Europa Shield: Bec make history and win GOLD!
In their first European competition in the club’s history, Bec Korfball Club won the Europa Shield and the Gold medal beating SG Pegasus from Germany in the final 11-7.
Bec reached the final after wins over TuS Schildgen (18-15), CCCD Carnaxide (12-11), Barcelona KC (13-8) and VKC Kolin (20-10).
Bec’s opponents in the final; SG Pegasus won their semi-final 16-8 against Portuguese side CCCD Carnaxide. Coach Dave Buckland started with King, Bedford, Poxanco and Fitzgerald in attack and Hall, Nickerson, Dique and Roberts in defence.
Bedford opened the scoring for Bec with an open play goal from mid-distance followed by a goal from King on 6 minutes.
SG Pegasus scored the next two goals to level the scores. The first half was relatively low scoring. Bec went into the halftime break 5-2 ahead.
SG Pegasus managed to reduce the deficit to just a single goal during the second half.
On 28 minutes SG Pegasus scored their 7th goal of the game to take the scoreboard to 8-7. Bec reacted immediately and scored two goals in the next two minutes to restore their three goal advantage.
Bedford scored his third goal of the match and Bec’s final goal in the 34th and final minute of the match from a free-pass. Final score: 11-7.
Bec Korfball Club become the third English team to win the Europa Shield trophy in the tournaments 14 year history. Mitcham Korfball Club won gold in 2005 and Trojans Korfball Club in 2007.
England Korfball chairman Craig Gosling said: “Congratulations to Bec Korfball Club and their coach Dave Buckland.”
International Korfball Federation chairman Jan Fransoo said on Twitter: “Congratulations to@BecKorfballClub for convincingly winning this year’s@Euroshield . Next year in 50th Europa Cup?”
England Korfball Board member Sam Wells commenting on Bec’s success: “Great achievement for a club playing in their first European club competition. Great result for Bec. Congratulations to them!”
Photos from the final courtesy of Martin Büchel (TuS Schildgen).