Welcome to MK City Korfball Club!

28 Mar 2008 - MK City and MK Roos Season Review so far

The Story So Far!

MK City and our sister club MK Roos have had an incredibly successful year to date in terms of growing player numbers, and the results are picking up too!

MK City now has around 25 members with up to 20 attending the Monday evening sessions at Woughton Leisure Centre Hall 2 from 6.15pm - more are welcome of course. With a handful of players now into their second year of korfball and some enthusiastic newcomers the results are improving.

And what a year for the club - 1 year old on 4th April. From a small start the club now has more than 30 members with up to 24 attending sessions at Shenley Brook End School every Wednesday from 8pm.

City still aren't top of the league but highlights include an excellent draw in the OKA Division 2 against League Leaders Oxford City 2. We were leading for long periods before finally finishing 6 - 6. That was in January and towards the end of the month we won our first league match against Oxford Isis 3 - it was tight throughout but a winning goal from Holly Barrett sealed a 4 - 3 victory.

City also had very creditable performances against Bucks 2 in the OKA Plate with a hatrick from Hannah Patterson on her debut, but ended up going down 9 - 5. We also lost a close League MK match to Roos by a single goal and had a strong showing in the 23rd February tournament in Luton including a good show against the Irish National team, though a losing perfomance.

City has two OKA League matches left this season against Didcot on 30th March at Courtside, Bletchley and 13th April away to Isis 3. Both matches are winnable and would take us up to 6th in the division, which would be excellent. We then go into the summer season of outdoor tournaments and will take in Oxford, Bristol, Littleport and the big one - Korfstock at Tattenhoe Pavilion on 12th July.

Roos were not in the OKA but took part in the Cup competition and having lost 9 - 5 to Oxford University 2 they took on Bucks 3 in the Plate. Leading for most of the match unfortunately Roos conceded a penalty in the last minute to finish 6 - 6 and eventually go out on penalties.

Roos have been playing in League MK and had close matches against the Bucks teams and a fantastic win over City. Roos will play in the OKA League next season.

With growing numbers we ran a competition to name the new 2nd teams. The name Woughton Wanderers was selected as the City 2nds name and Shenley Brook End Wallabies are the Roos 2nds. The Wanderers name proved popular with players as training is at Woughton but home matches are in Bletchley! The Wanderers won their first match against the students of MKX 5 - 2 in March. Wallabies will be playing soon. Hopefully both 2nd teams will play in the OKA alongside City & Roos.

City have been supporting the development of youth and school korfball this season. Coaches from the club set up a team at Shenley Brook End School in September. This U16 team has now been joined by a U19 team at SBE led by City player and VIth form teacher Laura Beechey and is playing as MKX. The U16's have travelled to South London for matches recently and will be hosting other teams from around the country in the summer as well as taking part in tournaments in Cambridge and at Korfstock and hopefully with 600 other young players at National Youth Day in July.

City has run teacher introduction sessions and several secondary and primary schools will start in April with the aim of taking part in Korfstock.

And further ahead on the youth front, working alongside MK Bucks and the English Korfball Association we were successful with a bid to host the 2010 European Youth Championships. This prestigious event will be staged at the arena:mk over the course of 10 days from late October 2010. The top 12 Under 21 international sides will be competing and we expect 3,000 fans for the finals. On the back of this profile event we hope to expand youth and adult korfball in the city rapidly.

Korfball growth is not just in MK it is growing quickly across the country and City were instrumental in kick starting a new team in Luton called Hatters.

The City has also been fortunate this season to have had the leadership of Sarah Evans as club captain and had great coaching from Katie and Clive Ellis and Darren Gray. Roos similarly has a 'strong' woman captain in Emma Green who only took up the sport 9 months ago. Darren Gray has been leading training for Roos following the departure of the original coach, Aussie international Andrew Speck - hence Roos and now Wallabies. We may be on to koalas soon.

To wrap up the indoor season City and Roos will be hosting an awards evening on 9th May and then hit CMK for a big night out. Socialising is a big part of club life with nights out, quizzes, trips to watch rugby, karaoke and more. So if you want to join a fun and friendly club, to get fit and to learn a new sport then come to City or Roos. And watch out - we hope to start a club at Walton from September.

Finally - all City and Roos players and committee members would like to congratulate MK Bucks on once again winning the OKA first division - Bucks are a fantastic club and have given us loads of support. But watch out Bucks - we are closing in!

All the best
DARREN GRAY
Chair - korfball devotee