BUCS National Trophy 2019
Hello again! Sorry I have vanished off the face of the earth for the past month so here is a quick little round up of all that you've missed out on before we get our teeth stuck into BUCS.
First off the NEKL season is now over and congratulations to the first team on finishing second and may well yet be heading off to CERL play-offs. Uni 1 got their via a loss to Storm, a resounding 28-11 victory against Uni 2 and a 12-11 win over Titans. Shoutouts to Chris and Evi who finish the season as male and female top scorers for Newcastle.
Next up uni 2 unfortunately didn't make it through at BUCS Qualifiers but we had some very close games and everyone should be proud. Not a single one of you had heard of korfball six months ago so to be as competitive as you were was fantastic to see and we had a very proud coaching team.
Finally, we had the inaugural NEKA cup which after some good performances saw a Storm vs Uni 1 final with Storm having to win or else the trophy would ours. We lost 3-2 on a last minute penalty :( (PTSD flashback to Plate last year, I'm getting bored of losing to penalties!).
Now on to BUCS! This weekend we ventured down to Sheffield for National Trophy. We were drawn against Cambridge, Birmingham 3s and Cardiff; basically we had now idea how good they'd be so lets just do our thing. We got off to a shaky start against eventual finalists Cambridge, losing 8-1. Things however seemed to be against us when we struggled against Birmingham 3s and suffered an incredibly tight 5-4 loss. Finally we had Cardiff and with a minute left we were 4-2 up and playing well but two moments of madness in the final minute saw us draw 4-4 leaving us bottom on goal difference.
In the afternoon we took on Lancaster in another incredibly tight game with both sides playing well but Lancaster just edged it coming out on top with a 10-9 win. Whack all that together and we were playing off on Sunday for 13th-16th.
Saturday night brought a much needed rest and that pint was oh so good. Beer and curry, the classic diet of a student athlete. However, whilst it might be unconventional, it worked!! Sunday morning saw us bounce back in style with a resounding 17-3 win over Exeter 2s meaning that we definitely would not be last. All that was left was to play Southampton for 13/14th and despite our best efforts we again lost narrowly with the game finishing 7-6 to Southampton.
Overall though it was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend and another step forward for the club. The small margins show that with some time and experience we could be on to something special so watch this space. The other bonus was that everybody scored!
Next up we our hosting our very own tournament on Sunday 5th May so if you're interested in entering a team drop us a message or email us nukorfball@gmail.com.
Until next time folks, HOWAY THE KORF!
CB