The end of this weekend sees the end of Korfball's European club Competitions and Trojans placing 7th in the Europa Cup and Kwiek and Mitcham coming 4th and 5th respectively in the Europa Shield.
What does that mean for England Korfball? From one perspective the message is clear: it means that EK clubs are not at the highest level in Europe. Overall their performances weren't quite good enough on the international stage. However, in the Europa Shield (which doesn't include Dutch or Belgian Clubs) the key losses weren't that big: Kwiek losing 9-10 to runners-up VKC Kolin, and Mitcham losing 10-14 to eventual winners Benfica.
But the fact that England Korfball has a highly competitive domestic league structure may well be reflected in seemingly disappointing performances on the European stage. Other European countries have far fewer clubs and far fewer teams at the highest level - around 3 teams in Catalonia or Portugal even compete to get into Europe, and thus national team players are less well-distributed between teams than in England. 7 out of 8 HSKL clubs have players training with England Seniors.
Despite the discouraging results there are some crystal clear signs for England Korfball. This weekend represents 3 squads of players plus coaches, managers and supporters who have put their time, money and physical efforts into representing korfball to the very best of their ability and to the highest professional standards they can reach.
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