Author Archives: Nigel Cooper

Training update: new time & place, as of 19/4/12

Posted on by
2

Well, the season is over, and FINALLY there are a few sports-hall slots opening up that will allow us to go back to mid-week training sessions. The best one that we’ve come across for most people is from 6:30pm to 8:00pm every Thursday evening. This is at the Ardler Complex (Turnberry Avenue, Dundee, DD2 3TP).

There is also the possibility for us to start a junior section up at Ardler immediately before the adults train, and we are really keen to make this happen. If anybody knows of any young people that would be interested in learning to play korfball, please let Nigel know asap – the most likely time for this would be 5:30pm – 6:30pm on Thursday evenings.

The first Thursday evening training session for adults will be on April 19th.

End of season party, awards and AGM (5/5/12)

Posted on by
3

An evening to relax, to reflect on progress in year 1, and to make plans for year 2 of Dundee Korfball Club. We may well have a few drinks (to celebrate, of course), and perhaps the odd party game or two, but the main features of the evening will be electing a new committee (always helped by a few drinks), and handing out our first year’s club awards. Start time 6:30pm, end time to suit. Hopefully the AGM will be all over and done within an hour, and then the party can take over (maybe even a BBQ if the weather is nice). Further details from Nigel or Mary, who will be hosting in sunny Auchterhouse.

Please let us know if you would be interested on being on the committee even if you can’t make it to the party/AGM: posts to fill will include chair, secretary, treasurer, social sec, development officer and coaching coordinator.

Match report (1/4/12)

Posted on by
5

No kidding (get it?): we may have lost, but we had the best shirts.

Sunday, April 1, 10:45am, Shawland Academy, Glasgow

Glasgow 2 5 – 2 Dundee KC

Yet another low scoring game (OK, a loss) against a fairly handy team with a lot of experienced players… But this was also yet another very good team performance for us, with plenty of promise to build on for next season. We lost the game 5-2, but the stats actually look really promising… all of Glasgow’s goals were scored by their tall, experienced blokes (I’m responsible for letting 3 of them go in, and a fourth one was from a penalty that Mary gave away), whereas both of our goals came from open play and were scored by our up-and-coming (new-ish) girls. Shane scored her first competitive goal in what was her first full (non-sub’d) game – a nice little short-shot from the side of the post – and Caroline sank a really good long shot mid-way through the first half, with Kim providing support at the back of the post. I believe that a certain little captain even mentioned us still being in the game at half time, when we were only trailing by the one goal. But realistically, it was one of those games of two halves: we were doing OK up until half time, but after that we kind of ran out of ideas, and were overpowered by Glasgow’s much stronger squad. We did pretty well to keep the score down to 5-2, really, although we did also have a good few shots that went close in the second half, including one by Tanjeel right at the end that just rolled over the rim of the basket. That would have been a brilliant way to end our season, but sadly, it just wasn’t meant to be.

Of course, we can still say that we were the best looking team: this was our first outing in our brand new team kit.

Well done everyone, not only for this performance, but for making it through our first season in such style.

Match stats:

Glasgow 2 5 – 2 Dundee KC: Caroline(1), Kim, Nigel, Tanjeel; Mary Shane (1), Alan, Steven
MVP: ??? (my vote would be either Caroline or Steven, once again)

Shirts & Hoodies

Posted on by
Reply

They’re here! Well, some of them are here, at least. Yes folks, our first official team kit has arrived: including a bunch of small Adidas tops, a selection of blue and grey hoodies, and some nice fresh bibs to train in.

Many thanks to Breedon Aggregates for funding the team kit, and to Mary and Alan for sorting the orders out. Now, if only we could play as smartly as we’ll look…

Anyone who would like a shirt or hoodie for themselves should contact Mary for pricing and availability.

Match reports (25/3/12)

Posted on by
Reply

Definitely better, but no cigar…

Match reports from Sunday, March 25, 3:30pm, St. Leonards Land, Edinburgh

Game 1: Edinburgh City 2 3 – 3 Dundee KC

Another low scoring but decent little game… and another point on the board for both teams. A brace of classic long shots from Rosie got us off to a good start, but City soon pulled one back before the goals seemed to dry up. Mary eventually got things flowing again with a nice running in shot, but then things got a bit stuck again. We tried a good bit of outside feeding towards the end of the first half, but never really looked to have either the speed or the composure needed to finish our chances. So City took the initiative and popped in 2 goals to draw level just before half time. City’s standard of play went up a gear at the start of the second half, but we hung in there quite comfortably, with Nigel & Tanjeel and Rosie & Shane really starting to gel in defence (this was Shane’s debut, and only the second proper game for Tanjeel). The game even looked like it was starting to turn our way at the end, with Caroline and Rachael looking particularly sharp and strong in attack and Steven and Alan providing some really good support. But that was it as far as the goals were concerned, and both teams seemed fairly content with the final result.

Game 2: Edinburgh Uni 4 8 – 4 Dundee KC

I’m not sure that I remember much of this game, other than the real highlights: Alan scoring the second goal of his korfball career by doing exactly what he did the first time – rebounding from his own penalty; Mary scoring from under the post straight from a change-of-ends (well spotted, Steven); Rachael slotting home a nice long shot in the second half; and both Tanjeel and Kim coming really close to scoring their first goals in competitive korfball. Ed Uni’s team was quite strong, with several players “playing down” by at least one squad. But they all played really kindly throughout the match – the boys in particular refusing to take lots of clear shooting opportunities in order to support the more closely matched girls. If anyone else can remember any more than that, please feel free to add some comments! And well done to everyone who played for us – I think that these were two very good TEAM performances, which is really great to see.

Match stats:

Ed City 2 3 – 3 Dundee KC: Caroline, Mary (1, sub’d by Rachael at H/T), Alan, Steven; Rosie (2), Kim (sub’d by Shane at H/T), Nigel, Tanjeel. MVP: ??? (my vote would be Caroline)

Ed Uni 4 8 – 4 Dundee KC: Kim, Mary (2), Alan (1), Steven; Rosie (sub’d by Caroline at H/T), Shane (sub’d by Rachael (1) at H/T), Nigel (sub’d by Graham R with 5 minutes left), Tanjeel.
MVP: ??? (my vote would be Steven, who played really well all afternoon)

SKA AGM & end of season party (28/4/12)

Posted on by
Reply
A note from Rosy Nolan, the SKA secretary…
Two important events are coming up on the 28th April: the SKA AGM and the SKA end of season party.
The AGM is at 11am in classroom 2.D.10 at Napier Sighthill, before the final set of matches in the league. All clubs are encouraged to attend or to at least have a representative present. We will be electing the new SKA committee, discussing any issues that have arisen throughout the year, and importantly, voting on next season’s league structure.
The SKA party will be held at Ghillie Dhu in Edinburgh at 7pm. Tickets are £25 per person which includes a three course meal (menus to follow), live music after food and a DJ until 3am. It would be really helpful if each club collected money from people and gave in a single cheque made payable to the SKA, or to make a transfer email treasurer@scotlandkorfball.co.uk for the details. It’s a great way to celebrate the end of a really successful season.
It would be great to have as many people as possible at both events – and the matches in between. Please reply with numbers interested in attending the party by the 5th April.
So, anyone up for a party? Please let Nigel or Mary know asap and we’ll order some tickets / pass the numbers along.

Big fish, or small pond?

Posted on by
Reply

Just to keep everyone happy, here’s the SKA development league table following our latest result; a six-all draw away at St. Andrews 2. The match was a very strange affair. Most notable from our point of view were two (stunning!) first-time goals by Alan & Fiona. A full(ish) match report follows the table.

Team Played W D L GF GA GD Points
Dundee 1 15 6 3 6 80 116 -36 15
Glasgow 2 9 3 1 5 41 54 -13 7
Ed Uni 4 15 2 1 12 48 166 -118 5

Continue reading →

Dundee Day – Summer Tournament (27/5/12)

Posted on by
Reply

We are planning to hold our first ever Summer tournament on Sunday, May 27. It will be a one day event, open to teams from everywhere… teams from existing clubs, cobbled together teams of friends, and probably a few cobbled together teams of people who’ve never played together before too. The event is scheduled for the day after St. Andrews’ magnificent beach tournament, so we are hoping that quite a few of the beach teams (one beach team = 2 boys + 2 girls) will hang around and pair up to form full teams (4 boys + 4 girls) on Dundee Day.

Anyone who’s interested in either entering a team, or just coming along and playing for a scratch team, should get in touch with Nigel (07817 640432) for more details, or email tourny@dundee.korfball.org.uk.

Similarly, anyone who is willing to help us run the event (we will need lots of helpers) should make themselves known as soon as possible. You don’t even need to like korfball to be a good helper. 😉

Could we actually be getting better?

Posted on by
Reply

Edinburgh Mavericks 6 – 8 Dundee KC
Saturday, Feb 25, 11am, Sighthill Campus, Edinburgh

Despite yet another dodgy start (could it be that Dundee really don’t like Saturday mornings?), I suspect that this was Dundee’s best team performance to date.  Mavs were brilliant hosts as usual, but they also seemed fairly determined to make up for their one-goal loss to us in the opening game of the season. Their shots came fast and furious from the outset this time around, and they quickly built up a three goal lead at the start of the game. Once we’d gained a bit of composure in defence though, we started to claw our way back, and by half time we were only trailing by one (HT score 4-3 to Mavs). Mary & Gav sank a couple of nice long-shots, and Nigel converted a fortuitous penalty.

The second half was closely contested throughout, with all of our players really getting into the spirit of the game and playing some pretty decent korfball, both in attack and defence. Gav sank a couple more long shots, and Nigel converted a good collect from underneath the post, plus a decent long shot to put us 7-5 up with about 5 minutes to go. Mavs were not beaten yet though, and holed a great long shot to pull back to 7-6 with about 3 minutes left. Tension grew as our defence begged our attack to play safe (keeping the ball and hanging on to our one goal advantage), but the attack were on a roll and kept on hammering away for a final killer goal. And my how they got it! Caroline finished off a well deserved, and beautifully executed running in shot to seal the game with about 1 minute left to play. The whole team celebrated that goal in style: everyone had really put everything into this game, and we had pulled yet another great result out of the bag.

Special mentions go to Amy, who played a stormer in her first full game (making very few mistakes and really getting into the swing of things), and Lucie Maupetit, standing in admirably for us once again when we were one girl short.

Match stats:

Mavs 6 – 8 Dundee KC: Caroline (1), Lucie, Gavin (3), Steven; Mary (1), Amy, Nigel (3), Alan.
MVP: Nigel

Well Done Dundee!

Posted on by
Reply

Two more excellent results in from the weekend…

Ed. City 1 13 – 9 Dundee KC
Ed Uni 4 4 – 12 Dundee KC
Sunday, Feb 19, 2.30pm, St. Leonard’s Games Hall, Edinburgh

The details are a little sketchy at the mo, but it sounds like another great performance against last year’s league champions (City 1), including Steve M’s first ever goal in the SKL. Caroline and Ross both got on the score-sheet in the second fixture (against Uni 4) too, bringing our “first time scorers” list up to 3 for the day. And what’s this? Rachael scored 5! Surely she must get the MVP for that? Well done Rach!

The win against Ed Uni 4 could well prove crucial in deciding the final placings in the SKA’s development league. Keep up the good work, Dundee!

Match stats:

Ed. City 1 13 – 9 Dundee KC : Caroline, Eleanor (?), Gavin (?), Ross; Steven M (1), Alan, Rosie (?), Rachael (?).
MVP: ???

Ed Uni 4 4 – 12 Dundee KC: Caroline (1), Eleanor (1), Gavin (2), Ross (1); Steven M, Alan, Rosie (2), Rachael (5).
MVP: Rachael