'not so' brief summary by Dave Thomas

Cardiff City made their national level entrance at the Nomads tournament in Cheam on June 1st. Going into the competition as the newest club by some margin, expectations were never high, but after a few confident wins, a Cardiff finished with a respectable mid table postion.

The still, slightly hazy conditions were ideal for outdoor korfball as Cardiff opened against a year old West London outfit. After slipping behind to an early goal, Cardiff came back strongly, as goals from Ceri and Rachel, together with a long shot from ringer Helen Eardley brought Cardiff a morale boosting 3-1 win.

That, however, was as good as it got for the morning, as the somewhat bizzare pool system saw Cardiff take on 'tournament' sides from three premiership clubs, while avoiding all the second teams present and another newish club, Arsenal. The host team Nomads 1 had far too much national league experience in the squad to be much troubled by anything Cardiff could muster up, although some stout defending broke up plenty of Nomads' attacks. A consolation from Terry was all we could manage as they ran out 5-1 winners.

It was much the same story as Cardiff took on two Mitcham sides in quick succession. After having watched the Mitcham youth team destroy one of our pool opponents, we were determined not to let the same fate befall us, and although the talented youngsters were clearly in cruise control, 4 goals was all they managed. The Mitcham first team faired rather better against us, a consolation from the baseline right at the death was all we had to show for a 6-1 thrashing, but given the enormous gulf between one of the premier clubs in the country, and a 5 month old club at their first big outdoor tournament, Cardiff needn't be too downhearted.

Despite not playing 4 of the other teams in the pool, that was the end of the morning pool matches. Not surprisingly, this placed Cardiff in the lower afternoon pools, but at least meant we'd be facing teams more at our level, and the afternoon got off to a good start with a big win over another West London side. This side was supposed to be West London 1 again (?) but I didn't recognise many of them from the previous game! However, some much improved post play and crisp passing gave Cardiff plenty of opportunities, with Elaine and Terry's long shots complimenting braces from Ceri and Dave, Cardiff ran out comfortable 6-2 winners.

The next game against Pelham was a much tighter affair, but again Cardiff showed excellent ability around the post, and were not about to let a vastly more experienced Pelham side dictate the pace of the game. An excellent opportunistic goal from Gareth helped build a 4-2 lead, which was promptly wiped out by some shoddy defending. Then, with only seconds remaining, James launched a huge longshot (the type which is becoming his trademark), and won the game 5-4. Terry, Elaine and Ceri were the other scorers here.

Dave was the last scorer of the day, as ringers netted the other consolations in a disappointing pair of losses to finish the day. Another Nomads team had enough guile to outwit the more athletic Cardiff side 5-2 and as tiredness and bad weather set in, Nottingham City 1 were just too organised and physical, winning 5-1 in very difficult conditions. The only noteworthy incident in this match was the comedy of Ceri being given the runaround by Notts' 14 year old hyperactive kid.

Although the day ended on a bit of a low note, Cardiff can take great heart from the early afternoon purple patch that took them up to 14th out of 18, and a massive learning experience about korfball in the rest of the country. Cardiff finished highest of all the clubs with no national league representation, and with every player on the scoresheet, can be proud of an excellent team effort.

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