Match Report

Croydon Tournament 24/06/07

Yesterday marked a proud moment in the short history of MK Bucks Korfball, beating England. No need to be modest here but this victory set the path for the team's performance yesterday at the annual Croydon KC Summer Tournament.

After the warm up games of netball and korfball on Saturday the selected side (picked from an elite group of players itching to play) set about their task with an early start on Sunday morning (with the exception of Caz who was suffering from Balti Belly from the Saturday night). The drive down took us past some lovely sights in West London after we took the advice of the BMW navigation system in Kirsty's beast (bad move to trust that piece of 'technology'!) ending in Sowf Londyn namely Croydon Rugby Club the venue for the day.

The team was Graham, Laura B, Ali, and Sloany (one division) Kat, Kirsty, Specky made up the other. Highbury graciously offered us some quality players through the day to fill in the last male spot and to sub for Ali in the last game.

First game of the day was against Croydon and we ground out a last minute 3-2 win through Specky's winner from the top of the court. James 1x pen and Ali set the game up and Croydon were left licking their wounds.

Second game was all about the Sloany road show, with his dazzling skills on full display, scoring a hat-trick against a stunned England (small print = England under 16's). With reffing calls going against England they completely lost their cool and it seemed at one stage there would be a pitch invasion of the coaching staff (about 20 people) and the subs (another 15-20 angry little korfers). All I can say is MK wasn't dragged down to their winging level and dispatched them efficiently for a 3-2 win. With Specky's division keeping it tight, defending high up on court and disrupting their usual game plan it was over to Sloany's division. Sloany did take about 17 minutes (games were only 18 minutes in the morning) to get the hat-trick but the division in attack taught the Mighty Ducks (Mediocre Ducklings) a korfball lesson. Obviously they underestimated MK's Death or Glory outlook on korfball at the moment.

The last game of the morning was another display of MK's prowess downing Supernova 4-1. Goals were evenly spread across Ali, Kat, Specky and Martin (Highbury). (Sloany was this the score with this or was it higher?? I can't remember.) Kat did suggest it was the lack of alcohol the night before had improved our performances, but we’d like to cut those rumours short right now and distance any correlation between hangovers and diminished ability.

This sealed our spot at the top of our pool with 100% record and a bonus point at the expense of Supernova.

It was at this point the day changed slightly for us after receiving our draw (belatedly) for the afternoons games (25 minute games). We found ourselves in the bowl division (After Cup 1 and 2, Plate 1 and 2, but before the spoon pool). A little bemused we didn't have much time to digest this (along with the Chicken Balti Balls Kat brought for lunch) before heading onto court for our first match. We drew against Croydon B 2-2 (Ali and Specky) in an average performance, still bemused about the draw.

On querying why we arrived in the Bowl draw it was found that the referee of the Ducks v Bucks match handed in the score card backwards, i.e. Ducks 3 beat Bucks 2. After reminding the organisers of Sloany's hat trick and the fact hat tricks normally come in 3's (duh) they understood that we had been duped out of our win against England. As the afternoon had already been drawn and matches played they said that there was nothing that they could do about it. Cue the annoyed faces and dropping of the heads. It was obvious, and I don't think that it is going too far out on a limb here, that the English Korfball Federation with the backing of the IKF acted on behalf of the Ducks and doctored the score card after abducting the referee on the way to the score desk, substituting the reffing card with the reverse result. Shame on them!

The afternoon's performances were average with MK playing some inspired korfball at times and lethargic at others, ending with consecutive losses against Invicta (3-2 Ali, Specky again), Kingfisher 2 (don't remember the score sorry, and England Student Korfers (once again can't remember the score but it was a lot, Graham 1 x pen, Specky 1 x pen, any others...?). After Sloany's MOTM performance against England his korfball dropped off against the lowly opposition in the afternoon, and obviously with nothing to play for was unable to score for the entire afternoon (apparently two goals as a ringer for Reading don’t count), thus losing a pint bet with Specky on goals scored for the tournament 6-4 - rookie error to bet against the Speck! Some may say he would have struggled to put the ball in a football goal let alone a korf!

Ali played strongly all day and took advantage of the 'Bucks Fizz' free pass variant scoring twice with bemused opposition wondering what the hell was going on. Kirsty overtook Specky on the ‘falling over the most’ competition and although Laura didn't manage to score she did have two valid goals disallowed by some dubious defended calls, and as a pair were vital to the teams cause, out-rebounding and supporting the others until the end. Graham (perhaps more suited to a sport that does not require having to catch a ball or shoot at a goal…) and Sloany worked really well together with Laura and Ali, looking dominant all day while Specky, Kirsty and Kat played well utilising Highbury players and adapting each game to suit the new player. Kat's friend, Rugby Steve, also made a cameo appearance at the end of the day and after explaining that there were no scrums and you can't take out their legs, played really well and deserved a goal, unfortunately it will have to wait for his next game.

So after all the controversy MK finished no-lower than 11th on the day, even if the final tables don't reflect this fact. Either way MK stunned the tournament by staging such a dominant performance and all can be proud of their parts in the day.

http://www.croydonkorfball.com/index.php?p=match_reports/tournament07

By the way, it chucked it down all day.