.

Korfball is played with four girls and four boys on a basketball sized court with no set positions and no restrictions on which parts of the court the players can play.

The day long session was organised in collaboration with the school and Sport Cardiff, Cardiff Council’s Sports Development Department and saw year seven pupils put through their paces but current korfball players from across Cardiff.

The sport is played across theUKwithCardiffboasting four clubs, a welsh league and over 100 adult players. One of the clubs, Cardiff City Korfball Club, currently usesMichaelstonCommunity Collegeto train on a Wednesday evening which led to the recent collaboration.

Will Hayward, one of the korfball players who helped run the day said, “When we first introduced korfball to the children there was the usual confused look in the eyes, which is expected as not many people have heard of it.

“However as soon as the children tried the sport, they loved it and it was really great to see boys and girls working together while getting fit and having fun.”

Zoe Rose, Chair of Cardiff City Korfball club said, “We were really excited to have the opportunity to introduce Korfball to so many children. We currently run korfball clubs in a few primary schools in Cardiff so it was great to be able to see older children get involved and enjoy it.

“We are committed to developing youth korfball in Wales and look forward to creating more links like this.”

Dawn Mitchell-Williams from Sport Cardiff said: “Events like these really support our ethos of developing club-school links so that we can engage pupils outside of the school hours. This way they are more likely to stay active once they leave education.

“Korfball, although not a traditional sport, has several proactive clubs based in Cardiff that have the capacity to increase junior membership therefore we hope that Korfball can become an alternative sport for pupils in Ely.”

Korfball is currently played in Roath Park Primary School and Moorlands Primary School in Cardiff as well as Tyn Y Wern Primary School in Caerphilly. A schools competition was held in June 2012 which was won byRoathParkPrimary School.

For more information on Korfball please visit www.welshkorfball.org or for more information on Cardiff City Korfball Club please visit www.cardiffkorfball.co.uk

Mavericks were missing many of their regular players due to the annual (now legendary) ski trip and so Captain Cheya Tyson turned to Zoe Rose and Julie Prosser to help out along with Kat Trelawny, Tom Cockayne, Jon Rowles Ian Russell and Richard Olyer. The captain also handed Tom Iwb Hill his first start for Cardiff City Korfball Club.
First game of 2013 for Mavericks was Cardiff University 3rds. The game started well and saw a number of Mavericks get on the score sheet with good attacking and nicely worked goals. The final score ended 12-2 to the Mavericks.
Next up was Cardiff Dragons 1sts who had earlier also beaten Cardiff Uni 3rds. Despite some excellent movement and good goals from Cheya, Tom C, Zoe and Julie, Mavericks narrowly lost out 8-6.
Mavericks will be pleased with their performance considering the lack of games and the loss of key players to skiing and will be looking forward to their re-match.
Cyclones met on Sunday to take on Cardiff Dragons in the Wales, South West and Oxfordshire regional league. Captain Julie Prosser was keen that Cyclones began 2013 as they had finished 2012 and made one change to the line up – Chris Gubby came in for the injured (and new dad!!) Ian O’Sullivan. Starting in first attack was Ruth Campbell, Zoe Rose, Ramzi Barbir and Richard Olyer leaving Julie Prosser, Susan Jones, Max Lloyd and Chris Gubby with the task of first defence.
In the first half Cyclones played some of the best korfball they have played all season with some lovely flowing attacks and strong rebounding in defence. By half time the score was 13-1 and the team was largely pleased with their efforts. The second half saw the Cyclones attack stutter slightly with missed passes and the wrong shots taken. Dragons stepped up their efforts in attack causing Cyclones to make mistakes and give away five penalties. Captain Prosser called a time out to regroup the team and encouraged Cyclones to take care with the ball in attack and recognise the right shots to take. The final score ended 19-5 with Cyclones happy to shake off the Christmas cobwebs with a win.

The Cyclones were missing a couple of regulars, giving Mavericks players Kat Trelawny and Rich Oyler a chance to step up in this early Sunday morning fixture.

The Bulls were first out of the blocks, establishing an early 2-0 lead, but once the Cyclones hit their stride, four unanswered goals gave them a lead they wouldn’t relinquish all game. First stand-in captain Zoe Rose earned and dispatched a penalty, some great team work left Oyler a simple drop off shot which he duly converted, then another penalty and a simple runner from Max Lloyd put the Cyclones in command. Tight defence and good ball movement allowed the Welsh side to keep the lion’s share of possession and frustrate their opponents, whose patient build-up play and good finishing kept them in the game. Half-time arrived with the score at 7-4 in favour of the visitors. By then though, the Cyclones had six players on the scoresheet and were starting to flow.

The first few minutes of the second half was all Cyclones, as a barrage of long shots flew in from the front right corner, Ruth Campbell landed the most, and Ramzi Barbir claimed the longest of the bunch, only a pace in from the corner. Both teams traded goals through the middle of the second half, but with the Bulls forced to come out and defend near the half-way line, gaps began to open up, and short-range efforts from Susan Jones, Ian O’Sullivan, Kat Trelawny and Dave Thomas put the gloss on an excellent team performance. Captain Julie Prosser will be pleased to hear of the defensive effort which restricted the Bulls to a handful of shots throughout. Eight second half goals for Basingstoke came thanks to some accurate long range shooting, but it was no match for a 13-goal second half haul from the visitors, getting all nine squad members on the scoresheet, with plenty of excellent shot selection and rebounding.

A relatively comfortable 20-12 win was a good return for longest away trip of the season, and will give the team plenty of confidence for the rest of the regional league season, but possibly more satisfying will be holding the free-scoring Bulls to 12 goals, when they’ve racked up 23 and 25 in their local league.

     
Mavericks take a convincing lead against Cardiff Uni 2 at the Talybont sports hall

The Cyclones started the defence of their title with potentially two of the toughest games of the season against Cardiff Dragons firsts and the newly formed Gokorf Raptors.

First up for Cyclones were Dragons 1 who were a formidable test despite losing their main goal scorer of recent years, Remco Broekhuis. The first half was a close affair with both teams trading goals. Cyclones’ defence was proving solid and in attack they had a good structure which pleased new captain Julie Prosser.  Through some good goals from across the team and Cyclones’ determination to win every ball, the match finished 14 – 6 to the defending champions.

Next up were the newly formed Gokorf Raptors who were an unknown quantity with a mixture of Welsh internationals and beginners. The first 15 minutes proved close with the scores level at 2-2 until captain Prosser called a time out to remind the team to keep calm and play their own game. The effect of the timeout was instantaneous with two quick goals from the Cyclones. After that Cyclones focused on their own game and pulled away to a 19-2 win. Special mention goes to Vicky who was making her Cardiff City debut.

The Mavericks followed the lead of their City colleagues by putting in an impressive display against Cardiff University second team (Uni 2). New captain Cheya Tyson used her knowledge and skills gained from the recent Europa Cup trip to lead from the front and continually encouraged her team to play the controlled korfball practiced in training.

Uni 2 were fielding many of their new recruits who were new to the sport and showed real promise for the season. Mavericks controlled the first half by dominating under the post and it wasn’t long before the goals started to drop. Rebounding was key as the Maverick males picked up almost every loose ball allowing the girls to convert the chances. By half time it was 12-1 to the Mavericks team.

In the second half Mavericks lost some of their structure and composure which had been so vital in the first half but patience and persistence by the whole team soon paid off, beginning with a long shot from MVP Tom Cockayne. The game was an excellent example of great team performance by the Mavericks and show that they are a force to be reckoned with this season.

Victory in the Welsh Korfball League Gala Day meant the Cyclones team qualified for the early season Europa cup preliminary round.

The squad – many of whom were making their debut at international level – travelled to the beautiful Loire region of southern France on Friday following a series of training sessions to ensure they were as prepared as possible.

The five team tournament included teams from Turkey, Serbia, France, Scotland and Wales. It was a round robin tournament with the top two teams progressing to the European Cup in early 2013.

The first opponents were Nazilli Belediyesi from Turkey who had a distinct height and reach advantage! Despite this, Cyclones completed well early on but better ball recycling by the Turkish team saw them take the lead early on.

The game proved a tough wake-up call for those players in their first international tournament, with different refereeing styles and levels of contact to adjust to.

Saturday morning saw the Cyclones pitched against Serbian champions Beograd, who had racked up a big early score in their previous game, and Cyclones were determined not to suffer a similar punishment.

With first-game nerves banished, Cyclones were able to give them a stern test and blunted their free-scoring routine completely. However, numerous missed short shot chances, free passes and penalties summed up the ultimate difference in the teams ability to put the ball away and three goals for Beograd in the last three minutes of the first half gave them the half time lead.

Cyclones remained unfazed and stuck to their defensive task, and after some well worked strategic attacks including a faked switch for the girls and a few scored goals by Julie, Cyclones had pegged Beograd back to a one goal lead by 45 minutes. Considering that that Beograd went on to win the tournament, the Cyclones players were proud of their efforts in this game.

Saturday afternoon saw the viewing gallery fill up as the locals of Montrond-les-Bains turned up to see the Welsh champions take on Bonson, the hosts. As well as the support, Bonson has easily the largest squad, and home venue advantage. Nonetheless, with Cyclones’ disciplined structure and good all round pace, the ball just wouldn’t drop. Two pretty long shots from Elaine Dunlop, good ball movement from Stuart Wood and a lovely late rally from Ramzi were to the high points of the game.

Sunday morning saw the final game against St Andrews University, and the team needed no extra motivation for this one. The Welsh team started the game with a long shot from Ruth and their attacking moves had much more flow, and the shot clock had been mastered. A much more assured shooting performance was had by all including a lovely long shot hat-trick from Cheya Tyson- accompanied by lovely long shot goals from Rich and Taff. Considering all their banter on the shared plane ride over to France, it was nice to settle the score so convincingly with an 11-5 win.

Cyclones finished fourth out of five, with Bonson and Beograd going through to the next round in January.

Cardiff City Korfball Club is very proud of the team performance, where everyone played a huge part in a great team effort.

A big thanks also goes out to Dankmar Caderius van Veen for popping on down from Holland to be our match coach for the weekend, his tactical awareness (and ‘helpful’ suggestions to the linesman) were invaluable throughout in getting the best out of the squad.

Squad

Ruth Campbell
Elaine Dunlop
Julie Prosser
Cheya Tyson

Ramzi Barbir
Rich Olyer
Ian Russell
David ‘Taff’ Thomas
Stuart Wood

To view the results of the matches visit www.worldkorfball.org

Cardiff City Korfball Club always welcome new members, so if you’d like to get involved then why not come along to one of our weekly sessions… either turn up to training or contact the secretary for details.

Our training sessions are:
Wednesday – 19:30 – 21:00 – Michaelston Activity Centre
Thursday – 18:15 – 19:45 – Glamorgan Sport Park

Big thanks are due to Susan for getting this great new Korfball poster made up. Feel free to download a copy, print it off and put it up in your workplace, club, or on random lamposts!

It would be great to see some new faces along (to all of you who can’t normally make our Wednesday night session – this is your chance!).

When: Every Thursday
Where: Glamorgan Sport Park, Treforest (only 5 mins up A470 from Junct 32, Coryton)
Time: 6:15 – 7:45 pm
Price: £3 per session (cheaper than any gym class)

   
 The shiny new Glamorgan Sport Park hall.                CCKC and Dragons training at the GSP.