BUCS National Plate
Hello again! Welcome back for mine and Mary's last time writing about a BUCS tournament :( . However, before we get all soppy and emotional let's get on to what happened this weekend when we went to Manchester for National Plate.
Now after a very bizarre draw (not sure anyone knows how those groups were made) we were to face Birmingham 3s, Saints and Liverpool 2s in the group stages. We kicked off against Birmingham 3s and its fair to say that I think Hallam finally have a contender for the most aggy team in student korf award. The game was tight throughout but was overshadowed by unnecessary aggression, controversial decisions and the odd cry of should've gone to Specsavers (other brands are available).
We started the game off to a good start, with goals from Liam, Fateh and Rebekah taking us to 3-1. Then it started to go downhill for many reasons. Not all bad though as the goal of the day from Jacob came from this game- he literally dunked it is so casually! Then a final second goal from Fateh- but we ended up losing 7-5 but the performance was reassuring enough to give us confidence for this rest of the day.
We bounced back in brilliant fashion against Saints, leading 7-0 after just 10 minutes, thanks to goals from Lottie, Fateh (3), Laura, Chris and Charlotte. Success the coaches thought! Alas we struggle to do anything easily and somehow let them back in to 7-6 *insert face plant emoji* Too many penalty's given.... oops. Some rather angry commands from Chris though and a nice shot from Lottie calmed things down though to help us see the game out 8-6.
We followed this up with Liverpool 2s knowing if we won we would go into the top 8 on day 2. A feat that we should comfortably be capable of. But this is Newcastle... nothing gets done easily!! An incredible close game saw us stay in front the whole way through but squeaky bum time was definitely real! In three years of korfball ,including penalty shootouts, I don't think I've ever been so stressed. My voice is still recovering! I (Mary) second this.. thought i was going to cry at one point..
But the good news was we sneaked through 5-3. Time to head home to curry courtesy of Head Chef Ellie and her assistants Jenny and Mary (Daal was on point). Korfmom status= confirmed.
With a quarter-final on the cards against Notts 3, we decided to go ham and see just how far we could go.
However, after a very very close game against notts 3, we lost by one goal so were therefore stopped from getting a medal:( Therefore we just decided to chill out and have fun for the rest of the day- shoutout to Jacob's incredible oreo cookies that cheered us all up!
Another very close loss by one goal against Notts 4 meant we were against bristol 2 for the last game of the day. We decided to use all our allocated subs- mix up all the divisions and just generally have fun! Due to some very strange calls from the ref (apparently it counts as defended if your defender if behind you) ermmmm. Anyway, we lost that game so finished at a humble 8th/16 place.
Chris final note (wrote this quite a while ago!):
Ultimately it wasn't to be our weekend. We had some good play, a great laugh and on a personal note it was definitely the BUCS where I felt I contributed my best. If it is to be my last ever BUCS, I cannot be prouder of the people I played with and that's all I can ask for a farewell. The initial gut wrenching feeling of getting knocked out was soon gone when I looked back at how far we've come in three years. Three years ago we were a cobbled together side, heavily reliant on a dutch magician, a massive BNOSK (big name on student korf), and our two founders. Now, with only three of that squad left, we got back to where it all began. We may not have got as far but we did it our way and on another day we could've been there holding a trophy. Personally, I couldn't have asked for more. It's been an absolute blast to lead this lot through thick and thin. It may have nearly killed me at times and it definitely has not been easy but I wouldn't change any of it. We only have two or three games left so lets make sure we go out with a bang.
Mary final note:
Special thanks to Ellie, Kate, Stu and Mark for supporting and coaching- I was bored waiting around for the next game so special thanks to the perseverance all weekend.
As I am updating this we currently have all our last league games cancelled, alumni day postponed, likely AU ball canceled and will be missing out on finishing the year all together! For me, as my final year- I am gutted this is how we are ending the year but I will hopefully see you all again in the korfball world and of course in the pub. Been a pleasure and will miss you all a lot xxx
So until next time,
HOWAY THE KORF!
CB and ME