultimately finished 4th out of 6 in their group and would go into the middle pool on Day 2 - after the social, of course!

Day 2 began with a game against a strong Manchester side that was surprisingly not competing for the top positions. Although Wales managed some strong attacking, they were a bit too sloppy in defence to hope to hold off such tough competition and the final result was never in doubt.

Wales 5-9 Manchester Ramzi 3, Elaine, Remco

Next up were our old adversaries, Avon. The game began with both sides scoring with their first attacks, and the pace of scoring was high throughout. In a frustrating match, Wales always created chances and were never far behind, but were unable to prevent Avon scoring for long enough to mount a realistic victory charge.

Wales 7-9 Avon Jack 2, Josh 2, Zoe 2, Ramzi

Finally was a Gloucester team that had out-performed expectations to get into the middle pool, and who were willing to put up a lot of long shots, with some very good accuracy. In defence though they were too inexperienced to stop Wales scoring and only a lack of clinical finishing from near the basket kept the score down.

Wales 11-5 Gloucestershire Jack 5, Ramzi 3, Elaine, Susan, Zoe 

A final position of 15th was disappointing given some strong performances on the first day, and Wales can be proud of how well they created chances against even strong defences. However an inability to kill off games when ahead, and some defensive fragility prevented the team from doing as well as they could have.

Squad: Remco Broekhuis (11 goals), Ramzi Barbir (11), Jack McNamara (8), Josh Cockburn (6), Zoe Gabica (4), Elaine Dunlop (2), Pete Christensen (2), Susan Belfourd (1), Aimee Grant, Hannah Johnson

The third annual Cardiff tournament saw another step forward in terms of size, quality of korfball and efficiency of organisation, thanks to a lot of hard work from a significant number of people on the organising committee and volunteers on the day.

The morning session was made-up of 4 groups, with the top 2 in each qualifying for the Cup quarter-finals. Third and fourth headed into the Plate quarter-finals, while the rest of the teams played off for the bowl. These groups were won by Bec, Pure Magic, Scotland and Bearsted respectively.

In the quarter-finals, Bearsted and Pure Magic continued on, beating Highbury and Big Cats. But the other group winners faltered, Bec losing to Wildcats and Scotland to Can’t Touch This. In the final, Wildcats met Bearsted and in the battle of the National League 1 teams, it was the London team who came out ahead. The Plate trophy also went to the capital, Bec 2 beating Cardiff Invaders in the final, while Reading beat Dragons to win the bowl.

Final Positions

1. Wildcats
2. Bearsted 1
3. Can’t Touch This
4. Pure Magic
5. Highbury 1
6. Bec 1
7. Scotland
8. Big Cats
9. Bec 2
10. Cardiff Invaders
11. Cardiff Uni
12. Manchester
13. Castle
14. Highbury 2
15. Exeter
16. Bristol City
17. Reading
18. Dragons
19. Bearsted 2
20. Grass Snakes
21. Gloucester
22. Scratch

As far as Welsh teams go, Can’t Touch This were the highest placed team, but possibly the best achievement was Cardiff Uni coming 11th.

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.

Unfortunately the end of the indoor season saw me slacking off significantly in the updating of this site. I’m looking to keep the site more regularly updated from now on.

More positively, in this time the WKA has got a very professional new website, expertly designed by Nick Wilkins which will hopefully become the best place to go for official news about the Welsh national team and korfball within Wales.

The final matches of the league season were played on Saturday at Talybont, with Dragons 2 beating Cane Toads, and Cyclones beating Dragons 1. The result confirmed the Cyclones as league winners, though the ultimate prize of being the first ever Welsh champions will be determined by the Championship Final on April 19th.

The Dragons 2/Cane Toads match was an excellent one, with a very high standard of play for a reserve team match, and particularly pleasing for the number of players contributing goals. 7 Dragons players ended up on the score sheet, and Cane Toads also saw several people chip in. Cane Toads began the stronger and moved into a 4-1 lead, but over the course of the game this was slowly and gradually whittled away. It wasn’t until they made it 8-7 that Dragons took the lead for the first time but City hit back immediately. At 8-8, with time running short, Pete Obee landed a fine long shot for Dragons, but Rob Davies produced a similar goal to level the scores. Dragons went straight back on the attack and Gareth Thomas made it 3 long range efforts in a row to make it 10-9. A frantic conclusion saw Cane Toads come desperately close to an equaliser, but Dragons held on.

The result didn’t alter the final table though, as Cane Toads finished ahead on head-to-head record, thanks to their 10-6 win at home. They also had a +10 superior goal difference.

The game between Dragons 1 and Cyclones was an attritional defensive struggle in the first half, with both sides failing to pass the ball well enough to create decent shooting opportunities. A half-time score of 1-0 to Cyclones reflected that. In the second half both sides began to create chances, but it was Cyclones use of their girls that proved crucial, as they moved away to win 9-4.

Saturday April 19th has been set as the date for the WKA’s end of season spectacular.

It will feature the Championship final between Cardiff City Cyclones and Cardiff Dragons 1, both of whom ensured their places with victories on Saturday, and the plate final between Cardiff University 1 and Cardiff City Chiefs.

In the evening, there will be a black tie Gala evening held in the UWIC Students Union bar, with be a buffet, entertainment and a late(ish) license! Tickets are £15 and will be available from WKA committee members and through the clubs.

On the 15th March, the student 2nd team nationals were held in Manchester, and saw an impressive performance by Cardiff University in reaching the final.

Having failed to qualify for the BUSA nationals, Cardiff were entitled to field their first team in the event, along with the other teams that hadn’t qualified, to compete with the strongest second teams. Howevre, while the squad did contain several first teamers, there were also a few first choice players not in the team.

Having negotiated the group stages safely, and beaten Birmingham in the semi-final, Cardiff were pitted against UEA in the final. Having beaten the East Anglians earlier in the tournament, Cardiff may have fallen victim to over-confidence as they couldn’t repeat the victory, ultimately losing 8-5.