In a competition encountering all other areas in Britain, EMKA won the interarea qualifying rounds. In the EMKA team Esther Knight-Terlouw, Helen Bigley, Samantha Whittaker, Alistair Knight, Connor Rowden, Rahul Desai, Richard Buttinger and Tom Wright played significant roles in claiming the victory combined with Adam Hollingworth and Sarah Turner from Magic and Ruth Evans from Nottingham University.

In the opening round we encountered the South West and won with a convincing 6 - 3 with topscorer Connor Rowden.

The next game was against our rivals the North West and a difficult game was anticipated. However the team found their way into the basket and we won with an even more convincing 6 - 2 with a husband and wife Knight double act scoring 4 of the goals together and excellent defending by Rahul Desai and Richard Buttinger.

Being on a roll and with encouraging speeches from captain Helen Bigley and coach Hannah Lorrimer (GB and Notts City 1) the next game was won against Oxfordshire with 5 - 2 with good circulation by Adam Hollingworth and nippy runners by Samantha Whittaker.

However nobody anticipated what happened the next game. Within the first few minutes Esther Knight-Terlouw received an elbow in her face and had to be replaced by Helen Bigley. This tragedy was followed not long after by Ruth Evans twisting her ankle and she was unable to further compete. As there were no further subs available the division had struggle with 3 players and despite hard work from Tom Wright the affected division found it hard to adjust and we lost the game with 5 - 2.

Having to cope with this blow in the victory stream the team had trouble scoring in the next game and despite good korfball the goals just didn’t drop and the game was lost against the West Midlands with 2 - 3.

However as the competition was tight all was not lost and the team found new fighting power.

We gave it all we had in the next 2 games thrashing Yorksire with 7 -1 and beating Kent with 7 - 4.

The teamspirit was excellent. All players contributed to the victory and it was good to see that less experienced players like Sarah Turner improved throughout the day and took on key roles in the attacks.

We won the tournament on points and the fact that we beat the North West earlier that day.

Next round will be in May against the areas: England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and the 2nd and 3rd rankings at this tournament: the North West and Kent.

BRING IT ON !!!

Nottingham City vs Littleport Lions

As we have never played against Littleport Lions, we decided to start focussed and hard and so we did… Within about 10 minutes we were 5 goals up and the goals kept on coming. The majority of the goals were well built up and well chosen moments to score with all the players participating and adding their share.

Alistair Knight managed to find the back of the basket 6 times, even without his contact lenses. A similar story for Editha van Loon who managed to score 3 goals in 1 half, with only 1 contact lense in due to conjunctivitis. Coming on for fellow dutchwoman and mum, Esther Knight-Terlouw felt the pressure and decided it was easier to score the cheeky drop off and create some penalties. These penalties were beautifully executed by Rob Mann. The other end managed to create a lot of opportunities especially from Hannah Lorrimer and Angela Fenn, who managed to score a certain percentage of their running in shots.

With a score of 12-1 at half time, it seemed difficult for the subs to follow in their fellow player’s footsteps. However the team continued to create the opportunities with the final scording reading a magical 22-1.

Alistair Knight (6), Rob Mann (5), Editha van Loon (3), Hannah Lorrimer (3), Angela Fenn (1), Esther Knight-Terlouw (1), Ian Walker (1), Rahul Desai (1), Vicky Wright, Matt Warren

Nottingham City vs Norwich Ice

Knowing from previous MRL sessions that the second games tend to be more difficult, due to concentration problems and tiredness, the team talk mainly stressed that we needed to stay sharp, focussed and make the right moves and passes, i.e. take our time.

And so we tried. The team started with by scoring the first goal, but then we were behind 1-3 and struggled for a few moments. However with newly found strength and focus the team managed to slowly take over the game and finish the first half with a much needed lead of 8-4.

At the beginning of the second half our attack stagnated a bit and our defence started to crumble due to loss of focus. What could have been a repeat of former MRL games, luckily for us turned the corner when after a fake runner from Rahul Desai, Matt Warren finally scored the drop off. Hard working support from Vicky Wright paid off when the boys Ian Walker and Alistair Knight started to score again as well. We regained composure and started scoring again, leaving us with another well deserved victory.

Final score: 13-7

Alistair Knight (3), Rob Mann (3), Ian Walker (2), Rahul Desai (2), Angela Fenn (1), Editha van Loon (1), Esther Knight-Terlouw (1), Matt Warren (1), Vicky Wright

I guess the support of fancy-dressed combat baby Connor (you can never be too young to join the forces) and Vicky (showing that camouflage can be girly as well) helped a bit, but in particular it was the unstoppable Hayley as a top scorer and the good team-spirit (in the form of beers as refreshments (?) at midday) probably played a bigger role!

Full report and photo’s will follow soon.

One the Adult front:

• The influx of new members is so high that the committee has decided to see if we could enter a 4th team!!

One the Junior front:

• Not only has Kathy managed to, again, recruit more juniors - of which some are so good that they have been attending the Adult training sessions - but the women in the club have been ‘popping-out’ potential new players left, right and center.  This leaves us temporarily slightly short of ladies, but this mini baby-boom bodes well for Nottingham KC’s future!

We welcome:

• George Ruben Dowding, born in April, weighing 8lbs 12oz, son to Editha van Loon and Andy Dowding
• Connor Sebastian Ian Knight, born in April, weighing 8lbs 12oz as well, son to Esther Knight-Terlouw and Alistair Knight
• Martha Ada Mary Charleston, born in September, weighing 7lbs 3oz, daughter to Philippa Dalton and Steve Charleston
• Leo Redfern, born in October, weighing 9lbs 3oz, son to Ann Leigh-Browne and Andy Redfern
• Kamran Jordan, born in October, weighing 8lbs 4.5oz, son to Anna Jordan and Pete Jordan

A big warm welcome to all of you: Beginner, new player to the club or baby!!!

The clock was counting down but Trojans were digging deaper into their enemy reserves whilst Nottingham seemed to lose their momentum and struggled to find the korf, something they made look easy in the first half. With 2 minutes remaining Nottingham were holding onto a slender 14-12, could they hold-on for a famous victory, unfortunatly not. Trojans produced 2 more fine goals, the sides had swapped ends and Nottingham failed to score on their next attack. As the ball swapped over into the Trojans attack, the Nottingham fans were fearing the worst but referee looked at his watch and decided that was enough. A nail-biting draw, 14-14.

If Nottingham can emulate the 1st half for the rest of the season they will surely be champions but I have to take my hat off to Trojans for the way they dug deep and fought back. A really champions performance from them to pull out a point from a match they really weren’t in until the last 20 minutes. I’m sure they’ll be gutted not to take the 2 points after such a great comeback but I guess a point each was the fair result.

Taken from the Korfball Forums, author Jam Trubridge

Nottinghams second team was travelling down to Birmingham to encounter Birmingham City this weekend. Missing quite a number of key players, the team arrived to find the hall closed. It only opened about 10 minutes prior to the game and with the first team playing in Nottingham only 1.5 hours after this game, we were pressured into starting the game as soon as possible in order to get our supersubs Helen Bigley and Rahul Desai back to Notts in time for the first team second half.
After a very short warm up and mini team talk the game had to start. From the start Nottingham was chasing the facts and had trouble coping with the pressure of Birmingham. By the time the team regained their composure it was little too late. Despite hard work in both ends, the shots did not drop in and the team lost their confidence. Therefore the final score did not reflect the actual game very well.
On the positive side: Despite things not running smoothly, hard work was put in by all team members and the team spirit remained high. The players were continuously encouraging each other from both ends and within divisions by lack of a coach.
In conclusion, missing some key players, playing again in new divisions and a too short preparation cost us dearly. Hopefully with the next game a month away, having a complete squad again and an MRL session to work out divisions, we will be able to show some proper korfball against Castle and get ourselves back into the running again..

A new combination of players started in this game missing newcomer Alex McLaren, supersub Vicki Keeley, GB players Alistair Knight and Hannah Lorrimer. Luckily Rebecca Nickerson, Ben Nickerson and Tommy Wright were willing to step in.

Against Highbury, Nottingham started strong and got ahead from the start of the game. The ambiance was good and despite the divisions being different again, players knew how to find each other and both defence and attack were running surprisingly smooth.

The first attack (Alison Birch, Vicky Wright, Connor Rowden,Rahul Desai) started strong with 2 goals both by Rahul Desai who scored 2 nice long shots. This attack throughout the game continued with good moves, strong support from Vicky Wright and good opportunities scoring the majority of the goals including 2 goals from Alison Birch and a cheeky veer from Connor Rowden.

The second attack had more trouble scoring and although the ball went around nicely, the actual scoring opportunities did not come frequently leaving the division with only 1 goal by Ian Walker in the first
half. In the second half Ben Nickerson was added to this attack for Ian Walker (who already had reffed a full game prior to this game), making it a Nickerson double act with sister Rebecca Nickerson. The division became more creative with good support from Rebecca Nickerson filling in feeds nicely and strong collecting from Esther Knight-Terlouw. Both Ben Nickerson and Tom Wright started comfortably popping in their long shots.

We were ahead the full game and won 9-7

Goals scorers: Rahul Desai: 3, Alison Birch: 2, Ian Walker: 1, Connor Rowden: 1, Tom Wright: 1, Ben Nickerson: 1.

Learning point from last double header was that we tend to get unfocussed and tired during the second game and somehow we need to get ourselves mentally back into the game again.

In the next game against Cambridge Phoenix tiredness started to show again and we had a dip just before half time. This left us behind for the majority of the second half.

The first defence with Tom Wright, Ben Nickerson, Rebecca Nickerson and Esther Knight-Terlouw was strong, but the goals did not come that easily. The first attack did manage to score eventually with good goals again from Alison Birch and Ian Walker, who joined that attack. A very important goal by Connor Rowden was scored ten minutes before the end of the game which brought us back in the game again,
followed by a cheeky drop off from Esther Knight-Terlouw and runner of Ben Nickerson.

Final score was 8-8

Goalscorers: Alison Birch: 3, Esther Knight-Terlouw: 2, Ben Nickerson: 1, Connor Rowden: 1, Ian Walker: 1.

Top scorer: Girl: Alison Birch with 5 goals and Boy: Rahul Desai with 3 goals.

Main learning point again is that we need to somehow get over our usual dip in the second game. However Coach Esther Knight-Terlouw saw great improvement, with good team work, use of space and solid communication in defence which have been the topics we trained on. The ambiance in the team
was excellent and all this combined promises a great season ahead with a diverse big squad.