Croydon Korfball Club - Korfball in South London | Super Friendly and Competitive Sport

Croydon 1 crash to defeat against Kingfisher 1

Kingfisher hosted Croydon at Aylesford School in the Premier League. Croydon featured Anna Jeanes (c), Jane Belfourd, Andy Withers and Zak Omar in attack; in defense, player-coach Dave Butters relegated himself to the bench in favour of Paul Jeanes. He was joined by Vernon Ellis, Lorna Elliott and Grace Stimpson.

Croydon wanted to make an aggressive start but they found themselves behind early on with Kingfisher's girls scoring two quick goals. Stimpson had her shooting boots on though and soon got Croydon going after a nice pass from Jeanes over the top. Stimpson was unlucky with a couple of chances as the ball rolled around the top but Kingfisher sealed their chance to bring the scores to 3-1. Kingfisher won a penalty but despite failing to convert they followed up with 2 more goals to stretch the scores to 5-1.

Ellis scored from downtown but the visitors could not keep the hosts at bay as Kingfisher maintained their lead. Croydon continued to snap after loose balls and Withers scored from one of these after a well-seen pass from Jeanes. Ellis was having a torrid time against his younger opponent, de Jager, as the Kingfisher faked the Croydon player into the air and span an under-arm shot in from middle distance. Jeanes scored the first of two penalties in the match to bring Croydon back into it but it was left to Butters to call a time-out before Kingfisher's next penalty chance with 10 minutes to go in the half.

The time-out didn't have the desired effect as Kingfisher scored the next 3 goals before Withers returned the favour to Jeanes for another goal from a turn-over. de Jager scored again to round out the half 12-6 to the hosts.

Croydon came out fighting in the 2nd half and goals were exchanged early on with Belfourd scoring a peach after a move from the training ground but de Jager scored again. From here on the game changed though with defences on top - Croydon's attacking section were all over the hosts and they snaffled chance after chance for a good 10 minutes as Kingfisher were made to look a little ordinary. However Croydon's attack wasn't firing and they were left to put up speculative chances from the half way line and snatched chances that led to one-shot attacks. Kingfisher rang the changes to liven up their attack and eventually Croydon buckled as Belfourd conceded a penalty. Butters also came on in place of Ellis and Jeanes scored a running in shot so the teams finally changed round. Omar soon found the back of the basket from middle distance but Croydon's defence was a little slack and Kingfisher made them pay from the next attack. Croydon continued to press hard but Kingfisher scored the last two goals of the match to leave the scores 18-10.

Overall Croydon showed good team spirit and togetherness and, at times, played some good korfball, both in attack and defence, but they were unable to sustain this for the whole match and one section in particular looked a bit leggy towards the end of the 2nd half. Kingfisher were comfortable winners but, at times, were made to work hard for their win. They certainly seemed to get the rub of the green early on as their shots fell in, whilst Croydon's slipped out, but you generally make your own luck in sport.

Match Report by Andy