The last Haven Sports games of 2009 started off with bottom placed Knights away to a confident Mitcham, after their midweek draw with top of the table Trojans. With height advantages being boasted at different ends, Mitcham’s tall rebounding boys took on the speed of Norwich’s fast paced attackers, whilst England Senior Steph Allen matched her height and aggression against England Under 19 Carina Lamalas.
Knights came out hard from the start and Thomas Ellis used his fast change to score a running in shot. After a hatrick of missed opportunities from post player Dean Woods under the basket, Mitcham equalised and then scored again, with a Ben King shot from under the basket. As the game progressed it was clear that Mitcham were becoming increasingly unsettled with referee Liam Clarke, as multiple decisions fell the way of Knights, amongst them a penalty, secured by Ross Lenton.
Trojans' Matt Brooks on fine shooting form
Adding to Mitcham’s frustration was the tactical rebound defense played by Norwich against the division including two of Mitcham's great rebounders, John Taylor and Ben King, playing alongside Lamalas and Kathryn Ayres. This led to several one-shot attacks, with long shots taken by Lamalas and Taylor without a secure rebound position, serving to aggravate Mitcham further. Some poor choices from players with enough experience to know better were giving Knights more ball than Mitcham wanted.
Knights failed to capitalise on Mitcham’s lack of individual control, however, and allowed Mitcham to extend a 4-2 lead. The highly-charged atmosphere lead to a high number of fouls on both sides with Bower successfully converting the ensuing penalties and Lamalas and Allen each securing a goal from the free pass.
Mitcham were having a torrid time as endless personal errors and numerous missed chances were making this game heavy weather; this was not the team that held Trojans to a draw a few days earlier. By half time, Mitcham had done just enough to extend their lead to 8-4.
After half time, it was Knights who took the game by the scruff of the neck and scored three goals without reply; Heather Lymburn converted a beautifully crafted drop off and long shot, and with Lenton scoring it made the score 8-7. This was a crucial part of the game as Knights had worked hard to get back into the match.
Knights made a change of personnel as 14-year old Claire Dique came on to mark England's Helen West. But after scoring three since half-time, Knights struggled to convert some easy opportunities and they found themselves unable to maintain the momentum - and then Mitcham’s attack scored through Ayres which seemed to settle the Mitcham players. But Mitcham Coach Dave Synott was clearly irate and replaced Lamalas (who had just scored from distance) with experienced international Sam Wells. Craig Gosling replaced Taylor who had had a troublesome game.
Under the control of Wells, Mitcham settled a little, and worked shots off Knights’ rebound defence. Two excellent long shots from Lenton and Bower added to the goal tally, and with 5 minutes to go, the game was already won for Mitcham.
Final score 16-10, but Mitcham will not have been happy with their performance and were very lucky not to have spurned their “extra point” from days earlier. Knights will be searching for the finish in their shots that has evaded them, giving them just 2 points so far this season. This is a tally which does disservice to the quality of their play.
Captain Davesh Patel gives Bec a glimmer of hope
League leaders Trojans travelled to Whitgift to take on Bec and were looking to put their scoring machine back in action after dropping a point against Mitcham in midweek. Bec had also not had a great week and would have been keen to give Trojans a tough time after dropping points in Epsom.
Trojans starting line-up included Dave, Matt and Sam Brooks with Chris Spice joining the family affair - perhaps the most potent shooting line up in English korfball. Trojans was afforded the luxury of using leading scorer Dave Brooks as a rebounder as he started with brother Matt, Loes Versteegh and Carly Holness.
Sam Brooks resumed his shooting master-class as he hit his first two shots to get Trojans on their way; Dinos Tritsarolis had his work cut out as his designated defender. Trojans were not to be stopped in this game as Spice offered equally sharp shooting. Tom Brady found himself beaten on 15 minutes as Brooks added a touch of Americana with a finger roll running in shot.
Bec were competing and creating chances but could not match the shooting prowess of the league champions, as the first half was a one-sided affair ending 3-12.
The second half continued in the same vein, though with Bec having nothing to lose it seemed to open their play having no reservations and a bit more injected energy, resulting in a second half tally of 7 goals. However with more risk came more damage as Trojans scored another 13; it was a game to forget as far as Bec were concerned.
This was excacerbated as Heidi Terrington and Karen Sparrow were removed from the game due to injury. Following the earlier substitution of Tonya Clarke for Vicky Bland, Bec were unprepared for a third female substitution; eventually Jackie Hoare had the unenviable task of entering the fray for the last five minutes.
The influential CJ Francis displaying attacking prowess
In contrast Trojans had the luxury of being able to offer game time to Rob Williams and Rhia Vassallo on their terms. The score ended 11-24 and Trojans had stamped some authority back onto their title credentials. They were able to blast out of the blocks from the off and never looked back against a team who usually give the Champions a tough time.
Ever central to the HSKL comings and goings, Steve Green returned to play against his previous club Kwiek with his first club Nomads with both teams looking to get their seasons going from near the bottom of the league table.
Nomads started the scoring but the lead was soon cancelled out by CJ Francis who was going to prove instrumental in the outcome of this match. She was lined up alongside her brother Luke Francis, with Vinni Richards and Keiron Hicks. Nomads matched them with Sytze Bijker, Ean Irwin, Emma Cole and Sam Rowbottom. A relatively even match-up but plenty there in terms of speed and agility. The other end saw Nomads pitch Ana Osbourne, Kim Jones, Joe Olds and Steve Green against Rebecca Clements, Vicky Woodgate, Adam Camies and Adam Hall.
In the opening minutes the teams matched each other, although in part due to the fact that neither team was able to maintain consistent possession round the basket. With no recognizable rebounding options and excellent athleticism from both sides, turn overs were frequent but for the crowd it was proving excellent entertainment.
In defence Irwin was putting huge pressure on Hicks and CJ Francis was clearly in a very determined mood. Hicks drew a free pass from Irwin’s high pressure attention after some nibble work and it was duly converted by CJ Francis. Joe Olds replied for Nomads before Kwiek’s experienced duo of Rebecca Clements and CJ Francis struck goals to edge Kwiek into the lead. Woodgate scored from distance amidst a flurry of goals that saw the scores level at 5 a piece, before the first decisive period of the match.
Ean Irwin looks threatening for Nomads
Nomads converted all four goals in the next two changes of ends. The defence was very tight from both sides and still no one had controlled the rebounding so chances were limited and the four goal cushion was looking promising for Nomads. They could not push on though as Kwiek grabbed the next two to trail just 7 – 9.
Irwin went down injured after a collision and looked to be likely to be withdrawn which elicited a time out. Defensive advice was clearly being dished by Kwiek captain Luke Francis, especially to Hall who was tasked with looking after Green, but it was not effective as Nomads scored the next two to maintain their imposing lead. Kwiek managed to reduce the deficit to just three before referee Azi Sieber blew the half time whistle.
Sieber had given another polished and confident performance, showing why many consider him the leading young referee in the country. Under his jurisdiction, the game was being allowed to flourish into a compelling spectacle.
A change at half time for the Kent side was a tactical gamble. It saw Franci Taylor replacing Richards despite Taylor carrying an injury. Kwiek were back on track quicker than Nomads as Clements scored her third, demonstrating that she was in fine shooting form despite having a quiet game. CJ Francis had been ever-present in the first half, creating a wealth of chances from Sam Rowbottom’s defence and continued with her fourth of the game to bring the scoreline back into the balance.
Bijker had been hugely impressive in his previous two games but was not featuring as much this time; none of the Nomads players were standing out from the crowd. Irwin was as industrious in defence as ever but not proving effective this week in attack. Their were goals coming evenly from the team, but it was time for someone to start taking control of the match.
In contrast, Kwiek’s goals were coming from a core of players as Camies drew the game level scoring two in row taking his personal tally to three. Nomads' scoring had all but stopped and some fractious interactions on the pitch were quelled by Coach Phillimore, instructing her players to focus on scoring more goals.
Jones used her composure to punish a lack of attention around the feed as she put Nomads back in the lead with minutes to go, as she switched from a support role to decisive attacking. Luke Francis however made Nomads rue their slow scoring rate by equalising almost immediately. For a match mostly devoid of rebounding dominance, he out-muscled his player to earn an unopposed shot under the basket to draw the final scores level and earning a valuable point for Kwiek.
The fascinating female match-ups in the Kingfisher-Nottingham game
At the end of the game neither side seemed happy, but Kwiek perhaps gained the point rather than dropped it and were generally pleased with the development of up and coming players in their squad this season. And all in all, a great battle and display of athleticism for the many spectators who lined the hall.
Kingfisher made a change back to their full line up as they took on Nottingham in Kent, in a battle for second place. Amy Turner was back in the squad after resting at Knights the week before and made an immediate impact as she slotted from 6 metres to open the scoring against England Senior Natasha Dawson. An instant reply from Charlie Vogwill levelled the score at 1 - 1. Vogwill was playing without his rebounding specialist Al Knight who had not travelled, leaving a starting place for Alex Wright.
The female match-ups looked to be the most interesting to watch. As well as the Turner vs Dawson battle, Sammi Bedford was pitched against the rapid Hannah Lorrimer, with Nottingham’s female international duo side by side for the first time this season. It was the boys though that provided the early goals as Chris Lanting hit from the sidelines, after Liam Kirby, captain for this fixture, had put the home side ahead.
Seven minutes in and the teams were showing why they were in the top 3 with the score at 3 – 4. A missed penalty from Lanting would have made it more and a missed sitter from under the basket from Dawson let Kingfisher off the hook twice in quick succession.
Nottingham were recycling ball convincingly with long multi-shot attacks as Kingfisher's lack of height was being exposed. Lorrimer ended the spell of pressure with a drop off shot as Bedford covered the front of the basket to stop her assisting. In contrast, Kingfisher's attacks were direct and short as they could not retain the ball from the first shot. Nottingham extended to 3-6 with a goal from Helen Buttinger.
Charlie Vogwill puts on a shooting display for Kingfisher
The scoring rate had slowed noticeably though: it was the 20th minute when Vogwill hit his third to give the often-decisive 4 goal lead. Kingfisher were starting to look under pressure; for the first time this season they looked unsure of themselves as they were not shooting well or controlling their attack. Morgan Neale reduced the deficit to 3 and the Kingfisher attack of Saskia and Hidde de Jaeger, Kirby and Morgan started to organised enough to create multiple chances. Three reasonable chances came their way but none were converted.
The improved organisation allowed Kirby to work more out front which paid dividends in a running in shot that ended in the fifth goal from the penalty spot. Vogwill would feel unlucky to have conceded with minimal contact trying to recover the situation, but good movement by Kirby created the opportunity.
The most interesting battle now was Kirby vs Vogwill as Nottingham attacked. The speed of Vogwill was being pitched against the height and agility of the Kingfisher captain. Vogwill was shooting with precision and scoring regularly from open play.
Kingfisher’s section of Turner and Bedford was easily the more productive with Turner working hard to earn a penalty for 6 – 7. In the other end defence was doubled on Vogwill which was sending more shooting chances in Wright’s direction which was suiting Kingfisher better. At half time Kingfisher trailed by only 1 goal.
Usual starter Rob Mann replaced Wright during the break after arriving straight from a long haul flight. A bold decision, but it resulted in better recycling as Kingfisher had adjusted to Wright’s early work.
Bedford featured for the first time 10 minutes into the half as she capitalised on the too-frequent aerial defence from Lorrimer but Nottingham were shooting superbly from mid range and kept the two goal lead. 20 minutes to go and Nottingham were definitely ahead in score and confidence.
Wilkins good work with Lanting was rewarded as he was amongst the late goals as Nottingham lengthened their lead. This was an uncharacteristically lack-lustre performance from Kingfisher and a very good shooting display by Nottingham who had used that simple ability to help them secure second place going into the Christmas break.