Reading v Abingdon (14th Feb 2010)
Leave a CommentAfter a short break, and skiing mishap that has kept me away from Korfball for a few weeks, this week I was back! At least to support and shout encouragement from the sidelines. Unfortunately our team was a girl short, so had to make do with 7 to take on their 8. All out on dates were you girls?
No bother, we got off to the best possible start with Andy catching the defence napping and landed a cheeky running in shot inside the first minute. Despite being a division of 3 Blaggy, Charlotte and Andy were causing all sorts of problems for Abingdon. Fast paced dynamic moves had them tied in knots and wondering what day of the week it was! We kept control of the game well, with Jack seeing off a good running in shot, and longshots from Mike and Blaggy giving us the half time lead at 4-3.
The message from the coach at half time was simple, Mike and his division needed to keep the ball and relieve the pressure on the division of 3 – who were sure to be feeling the pace by the final quarter. A period of stalemate ensued in the 10minutes after half time when we were putting together good attacking moves but the shots were not quite dropping in. We made a quick change and brought on Dave for Jack and went back out to try and secure the victory.
Mike broke the deadlock with a nicely finished longshot, this crucial effort gave us a 2 goal lead for the first time in the match. Unfortunately it was short lived as they came back at us strongly and scored a couple, to get back to 5-5 with around 15mins to play. Biz got a nice longshot to put our nose back in front, but again they managed to get back level with a penalty – things were getting very tense as the minutes ticked down and the draw was looming…
However, our Confidence was rising and both divisions pulled together to put the squeeze on the opposition, our solid defence forced them into rushed shots that we could easily pick off and send straight back to the other end. We kept up the pressure and it was Mike that managed to bag a winner and complete his hatrick with a runner in the final few minutes!
Overall a very good team performance, that showed real commitment from everyone on the court. Despite being a player short we controlled the game well, it was them who were trying to play catch up for most of the game. Well done guys!
Final score 7-6 to us.
Scorers: Mike 3, Andy 1, Jack 1, Biz 1, Blaggy 1.
Recent Matches v MKB2, Oxford City and Oxford University
After putting up three very spirited performances against the top three teams in the division Reading came away with nothing to show for all their effort. With these matches out the way we look forward to grabbing some points in the final three matches of the season.
Jan 24th v Milton Keynes Bucks 2 (Lost 12-3)
Jan 31st v Oxford City 1 (Lost 7-4)
Feb 7th v Oxford Uni 1 (Lost 10-4)
Manchester Warriors Christmas Tournament (28 Nov 2009)
Reading headed to Manchester last Saturday and welcomed back Gouldini and Whitey who have recently moved on to pastures new. Also guesting were Jo and Adrian from Oxford City with Biz, Mike, Dave, Mark, Gareth, Jack and Gav completing the fearsome 11 player squad.
The day started with the usual tournament crazyness, too drunk from the night before Adrian forgot to wake up. Meanwhile Gav reversed his car into a bollard and Jack’s car kissed the back of a 4×4. Nevertheless a complete team safely arrived at the impressive Manchester Velodrome, ready to benefit from their 05:45 start.
As is tradition in the Warriors Christmas tournament our fixtures were delivered in a Christmas card. Captains pulled a cracker before each match to see which team started. We also added our present to the secret Santa stocking.
We knew the first half of the tournament would be the most difficult after being drawn against Manchester Warriors II and Birmingham Legends, two of the top teams in the tournament. As usual, Reading fought hard, creating some nice chances but both oppositions showed their superiority and used their top level players, some with international experience, to ensure victories. The games finished Warriors 5-1 Reading (with Gav popping in a long-shot late in the game) and Legends 5 – 0 Reading.
After a quick trip to MaccyD’s we were fighting fit and ready for the afternoon fun. We found ourselves in the bottom pool with a best attainable position of 9th (of 12 teams). There were no easy teams to beat in this tournament, even in the bottom pool, with plenty of players that could cause us damage if we slackened off. Our first match against Keele University started a struggle with Keele going 2-1 up after Gav put away an early long-shot. We called for calm and the use of our experience, which lead to Mike clipping in a long-shot before Gav won and dispatched a penalty. Blaggy was left to wrap things up with a fine effort that guaranteed our first victory of the day. Reading 4-2 Keele University.
Next challenge was our friends from Leicester, who got an early goal and forced us to dig deep. Fantastic support play from the rest of the division allowed Gav to dispatch two long-shots in quick succession, which gave us the lead. Gouldini put the result beyond any doubt in the closing stages of the match with trade-mark pin point accuracy. Final score Reading 3-1 Leicester.
At this point Gav was getting quite worried. He earlier ruled that it would be the top scorer who gets to sit on Santa’s knee, tell him what they want for Christmas and open the secret Santa present – another fine Warriors tradition. There was now a chance it might be him, and the team stubbornly refused to allow a change of rules at this late stage of the day. Meanwhile the rest of the squad had their minds on korfball. After noticing Manchester City had put far more goals past Keele and Leicester than we did, a win was now the only result that would gain us our much sought after 9th spot.
We faced a team of challengers, going at full pelt and trying to run us ragged. But they were against a very confident and composed Reading unit that absorbed this pressure and went about their own business. Gouldini got the first goal of the match before Manchester forced themselves back in the game. Now, fighting even harder, Reading performed a move allowing Gav to put home a medium range effort before coming off for Mike who rounded things off with a fine, and very graceful, running-in shot. Final score Reading 3 – 1 Manchester City. 9th place – we had won our pool!
Well done to everyone who played, a great team effort with Biz, Whitey, Jo, Gareth, Adrian, Jack and Dave providing some excellent support work that directly contributed to the goals.
Our good fortune continued into the evening as Dave, Biz and Jack won prizes in the raffle. To Gav’s delight this year’s Santa was a fine lady from Warriors and he had no problems sitting on her knee. With that all wrapped-up we headed to our host’s house and greened up as beanstalks before heading out with Jack to the cracking pantomime fancy dress social.
Everyone had a great time. Thanks go to Manchester Warriors for putting on a great event, Mel and Mike for putting us all up for the night and everybody who drove and played.
Next tournament: Leeds University, 6th Feb 2010.
Scorers: Gav 6 (1 pen), Gouldini 2, Mike 2, Blaggy 1.
Stats after 6 League Games…
| Apps | Longshot | Running | Pens | Total | |
| Blaggy | 5 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 10 |
| Stu | 6 | 3 | - | 5 | 8 |
| Andy | 3 | 2 | 2 | - | 4 |
| Dan | 4 | 3 | - | - | 3 |
| Lucy | 4 | 1 | 2 | - | 3 |
| Biz | 2 | 1 | 2 | - | 3 |
| Goldini | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Gav | 4 | 2 | - | - | 2 |
| Elanie | 4 | 1 | - | - | 1 |
| Dave | 3 | 1 | - | - | 1 |
| Eric | 1 | - | - | 1 | 1 |
| Charlotte | 5 | 1 | - | - | 1 |
| Mike | 4 | 1 | - | - | 1 |
| Katie | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Lizzie | 4 | - | - | - | - |
| Jack | 3 | - | - | - | - |
| Gareth | 1 | - | - | - | - |
| Total | 42 |
Reading v Basingstoke (29 Nov 2009)
This weeks trip was short hop South to take on Basingstoke in their home stadium. This was a crucial game for us a wrong end of the league table, especially as Basingstoke are also struggling this year. If we managed a win and we we were one step closer to survival in Oxfordshire Korfballs top flite. The team looked more green than usual this week, as the remains of the previous evenings fancy dress we still smeared across many peoples faces… A genius tactic to lull the opposition into a false sense of security!
We got off to a good start with Blaggy slotting a running in shot and then a penalty to take us 2-0 up inside of the first few minutes. We then continued to trade goals with them up to half time, with Gav and Goldini scoring nice longshots. Half time it was 5-4 to them, but the mood was positive – we had a strong defence that was giving them few chances and we were creating plenty of chances in our attacks. We went back out determined not to let this one slip away.
The second half got off to a good start as we scored the first 2 goals after half time with Mike getting on the scoresheet for the first time this season and Goldini grabbing her second with a nice running in shot. After an unfortunate penalty against us and a speculative longshot dropped for them we were still one behind, but the balance of power was definately beginning to turn in our favour…
A quick sub saw Andy replace Blaggy and we went into the last quarter, all guns blazing and determined to make sure of the result. What followed was a goal rush with shots dropping from all over the court: Stu got a cheeky longshot after droppping off the back on a restart, and Turnip got just reward for some great attacking down the other end with with a well taken longshot. We secured the result with a runner from Andy and a longhot from Biz, before Goldini completed her hatrick with another longshot and it was left to Katie have the last word with a great goal in the dying seconds!
A superb game for us, and a real team effort with everyone pulling together to bring us a memorable victory. This is certainly reflected in the scoresheet with everyones name present! Final Score 12-8 to us.
Scorers: Goldini 3 (legend!!), Blaggy 2 (1 pen), Gav 1, Mike 1, Turnip 1, Katie 1, Stu 1, Biz 1, Andy 1.
Reading v ISIS (15 Nov 2009)
After a fantastic first win last week, ISIS was to be next to face the Reading korf machine. Unfortunately the magic combinations of last week were broken up this time around, as several playters were either away or unavailable to take to the pitch this week. With a girl down we knew it was going to be a tough ask ot take on the black and green of ISIS but nevertheless spirits were high.
We welcomed back Gnomes from last years Uni team and promptly gave her the challenging task of playing in a division of 3 with the basketball crew (Ditch and Dan). Down the other end was Jack, Lizzie, Elanie and Stu with Bananaman acting as a one man cheerleader and coach.
We settled into the match and fought valliantly to keep them out, unfortunately they started well and were managing to find ways through to keep their score ticking over. We had a fair amount of possesion and created a number of decent chances but unfortunately the all important finishing let us down too many times. The half time score of 4-0 was not representative of the effort we had put in and we were unlucky not to have anything to show for it.
In the second half our coach and cheerleader made his first appearance of the season, replacing Dan in the division of 3. After conceding a few more we managed to get a few of our own back with Eric putting away a penalty and Stu slotting a free pass. In the end the final score was 9-2 to ISIS. I felt the final score was not entirely reflective of the match, we were more competitive than the score suggests and they were made to work for their goals. Well done to everyone for the effort they put in.
No match next week, the next game is in Basingstoke on the 29th..
Goals…
Eric 1 (pen)
Stu 1 (free pass)
Reading v Abingdon 1 (08 Nov 2009)
- Ditch 2
- Andy 2
- Stu 2 (pens)
- Lucy 2
- Gav 1
Reading v Milton Keynes Bucks 2 (01 Nov 2009)
We got off to the best possible start with Dan getting a good feed to put Biz in for a running in shot within 30 seconds of the off. The ball then went straight back down the other end where they slotted a longshot. A rapid start, 1-1 with less than a minute gone! After this excitement we settled down and worked hard to make the best of our chances. Lucy scored a nice longshot from distance to level at 2-2 and then Biz got a second running in shot, to put us 3-2 ahead. They kept on terms and equalised, so we went into half time all square at 3-3.
The second half saw them make a couple of changes, and down one end we switched tactics to play 3-1 and take advantage of a 2 foot height differential between Stu and his opposite number. This gave us prolonged attacks with multiple shots on target, unfortunately they just would not go in though! Eventually Lucy got passed her defender for a running in shot and won the penalty. With that dispatched by Stu we were keeping in the hunt with the score 4-4. We also made a couple of subs with Jack coming on for Gav to make his debut, and Dave coming on to replace Dan.
Unfortunately, the fast pace of the game took its toll and in the last quarter, a couple of our penalties rolled tantalisingly close but just dropped the wrong side and we could not keep pace with their scoring in outfield play. Dave scored his first league goal with a good longshot in the last few minutes, but by then the game was beyond us. Final score 9-5. Congratulations to all that played, it was a very good performance. The defence was notably good and we were generating plenty of problems for them in attack. There is plenty to work on – but that elusive victory will come!
Goals…
Biz: 2
Dave: 1
Lucy: 1
Stu: 1 (pen)
Reading vs Oxford City (25 Oct 2009)
After last weeks encounter with Uni we knew that this one would be no easier. An experienced, well organised squad came out and tried to take control of the game early on – we had other ideas…
We came out fighting and got off to good start, fluidly moving the ball around the court at a lightning fast pace. We traded early goals with them as Dan and Sparky both got on the scoresheet early on with some good longshots to match a couple of runners from them. Our frantic pace really put them under pressure and our relentless attacks delivered a steady stream of goals, with Mark getting a 2nd and Stu putting also putting away a longshot to keep the match balanced on a knife edge. By this time the basketball crew were firing on all cylinders – Mark determined to prove that 3hrs sleep and a hangover is perfect preparation for Korfball slotted a 3rd scorching longshot and not to be outdone Dan grabbed a second with a fantastic shot from out the back.
This took us into half time with an unexpected, but well deserved 6-4 advantage. Gav replaced Dan and we went back out to try and build on the fantastic first half. They also came out fighting and forced us onto the backfoot as they scored 2 quick goals to equalise at 6-6. We needed regain control and Mark stepped up to sink yet another from distance to give us back the lead. Changes were needed to draft in fresh legs and Mike was replaced by Dave, and a few minutes later Andy pulled on a Reading shirt again after a 2 year absence to replace Stu. Despite fantastic commitment from everyone, they managed to equalise and then draw ahead, it was 8-7 with 10 minutes to go. Andy set the crowd alight as he managed to pull out a nice shot from the back to get us back on level terms. Could we hang on for a well deserved draw? Another goal from Andy was unfortunately disallowed, and they sneaked a longshot in the dying seconds to snatch the victory.
All in all a great performance. The commitment from everyone was fantastic, our dynamic fast paced play gave them all sorts of problems and the shooting really was top drawer. We were unfortunate not to get at least a draw from the game, but we can certainly take a lot from it.
See you all at training on Tuesday, usual time 20:15 at Bulmershe.
Goals:
Mark: 4
Dan: 2
Stu: 1
Andy: 1
Stats (After 2 Games)…
| Appearances | Goals | Pens | Total | |
| Blaggy | 2 | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| Stu | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Dan | 2 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Andy | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Elanie | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Charlotte | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Lucy | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mike | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dave | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Gareth | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Lizzie | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Gav | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 14 |
Reading v Oxford Uni1 (18 Oct 2009)
All the leaves are brown, and the sky is grey… and the new season is upon us! Our familiar weekly trip up the A4074 has resumed, and we are back to take on the best of the rest that Oxfordshire can come up with! First up was Oxford Uni 1, a team that in the past we have struggled against. Despite being a student team they can call upon some high quality players with a wealth of experience. The team that stepped onto the court at Cheney was no exception, and included a few familiar faces. We knew we were in for a tough encounter.
Unfortunately we were 1 girl short, so had to play 3 down one end. In the first half Charlotte, Dan and Mark played as 3 with Stu, Mike, Lucy and Elainie down the other end. The short division wowed the capacity crowd (of about 7) with some classy basketball inspired moves, keeping the Oxford lot on their toes with the fast paced dynamic play. Despite going a few goals down to start with, Mark opened our account and slotted a nice long shot to keep us in the hunt.
Midway through the first half we were keeping them in check and despite the short division they were struggling to find openings. We had lots of shots but the just were not dropping for us and by half time the score was 6-2 to them. Dan scoring our other goal with a great longshot on his debut. A couple of tactical substitutions saw Mike and Dan replaced with Dave and Gareth for the second half.
In the second half we started well and the defending was excellent, with the fresh legs of Gareth and Dave handling their experienced opposition particularly well. Unfortunately we went a couple more goals behind via a couple of questionable penalties and a long shot. Something needed to change… Mark got one back for us via another tasty looking long shot, and this stoked the Reading machine into a late charge. Stu converted a couple of penalties that were just reward for great work by Lucy in repeatedly getting past her defender and Elainie scored a fantastic long shot to make it 4 unanswered goals and the score 9-6.
This turned out to be too little too late for the result, and it finished 10-6 to Oxford. However, it was a hugely positive start to the season, with a player down, this was a great result for us and is testament to the effort everyone put in. At no point did they dominate the match like they would have been expected to do so, and we had some fantastic moments in both attack and defence. Building on this start, the prospects for the rest of the season look good!
See you all at training on Tuesday, usual time 20:15 at Bulmershe.
Goal Stats:
Mark: 2
Stu: 2 (pens)
Dan: 1
Elainie: 1
Cheers Stu
