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 first outdoor tournament of the year saw a CCKC team travel to Gloucester in glorious sunshine. The first task was to erect the gazebo which provided us with much needed shade for the rest of the day.

Our first group match was against Gloucester Cubs which resulted in a confident 5-0 win to start the day. It was good to see such a controlled game and some well worked shots for the City team. Next up were Woking, which turned out to be a low scoring and tight match, with Woking eventually winning 2-0. Our final group match was against Exeter. Again goals were hard to come by despite many shots going up and it was drawn 1-1. This left City third in their group and so into the crossover matches for 9-16th places.

City were slow to get going again after the lunch break and ice creams and disappointingly lost 6-2 to Horfield, with the two City goals coming from the penalty spot, courtesy of Ian and Aidan. However, as the sugar-boost provided by the giant fondant fancy cake kicked in, results improved with a 1-1 draw against Oxford Isis 2 and a solid victory 4-0 over MK Roos. This game saw Julie B score her first outdoor tournament goal in a well worked move. After these three matches, City were unlucky to end up third again in the group, only missing out on 2nd on goal difference.

Two further matches to decide final placings were against Gloucester Cubs and Oxford Isis 2 again, with City winning both games 2-1. Gemma made her scoring debut in the Isis game with a great mid-range shot. This meant a 13th place finish for City, with the tournament being won by Bristol. City scorers on the day were Ian O’S (4), Aidan (4), Elaine D (3), Matt (3), Elaine P (1), Julie B (1) and Gemma (1).

The day provided a good opportunity to get to know some of our newer players better, with important topics such as double marking, EU politics and the official difference between a cake and a biscuit being discussed. It was great to see both Julie and Gemma playing so confidently after only their first season of korfball and hopefully we’ll have a few more of our newcomers experiencing outdoor korfball tournaments over the summer.

Written by Elaine D.

The club Annual General Meeting was held tonight.

The newly elected committee for 2009/10 are:

Chair - Chris Gubby
Treasurer - Aidan Dickson
Secretary - Elaine Dunlop
Coaching Coordinator - Ramzi Barbir
Child Protection Officer - Kat Trelawny
Recruitment and Retention Officer - Kate Saunders
Social Secretary - Max Lloyd
Website Officers - Ramzi Barbir, Chris Gubby & Stuart Wood

I’d like to thank the outgoing members of the committee for all the hard work and effort that they have put in over the last 12 months.

The 25minute Radio Cardiff feature can be downloaded by clicking here. The file is 30mb.

On Monday 20th April, Sian Hunt and Stuart Wood will take part in the Monday Night Sport Phone-in show talking about Korfball in South Wales.

You can listen on 98.7FM if you’re in the Cardiff area or via the website on the live feed.

http://www.radiocardiff.org

ITV will be filming some korfball action on Thursday 26th February and then inteview some Cardiff City and Dragons players.

If you would like to participate in the ‘match’, then please contact Stuart.

If you would like to be a spectator, the action will take place at the Western Leisure Centre (Caerau Lane, Ely, Cardiff, CF5 5HJ) from 7.30pm onwards.

Tonight CCKCs ‘Wine Merchant’ Max Lloyd appeared on BBC MasterChef.  He competed against six other applicants for a place in the semi final.  Despite sailing through the first round Max had a tough time in the professional kitchen and was just pipped to a semi final place.

If you missed it and want to see Max in action in the kitchen you can see the episode again for the next 7 days on BBC iPlayer.