Cardiff City’s win in the Regional Champion’s League (Wales, South West & Oxfordshire) secured their place in Norwich on the 9th & 10th May to play in the Champion’s Trophy. The winners of the Champion’s Trophy would be promoted to the English Premier League. This two-day event was jam-packed with korfball action, including matches for the English Premier League Play-offs (ie relegation matches) and the korfBALL on Saturday evening.

CCKC was placed in a very tough pool comprising of Norwich Knights, Manchester Warriors and Tornadoes. The first match of the weekend was versus Norwich. Matches were played on full size pitches which CCKC were not used to. Combined with Knights’ shooting accuracy, this proved too much for CCKC and ended in a loss.
The second match versus Manchester was a much closer battle, but unfortunately CCKC could not keep their match momentum going and let a potential victory slip from their grasp.
The third and last match of the day was against the Welsh coach’s team; Tornadoes. It had been a long day but all of City’s players were extremely keen to show the Welsh coach what they were made of. Defence was tight as always, but small slip-ups allowed Tornadoes some easy opportunities which they converted. Slowly but surely the goal difference increased but CCKC fought hard until the final whistle. CCKC ended 4th of their pool.

Matches over for the day, it was time to do our hair, put our bow ties on, slip on our dressed, drink Moët champagne and generally smarten up for the evening’s korfBALL. The food (prepared by Delia Smith’s catering team) was delicious, the drinks were flowing and the dance moves were hilarious. Lady Luck was with Kat at the roulette table (fake money though) and was £100 up when she decided she had enough of pretend gambling and needed a top-up on her drink. So logically she put all her money on #26… which came up. Doh!

First match of day 2 of the Champions Trophy was against Birmingham who ended 3rd in their pool. The best way to start the day is with a win, which is exactly what CCKC did. Next match was a re-match against Manchester, this time for 5/6th position. Although the stakes were much higher and CCKC’s performance much better, it was still not quite enough to overcome the Warriors. CCKC ended the tournament a creditable 6th overall in the standings (out of 8 teams).

Players that weekend were: Ramzi Barbir (captain), Susan Belfourd, Rob Davies, Aidan Dickson, Elaine Dunlop, Zoe Gabica, Chris Gubby, Max Lloyd, Julie Prosser & Kat Trelawny.

The official video from the Europa Cup tournament is now available.  It features an interview with Ramzi Barbir (4minutes 35seconds) and some great Cardiff City scoring.

Cardiff City’s performance at the Europa Cup in Luxembourg was better than expected. The expectation at the start of the tournament was to win against St Andrews Uni (Scotland) and Roude Leiw (Luxembourg). CCKC expected that matches against the other teams would be much tougher, but remained hopeful of a close contest against Bonson (France). All match results can be found here. (Read on …)

After finishing top of the WKL in 2007-08, Cardiff City have automatically qualified to participate in the first round of the Europa Cup. The Cup’s western division will be held in Luxembourg over the weekend of the 4/5 October. CCKC will battle against league winners from Catalonia (CKV), Portugal (CCO), Russia (STSR), France (Bonson), Scotland (St Andrews) and hosts Luxembourg (KCLRL), but only the top two teams will proceed to the second round held in January.

The players participating in the event will be (in alphabetical order): Ramzi Barbir, Susan Belfourd, Elaine Dunlop, Zoe Gabica, Chris Gubby, Ceri Jones, Max Lloyd, Ian O’Sullivan, Julie Prosser and Kat Smith.

The schedule of play for the weekend will be as below, with each match lasting 2×20minutes:-

Friday 03/10
KCLRL vs STSR
CKV vs St Andrews
Cardiff City vs CC Oeiras

Saturday 04/10
Bonson vs St Andrews
Cardiff City vs OSTU-STSR (Orel)
KCLRL vs CCO
Bonson vs CKV
Cardiff City vs St Andrews Uni.
CKV vs KCLRL
CCO vs Bonson
STSR vs St Andrews
Cardiff City vs CK Vacarisses
KCLRL vs Bonson
CCO vs STSR

Sunday 05/10
St Andrews vs KCLRL
CCO vs CKV
STSR vs Bonson
Cardiff City vs KCL Roude Leiw
St Andrews vs CCO
STSR vs CKV
Cardiff City vs FJEP Bonson
Closing ceremony

CCKC have trained at least once a week over the korfball summer break to prepare for the anticipated high level matches they will be facing. Also part of their preparation was a round robbin friendly pre-season mini-tournament versus the London based teams of West London Wildcats, Kingfisher, Cambridge, Croydon and Bec. Unfortunately, CCKC did not win any of these matches (only 25 minutes long each) but a big improvement could be noticed in the way the team played together over the course of the day.

The results of the preparation matches on 27th Sept were as follows:-
CCKC 3 - 4 Bec
CCKC 2 - 5 Kingfisher
CCKC 2 - 4 Cambridge
CCKC 8 - 10 WLW
CCKC 1 - 4 Croydon

Representatives from all 3 Cardiff city teams joined together as “the grass snakes” to do battle at the first ever Gloucester tournament. With stunning Korfballing weather, a good mix of opposition and the ever trusty Wales gazebo, the day was shaping up to be almost perfect. The only question that remained was whether our playing could live up to expectations…

(Read on …)

23-2

Susan Belfourd (3), Peter Fabik (5), Jack Newman (4), Ceri Jones (4), Zoe Gabica (3), Ramzi Barbir (4), Kat Smith, Elaine Dunlop.

Elaine Potter, Julie Prosser, Kate Saunders, Kate Brewer, Aidan Dickson, Rob Davies, Ian O’Sullivan (1), Stuart Wood, Max Lloyd (1)

19-6

Ramzi Barbir (4), Elaine Dunlop (1), Zoe Gabica (3), Chris Gubby (1), Susan Belfourd (2), Peter Fabik (4), Ceri Jones (3), Julie Prosser, Ian O’Sullivan (1), Kate Brewer