Well the sun was sort of shining, and the birds were sort of singing, and everyone eventually found their way to Sale Leisure Centre for the first round of the Manchester (not so mini anymore) League!

Crewe’s opponents for Week 1 were City 1 and Warriors, back to back 40 min matches held along similar lines as last year- although with noticeably more teams entering this time round to open up the event to run over 4 weeks instead of the previous 3.

Match 1 against City started off…… sort of. Despite plenty of shots going up- from both teams- not a single one found the basket for probably a good 5-10 minutes. Unfortunately for Crewe once the ball did find the basket, it was off a City player and seemed to only be a sign of things to come! By half time a thoroughly “warmed up” looking Crewe team were only trailing by a couple but we just couldn’t sink any shots! City’s momentum gained pace in the second half and unfortunately by the final whistle the scoreline was 6-0 (I think). However overall it was a very hard fought match and seemed to be quite close throughout, with some clever interceptions from Crewe and an almost unstoppable domination in collect and rebound positions- we just need to convert some more of those opportunities! Oh and possibly ignore a couple of dodgy refereeing decisions which contributed to a non scoring game 🙁

Match 2 against Warriors looked a bit scary! Eight fresh faced, young, fit people wandered into the hall during the last minutes of the City game against our (equally young and fit) but not quite so fresh faced players coming straight from one match with barely time to analysis our game and catch our breath! Coach’s words whilst Captain went to shake hands with ref: “Just remember we’ve only played 40 mins so far so we’re good for at least the first half before we can collapse with exhaustion!” Taking to the court keeping the same divisions and determined to play our own game paid off though- despite Warriors warm up routine in between the matches, our match readiness paid off! Within what seemed like only a couple of minutes Sarah found the korf with a smashing long shot (slightly unconventional but hey who cares) and the whole team were boosted with confidence. Warriors fought a tough game but by half time we had managed to cling on a lead (2-1 I think) and despite having to dig deep and a few silly errors sneaking in as a result of fatigue, we agreed to go into the second half fighting- knowing that Warrior’s tactic would be to try and sink a fast couple to gain the advantage. The second half was exciting and inspiring! Our opponents had obvioudly had a bit of a tactical discussion but we still read their passing well, and their shots better and definately had more clean interceptions overall! By about 7 mins left to go, we still had the lead! Wow! This was looking good, we played as a team, kept our heads up- and from the frustration of the boys under the posts combined with the headless-chicken-like running round of the girls- they were getting a bit desperate! With the end in sight, one more goal was sank by a Warrior’s boy to even the score line to 5-5 (I think) and despite our trying a couple of special ideas….. it wasn’t to be 🙁 final score ended in a draw- but a very very good one and certainly allowed us to walk out of the Leisure Centre with our heads held high!

Congratulations to the full team including Martin (c), Lee, Kevin, Anthony, Sarah, Julia, Sophie and Eleanor for putting a non-too-shabby performance together. Plus the fixtures allowed us a sneaky peek at the opposition (City 2) for 5 minutes before leaving for home….. more to come after a week off next week!

The grand season finale took place on Sunday between CaNKorf Express and Castle Dragons (1st and 2nd place in the league)….

……The tone was set as soon as we arrived with the relevation that earlier calculations (I had calculated they probably needed to win by a 20 goal difference to take the title off us) were incorrect- a draw with one of the Keele teams earlier in the season meant Dragons could never take the league title, but were determined to make us cry by trying to snatch the last victory from our grasps (or in Alistair’s words “at least draw to pee you off!”).

With those words ringing in our ears, Captain Stu went up to shake hands with Jon (ref) and Alistair (Dragons Captain) and came back to report that they were shooting “that way!”, we split into two divisions, Stu with Amy (Flyers), Michela and Anthony and myself with James (sub Dave half time), Alex (Flyers) and Kevin. Stu’s division headed off for first attack and with a blow of Jon’s whistle, we were off! Dragons put together a strong side with experienced Emily, Julia, Mike and Hugh all taking first attack; Christine, Clare, Alistair and Reuben pitting themselves against our attack.

Despite a few set backs (bloody shots refusing to drop through the ring) we soon pulled ahead (slightly) of a fierce opposition, the score throughout the first half nudging one goal by goal towards half time. After what seemed like the longest 30 minutes in history (I did accuse Jon of inventing a time machine) Express eventually nudged to a comfortable 5 goal lead at half time, putting the scoreline at 10-5 with goals coming from a variety of players.

The half time atmosphere was relaxed, but determined. Captain Stu gave some advice to individual players and Kevin came up with a masterplan for attacking down his end- the cheeky coach changed the scoreboard to 0-65 to Castle at a request for the score from one of the players.

After a substitution (Dave on for James), the players took to the court once again looking to block any sneaky Dragon comebacks and knowing full well that victory wasn’t ours yet! About 4 minutes into the second half, Julia got injured in the finger with a suspected break and had to sit off to ice and rest it- meaning Dragons were a player short in their attacking division. Emily and the boys fought hard to overcome their disadvantge and after a tense few minutes, Julia eventually requested to come back on with tape on the injured fingers and the game resumed full pelt!

The second half clinched it for Express, managing to close down Dragons to only 2 goals let in and scoring a decent 8 ourselves gave the League Champions a final score of 18-7 against second placed (and hard fought) Castle Dragons. Notable scorers: Kev, Michela, Dave, Alex, Stu, Ant, Eleanor. Special thanks to Alex and Amy, borrowed from Flyers.

Saturday 3rd March saw CaNKorf Express take on rivals Keele Assassins at home in South Cheshire College. All players turned up eager to get started….. unfortunately no one had told the ref they were waiting! After a few last minute phonecalls with no luck, Neil from Keele and Ant from Crewe agreed to set up to the mark and ref AND play- Neil reffing one end and Ant the other, to try and keep things as fair as possible!

Despite all the drama, Express managed an easy victory racking up 10 goals- 4 from Michela and 4 from Kev helping admirably- on their way to a 10-7 victory.

Team- James (c), Dave, Ant, Kev, Michela, Sarah M, Lucy and Amy.

As we near the end of the season, only Castle Dragons or home rivals CaNKorf Flyers can keep Express from a clean sheet on the league table….

OK, so they totally re-wrote my amazing match reports and crammed it into a tiny piece which mostly explains what korfball is, but…… we got published 🙂