Invites go out for Leicester Tournament 2013
We have always enjoyed our slightly strange little tournament and it has always attracted a little group of clubs who very enthusiastically attended each year feeling like they were participating in somewhat of a guilty pleasure. It felt like we were the Shooting Stars or Big Bang Theory of the tournament scene. However, last year we unexpectedly went mainstream with 18 teams flocking to our gorgeous little location in the east of the city, travelling from as far and wide as Manchester, Kent, London and the South West.
The question on our lips this year is; will 2013 be bigger? We always have a different international theme every year, and after last year’s Jubilee/Olympic/generally patriotic Great British Theme we are staying in Europe and heading over to Italy. Yes, our little rugby club will be ‘transformed’* into a stylish sophisticated piazza where you will be entertained with pizza flinging, opera, Mario Kart and lots of Italian sausage.
But, some things don’t change. We still structure the tourney to give you as many games against as many different teams as possible. We will still prepare and cook all of the food you’ll need from Friday night to Sunday morning, including cooked breakfasts on both days. We will still have the original 30 second countdown, the circle of truth, the long shot contest, the bake off and a great big immature dancey social into the early hours.
All the costs are the same as they were in 2008 too, including free camping. £40 per team with £5 discounts for each additional team and paying before Saturday 11th May. So three teams paid early is only £90 – less than £4 per korfer! The social, including your home cooked evening meal is still only £5.
So, in the hope that annoying puppets will stop asking, make 18th May 2013 your Dolmio day and sign your club up to one of the country’s most popular and unique Korfball tournaments by contacting us at leicestertournament@hotmail.co.uk.
Big Red leaves Leicester for Melbourne
As Leicester gets bigger and bigger, we accept that members will leave to take on new jobs, or challenges, but the club was very sorry to see one of its founding members leave this month. Back in the summer of 2008, Leicester City Korfball Club was on the brink; only six members remained and the club nearly collapsed. If it hadn’t been for the time and effort those six spent, the club would not be here today. After Helen left us in 2009, the remaining five ‘founders’ have been intact until now.
Michael Reid, known affectionately as Mikey or ‘Big Red’, was not only a founding member, but the first member of Leicester who had never played Korfball before. He is also one of the three remaining members who attended the very first training session at Bosworth College on September 13th 2007 at 6.30pm. But later this month he will leave the cold, snowy and grey shores of the UK for a new job in Melbourne, Australia.
Having played on both the firsts and seconds for Leicester he will be sorely missed on court having initially been somewhat of a drop off specialist had more recently switched to sniper, showing an incredible accuracy from long, helping to make team Toto such a threat. In fact last year’s highlight reel included a rather spectacular long shot from Mikey….. However, like all Tornadoes, he has always been much more than a player. Mikey has been an integral member of the club, having been club secretary, social sec while also giving his time to support the tournament, publicity and new members.
Any other clubs reading this should also feel a sense of loss, as Mikey contributed heavily to the success of the tournament bake offs which were nationally renowned.
We hope of course that Mikey will return back from Australia one day and will return to the club. But for at least temporarily it’s only fit that Mikey’s contribution to our club is recognised as not only being one of the first, but one of the most popular members the club will ever have.
Tornadoes take the bronze at Cambridge Uni Tournament
There’s nothing a Tornado loves more than a tournament and Cambridge Uni’s first tourney in recent years was no exception. A mixed team featuring Leicester City and DMU players travelled to play in a ten team tourney. The ten were split into two pools of five in a round robin, Leicester drawing UEA, Birmingham Uni, Cambridge Phoenix and Swans. In action were Anja, Charlotte, Emma, Jenny, Rachael, Vik, Dan, Luke, Matt and captain Rob.
Click here for video highlights from the day!
UEA were up first, with not only a strong uni side, but also featuring England international Charlie Vogwill. UEA needed 7 or 8 attacks to rack up a 2-0 lead through a long shot and drop off, with Matt managing to sneak a side feed past Charlie just after the switch. However, a goal down the other end and Charlie’s second long shot of the match closed out the game at 4-1. Although Leicester were unlucky to not score more, UEA deserved the win but would go on to beat everyone in the group by a margin and reach the final.
The other teams in the pool quickly worked out that there would be a very close contest for 2nd place and every match after this was extremely tough.
There are no easy matches against Birmingham Uni and the team at the other end of the M69 were quick to hit a 2-0 lead, making it 3-1 at the second switch thanks to Rob’s whistling long shot. A cheeky drop off from the collect from Matt reduced the gap to one and Charlotte nailed a shot from long to draw level. Soon after the switch Emma left her defender standing to slot away a runner and Rob nailed another long shot at the death to give Tornadoes the match at 5-3. A great win for Leicester, but Cambridge Phoenix were up next in the next instalment of the two side’s friendly but very tight rivalry.
Dan, Rob, Anja and Vik started in attack at blistering pace, but despite shot after shot, nothing dropped. Stalemate was the order of the day for the first 8 minutes until Phoenix under risk of cutting got a runner and put the pressure on the Tornadoes; however, Dan found the korf with a flying veer from mid distance to start the game again at the switch. Jenny, Rachael, Luke and Matt were linking well and the ball kept moving but with the game tight every shot had to be well worked. Both teams had opportunities to take the game, but Jenny sent a perfect ball into Luke at the feed who with one player flying past him and another diving for him nailed the reflex shot to give Leicester a 2-1 lead which was maintained to the final whistle.
With second place in reach swans were next, a team of teachers from West London who had been competing for six months. The athletic side were difficult to play but Leicester had found form. A fumbled collect handed Matt a nice pop shot and Jenny hit a trademark runner to make it 2-0. Two from rob outpacing his opposition and a shot from an un-followed block at the post gave Matt his second to give Leicester’s premier korfballing outfit a 5-1 win and 2nd place in the group, leaving a final match which would see them play off for 3rd place against Cambridge City.
Another tough match ensued with Leicester falling back into the morning’s rut of starting on the back foot with Cambridge notching up a 3-1 lead only offset by a penalty from Matt. Vik scored a runner about 4 minutes later which was frustratingly followed up with another long shot from Cambridge. At 4-2 the game looked tough with only 5 minutes left. Luckily another penalty from a side feed gave Matt his second penalty. The Cambridge defence was open to well placed cross court balls, meaning difficult passes needed to be perfect, but Luke hit one spot on giving Matt his match hat trick with a flying veer off the back. With the comeback complete, divisions switched ends again, with very little time left. Agonisingly Cambridge nailed another long shot leaving Leicester seconds to comeback for the second time. However, Rob’s pace yet again drew both male defenders to him and got the ball off to Dan who then dropped back and sent the ball through the korf with only half a minute to go.
However, in a strange twist, the ref announced the game at 6-4 to Leicester, prompting confusion from Cambridge and the same from Leicester who assumed a dis-allowed goal against Rob had been awarded. Luckily, we had taped the full match and watching the video back the 5-5 draw was obvious and following discussion with the desk and Cambridge the result was announced as joint 3rd (as there was no hall time left to hold a penalty shootout), a result both teams were overjoyed with.
UEA went on to lose to Cambridge Uni alumni 2-1 in a squeaky bum final, which was a shame given how well UEA had played all day, but deservedly tight. As well as joint 3rd, Rob was announced as our pool’s male MVP, and Vic won the raffle. In other fantastic news, Southampton were also there; a club set up in part by ex-Tornado, Kate Fraser-Smith, aiding us in spreading Tornado korf far and wide.
It was an absolutely brilliant day of korf run by Cambridge Uni, and another brilliant result for Leicester as their tournament record was notched up to five top 3 finishes including two 3rds, a 2nd and two mini tournament wins.
Results
Leicester City 1 – 4 UEA
Birmingham Uni 3 – 5 Leicester City
Cambridge Phoenix 1 – 2 Leicester City
Leicester City 5 – 1 Swans
Leicester City 5 – 5 Cambridge City
Team
Anja Hudson
Charlotte Slater (1)
Emma Bryant (1)
Jenny Andrews (1)
Rachael Kings
Victoria Whitemore (1)
Dan Hawthorne (2)
Luke Hawthorne (1)
Matt Freeman (8)
Rob Parnham (c) (6) – Tourney MVP
Total – 21 scored – 14 against – Diff = +7
Leicester Korfball Grows Again
Leicester City Korfball Club has always been growing. Every year we have managed to finish the season with more players than the same point a year ago – a massive achievement given that nationally, the number of people participating in Korfball is in the decline.
However, this year has been incredible. It was always the plan to launch a De Montfort University Club when the Tornadoes moved back into DMU sports facilities, and this went to plan. DMU now have enough players to form a team and given performances so far, a rather good team too. What we
didn’t expect was the effect that our summer publicity campaign would have. Twenty brand new korfballers came and tried the sport and to date sixteen of them are still playing! This is aside from the three new members that started over the summer too!
We have also launched our long awaited 3rd team and every single one of our club teams now has new players involved and every single training session has had new players in attendance. The first social of the year (co-organised by one of our new members) saw a few of them take advantage of the club’s new sponsorship deal with Revolution Bars.
With now 32 playing members in the club and another 15 students in the DMU section, Leicester has tripled it’s active roster in just over two months.
This couldn’t have happened without some supreme efforts by current players to help develop, work and support the vast numbers of new members.
Stay tuned to see how all three of our teams get on in the full season.
De Montfort University Korfball Club starts here!
After what has seemed months of preparation, discussion and organisation, Freshers’ Fair has arrived and members of Leicester City as well as volunteers from Leicester link student clubs will aim to spread the word of Korf.
So if you are a De Montfort Student that wants to give Korfball a go… everything you need is here…
- Korfball is for everyone – it’s played in over 20 universities across the UK and is a very social sport. There’s no initiations, trials or restrictions. It’s the only true mixed gender team sport in the world….perfect for socialising.
- Taster Sessions are being held at the brand new De Montfort Leisure Centre on Thursday 8pm – 9.30pm and Saturday 12.30pm – 2.00pm. Bring training shoes, light clothing and something (non alcoholic) to drink.
- We will go to the pub after each session. Probably Soar Point, or Revolution.
- Cost to join will be £4 all in*, until we are officially signed off by DSU and will then be free with your Active Card.
- All paid members will be given access to the Revolution Sports Card – great drinks and food offers 24/7 and part of every pound you spend helps to fund the club for next year.
- You can email DMU Korfball at dmu@leicesterkorfball.org.uk or contact us here with any questions
- We are on facebook – jump here
- We are on twitter – jump here
DSU Korfball is going to kick off. Get involved.
