Cardiff City Korfball Club

On this famous date in history CCKC travelled down to the South East of England to engage in battle with some of the elite of British Korfball, and this is their tale......

Cardiff first foray into the tournament was tense encounter with the Super Nova's. With the opposition seeing plenty of the ball early on some fantastic defending from Sian, Grace, Jack and Ceri restricted the Nova's to few opportunities. Upfront the tireless running of Ian, Matt, Susan and guest Lorraine kept the Nova's on their toes. The break through came when Lorraine put away a neat shot close in. All in all a great start.

Next up were KWIEK 2. With Terry coming into the team for Jack the match began. Cardiff never really got into the match as some slick passing and movement left them exposed on a few occasions. Some last-gasp rear guard action denied KWIEK the opener for awhile but it was inevitable when they went 1-0 up. With Susan unlucky with a few shots which barely missed, Cardiff battled to get back in the game to no avail as another crisp passing sequence ended in a goal for KWIEK.

In what turned out to be a bad-tempered affair, marred by some atrocious refereeing decisions and bad sportsmanship, Cardiff attempted to get their tournament back on track. Jack marked his return to action with an excellent veer shot to cancel out Croydon's opener. Croydon throughout the game were manipulating the young inexperienced referee, which saw a couple of cast iron Cardiff penalty appeals turned down. Their influence on the ref now assured Croydon scored 2 goals in quick succession. Not to be out done, a shot from close in after some neat interplay with Susan followed by a great running in shot, both from the lanky frame of Ceri, levelled things up. An end to end battle ensued with Croydon getting their noses in front again, and with Cardiff seemingly destined to get a draw, the referee managed to gift Croydon a penalty (apparently because they asked for it!) which they scored from to win the match.

Still smarting from the manner of their defeat against Croydon the Lions were on the receiving end as Cardiff raced into a 2-0 lead in no time. The seemingly limitless energy of Sian and Grace (who were on court for what appeared to be all day for one team or another) paid dividends for Cardiff as firstly a super mid range shot followed by a running in shot saw Sian open her account for the tournament with a brace. With the "Blues" threatening to run away with the game, Munky gave the Lions a lifeline shooting over Ceri. 2-1. With Cardiff visibly tiring in the heat what we all thought was the Lions' mascot, but was actually one of their players gave Jack the run around to draw the level. This match was rapidly turning into an uphill battle as one of the Lions' girls scored. With time running out Ceri restored some Cardiff pride with a smartly despatched running in shot. 3-3. With some more clinical finishing early on Cardiff could have runaway with this match.

Quite frankly this game was all over as a contest when 3mins 27secs in Ian went down as if he had been shot by a sniper. An intricate pirouette-esque manoeuvre went slightly awry as he attempted to beat his marker, resulting in Ian being carried off. With your intrepid reporter tending the wounded Cardiff lost 4-1, Loraine, guesting again, scoring Cardiff's consolation goal.

With the second stage now under way West London were next to be vanquished. Sian's running in shot was quickly cancelled out by the Londoners. With boys dominating the post, Cardiff used their possession well, Susan scoring after great work by Matt. Jack and then Ceri then strengthened the Cardiff lead, both after superb team play. London battled away and did manage another but another Susan goal from long range settled the outcome. A fine team performance.

Cardiff's final game of the day was against one of the 4 Nomads teams involved. With her range now well and truly found a blinding long shot from Susan opened the scoring. Matt then missed a penalty (don't worry mate it's a club tradition!) and the Nomads found their way back with 2 goals. Another penalty this time nailed by Ceri set up a grand finale. Unfortunately the Nomads struck again twice before Terry pulled one back for us to end another close game with a respectable defeat.

Scorers
Ceri	5
Sian	3
Susan	3
Jack	2
Guests	2
Terry	1

Casualties

Killed in action 0

Wounded in action Ian's ankle

Missing in action Sian's belly button ring