Cardiff City Korfball Club

Cardiff City Squad

Harry Smyth, Kristina Van Eker, Susan Belfourd, Rachel Knight, Kat Crimmins, Dave Thomas, Rob Davies, Ceri Jones

Josh's scribblings

Cardiff went into this game knowing that a seventh straight victory would put them in an almost impregnable position at the top of the table. Despite this, the team got off to a slow start in attack. A couple of passes went astray, and both Dave and Susan were struggling to land their shots. In defence, however, Cardiff were dominant with Exeter time and again being prevented from getting as much as shot up before an interception ended their attacks. Dave did break the deadlock, pivoting to score from Midge's pass, but against an Exeter defence that was staying back and long shots refusing to drop this was a frustrating period for City. Finally Midge and Rob won a series of collects before Dave managed to score from mid court.

After the switch of ends, Rachel almost immediately netted, but it was rightly ruled out for defended. At this end, some neat interplay was allowing Cardiff to take their shots from close to the basket, and it was only a matter of time before Kristina scored from Harry's pass. Some long shots went narrowly wide before Kristina reacted quickly to score from short range. Almost immediately the gap was extended to 5 after Susan took advantage of a poorly positioned Exeter defence to score from a free pass. Then as half time loomed, she scored again with a perfect long shot.

A 6-0 score line at half-time reflected Cardiff's dominance in defence, where Exeter had at times found it absolutely impossible to get shots up. City's attack was less fluent, but towards the end of the half the shots were starting to drop.

The second half began brightly with Rachel and Kristina both scoring with simple running in shots, then Susan and Dave worked together well for him to finish from midrange. For the first time in the match Exeter managed to cause some problems against Cardiff's defence, with Ceri fouling Tony to send the Exeter coach to the penalty spot. Although the penalty was missed, Exeter continued to pressurise with a couple more shots falling close, before Dave's long shot switched the ends over again.

Finally Exeter managed to get on the score sheet, with Alan hitting the rim from the halfway line before Stuart scored from the rebound. Back in attack, Ceri had the beating of his marker, running past him three times in quick succession, only to miss each time, on the last occasion then being too busy moaning to pass to a wide-open Kristina. She wasn't to be denied for long though, another short-range finish for her fourth of the game.

By now the long shots that had been missing earlier were starting to fall in, and Dave and Susan claimed a goal each in rapid succession. Against an Exeter side forced to double up all their players from the seconds match and clearly tiring, Cardiff were now rampant, and showing some great teamwork. First Ceri and Kristina worked together to draw the switch, with Harry nailing the finish from the sideline. Then the roles were reversed with a great move setting up Ceri for the finish.

To their credit, Exeter were still battling away and Tony showed great persistence to twice collect his own shots before finally forcing one home. Cardiff were unstoppable in attack though, Susan scoring on the turn from Rob's pass, then Kristina from Ceri's side feed before a lovely reverse pass from Harry for Ceri to run in. Rob got on the score sheet with a running in shot, before Susan brought up 20 with a runner of her own, following a superb pair of interceptions from Dave. Finally Rachel finished the scoring off with her second running in shot of the game.

A final score of 21-2 represented Cardiff's best result of the season. They may have played better at some times in the past, but it's unlikely they've ever finished as clinically as in the second half. Almost everyone contributed goals; although Dave, Susan and Kristina dominated the scoring, with the latter recording her best ever tally. The unlucky person to miss out was Midge, probably due to being defended by Zoe, guesting for the opposition.

Cardiff City	21	2	Exeter
Kristina Van Eker	5
Susan Belfourd	5
Dave Thomas	5
Rachel Knight	2
Ceri Jones	2
Harry Smyth	1
Rob Davies	1