Guest Writer Ian's notes for the two sides

With the league cup now firmly in the bag and hopefully a second coming soon from the seconds, the two city teams lined up full of confidence and looking for good competition against university sides all set for the BUSA nationals. For a bit of experience, and frankly, a bit of fun, Cardiff City sent along two mixed ability sides. Was this to be a mistake?

With Taunton continuing to improve in every game, this was going to be a difficult opener for Cardiff 1, and so it proved to be. Taunton opened the scoring with a less than orthodox running in shot against Terry. Either it was the sub-zero temperature in the hall or the early start, (CCKC are not a morning team are they Aidan?), but it took a while for City 1 to have any type of continuity. After some good ball work and what seemed like a million miss shots, Midge finally got one in to keep us in it. With the clock ticking down, Kay and Zoe worked superbly well together to allow Kay to score a runner in the dying seconds.

Needing to match their team mates, City 2 or Cardiff Lions(!), had to be at their best against the uni side and the person who was to be the star of the whole day, the referee! Gwenno opened the scoring for City 2 with a well taken shot, taken about 10 seconds after the referee had blown up for contact, but he gave it anyway. As Sian would say..."a bit weird". The Bristol side were right back in it however when what appeared to be a defended shot against Kristina was given as a goal. Kristina made up for her 'sloppy defending' moments later after her defender fell asleep when she slotted one back. The match was sealed moments later as Kristina stepped away from her defender, adopted her now familiar shooting pose, and pinged one through the back of the korf.

The Lions' most comprehensive victory of the day came at the expense of a young and inexperienced uni side. With plenty of pace and accuracy coming from the city players, a goal fest seemed on the cards. Unsurprisingly it was wonder woman Kristina who started the scoring, firing two away in quick succession. Soon after Ian scored earnt a penalty after getting past his player and neatly put it away. The uni side pulled one back , but City 2 never looked like losing this one and picked up 3 more goals courtesy of Lee, Rachel and Josh.

And so the decline begins.....

With the uni side confident pre BUSA nationals and City 2 fielding an experimental side, the city team were unusually, on the wrong end of an impressive score line. Uni looked good in parts of this game and with impressive passing and ball handling skills. Their tactic of depriving the city side of any possession worked well and with only a consolation long shot from Josh never looked like winning this one.

Another local derby saw another impressive result for the students. Joey started the scoring with a huge shot from downtown and with midge hitting every part of the korf other than the centre of it, the signs were ominous when Uni 2 went 2-0 up. After what seemed like an age Kay finally found the target, but to no use as the city side raced to an impressive 1-7 lead. Only some clever inter-play between Rob and Ed gave the City side some heart with 2 late goals.

Another team looking for a good run pre-nationals, Birmingham uni brought a decent side to the tournament and looked like punishing City 2 with a quick goal to start the game, however a clever side feed from Kristina gave Taff his first goal of the tournament with a classic runner. With CCKC's strength in depth, the girls took shifts in playing. Leggy 'blond' Sian joined City 2 and immediately showed her class and why she's a regular first team starter by slotting one in from very short range. City 2 tightened up for the last few minutes and held on for another win.

Whether it was because it was just before lunch or can what only be described as 'absent' refereeing, City 1 struggled in what should have been an easy game against novice competition. As baffling as City's lack of goals was the decision of the referee to let a goal stand which was 1) Out of hands, 2) Defended and 3) Travelling. The City side did manage to pull through with goals from Midge, Ed and Kat for a 3-2 win. This left City 1 in the second pool after lunch and City 2 in the semi finals.

After a rushed lunch in Tesco's petrol station, City 1 returned for a re-match against a new look Brum side which included our very own Catherine Crimmins (aka Midge). With territory and possession being the key to success in this game, City struggled in the first few minutes with virtually none of either. Birmingham broke the deadlock but an immediate reply from Kat (again) and a sneaky punt from Kay took Cardiff to a 2-1 lead. In this tit-for-tat game Birmingham scored 2 more and Pam put away a beautiful running in shot to make it 3-3 and a tense last few minutes. The whole team seemed to come close with the winner, with special mention to Aiden, who could have won it but his shot just wouldn't go in. The winner did finally come from a City player, but for the wrong team, with Midge somehow getting past Kat and slotting it away to deny her team-mates a hard fought victory! This loss left City 1 trailing near the bottom of the group.

City 2 had put in an impressive display to make it into the semi-finals but desperately wanted to keep up CCKC's winning run and make it into the final. Sian looked to take us there with her ever threatening attack finally resulting in another beautiful running in shot. City however, lost a bit of composure and surrendered the lead after what looked like 'cutting' wasn't given by the ref. A few missed passes and dropped balls by City were punished by the students who then never looked like giving up the lead. This left City 2 with a final match for 3rd place.

(1-2 on penalties)

City took control of this game early with some magnificent passes and great running off the ball. The hard work of the team paid of as Holly finally summoned up the confidence to shoot......and score!!! The students quickly pulled one back and looked good again in this tight local derby. Some good korfball skills all round lead to City's second with Gwenno feeding Lee superbly and the O'Sullivan brother slotting a goal away from 5m. This looked good enough for the win , until ex- Cardiff City member Jack, scored with an touchable long shot from the half way line. Final score 2-2, third place would be decided by a penalty shot out. Cardiff were unable to find their previous shoot out form however, and went down in a low scoring 1-2, with only Josh scoring.

So Cardiff ended in 4th and 10th place disappointingly, but this was more than made up for by the results of the Welsh rugby side later in the day and the excellent social in the Hawaiian in the evening. Thanks Cardiff Uni for hosting another enjoyable tournament.

Pictures courtesy of Terry and Taff

Ed on the charge

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Rob high-stepping his way in

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Lee takes on Jack

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Kristina's now all-too-familiar long shot

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Ian pops one up over the worshipping Bristol Uni player

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Lee chases down the rebound

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