Cardiff City Korfball Club

Cardiff City Squad

Pam Moffat, Kat Smith, Zoe Gabica, Sharon Quick, Terry Matthews, Ian O'Sullivan, Josh Cockburn, Craig Dyer

Taff's inane warblings, written while hung over from the Wales England celebrations

City's seconds took on their early season nemesis from Bristol hoping for an improvement on the 11-3 reverse suffered on the opening day of the season. With so many guys still on holiday Craig Dyer from Cardiff Uni came in to play alongside regulars Terry, Ian and Josh. Sharon 'rarer than a blue steak' Quick made an appearance for her debut this season with Zoe, Pam and Kat taking their usual starting berths.

Josh was first out of the blocks, some early turns of pace indicating that he would again be the major thorn in Bristol's side, and it wasn't long before he'd been clattered attempting a shot, and made no mistake from the spot. The game was soon levelled though, as Bristol's girls, all doubling up from the first game, put the pressure on. A long shot from the deep gave the visitors their first lead of the day in what was turning out to be a high standard reserve team match.

Guest player Craig showed why he's a bright prospect for Cardiff Uni, using his height and pace to grab an equaliser that didn't touch the sides, before Josh swung a seesaw match back Cardiff's way with a neat longshot. It was then Zoe's turn to apply the pressure as the royal blues attempted to take the match away from the navys, but after skinning her experienced marker on two occasions she couldn't get the ball to drop and typically a Bristol drop off shot from the backcourt levelled things 3-all at the half.

It was clear Cardiff had come off the more frustrated side, certainly Sharon had been defended more often by one of the boys than by her own marker, with no penalties awarded, and for the second game running Terry had to contend with being clobbered as he went for a shot on more than one occasion. He also successfully hit both Sharon and Kat (3 times!) in the face with some stray passing, much to the amusement of the crowd.

The second half was a much cleaner affair after some early contact was punished, but this time it was Bristol who came haring out of the blocks, landing three successive shots in as many minutes. The SWKA's top scoring girl finally found a way past Zoe, a long shot went in over Ian's head then Terry, after making a superb interception promptly fumbled the ball straight to a Bristol girl who gratefully accepted her giftwrapped goal.

Cardiff needed to tighten the defence a couple of notches to stay in the game, and from a 6-3 deficit with 27 minutes to go, we successfully held them scoreless while chipping away at the lead. It was a fine defensive effort against a side including an inexperienced but athletic quartet of guys, and two first team regular girls. Up front, captain Ian led the way with a splendid spin from the feed, showing great skill and awareness to slot in from short range and reduce arrears to 2. Terry then made up for his earlier howlers, tying the game with a pair of converted free passes from distance. On this form he is probably the best exponent of free pass taking the club has, and the second team generally outshine the firsts in the area. Top effort!

The last few minutes became more and more frantic as both sides went in search of a winner, Zoe and Pam both went close as all four girls were able to outrun their defenders. Josh used his pace to create himself chance after chance but as time wound down nothing would fall. The last play of the game saw Terry's free pass out of defence hurled the length of the court to a charging Josh. With defenders trailing in his wake a glorious winner was on the cards, but Josh's runner on the turn was not to be, and the whistle went at 6-all.

A draw was a reasonably accurate result for a game played with lots of energy and invention, no small amount of comedy and a wide variety of goals. Both sides can be proud of an excellent match with some good skills on display, and a reserve league which is maturing before our eyes!

Cardiff City II	6	6	Bristol City II
Terry Matthews	2
Josh Cockburn	2
Ian O'Sullivan	1
Craig Dyer	1

Videos courtesy of Tony!

New and slightly experimental feature. Sorry if these take a long time to download - get broadband! Tony has very kindly donated these comical offerings taken from our second team game - both starring our wonderful coach!

Terry shows the correct way to set up long shots from the feed. Unfortunately he's setting up completely the wrong team. D'oh!

More Terry magic as the seconds show their skillz. Josh to Ian, on to Kat, to Craig, to Terry, to.... ermmm..... Ah....