So, another year came, and another year went. And everyone’s still smiling; even Joel, who’s knee put itself forward to win the ‘worst injury of the day’ award.

Fourteen teams turned out for Dundee Day, v6.0, including the newest, youngest team in Scotland (Dundee’s Yunguns), and an enthusiastic scratch team cobbled together at the last minute.  Many thanks to all the spare players from Lancaster, Glasgow and Dundee for pulling that off.

The weather finally got its act together too, with nothing more than a couple of light showers left after the previous day’s total washout. Weirdly, some of us even managed to get a little dose of sunburn; I’m not sure that I actually noticed the sun, but it must have poked its head out for at least part of the day.

And the korfball? Well, that all seemed to go just fine. Mavs A came out clear winners for the third year in a row, with strong performances from Mavs 1, Lancaster’s Alumni (SAS Ligership), Manchester Hawks and St. Andrew’s Sinners. Dundee’s Dragons put in a few good performances too, comfortably finishing top of the 4 local teams. At the other end of the table, Dundee’s Dugongs narrowly improved on their stunning performances in previous years by actually winning some matches, just edging out the Yunguns on head-to-head results. Dundee Dolphins came out on top of some very close mid-table battles with Saints, Saints Alumni, Lancs Uni and GlasClyde (a jovial mixed-up bunch from Glasgow and StrathClyde University).

More wonderful photos here (thanks Mary!)

Several people got their first tastes of refereeing, and did a great job too from what I saw. Many thanks to the more experienced refs for shadowing the newbies too – this is a great thing to see and much appreciated by those of us with one eye on development.

Biggest winners of the day?: Macmillan and Orchid, the two nominated charities from our raffle and lunch-time competitions.

Worst injury of the day : undoubtedly Joel, from Lanc’s Alumni.

Best medic: diplomatically shared between Rod F. and Paul S.

Best burgers: the Fleming family

Best cake: impossible to tell, so diplomatically shared between Terri, Anna, Kat, Caroline, Lesley, Fi, Steph and the McHugh family.

Best tent-building: shared between umpteen members of the club

Best pitch taping: Eleanor, without a doubt.

Best handwriting: Adam (well done Steph, he’s a keeper).

Best long-shot (M/F/junior): Andy Cowton, Rosie Lloyd and Kate Austin.

Killer queen: Ben Fleming.

Longest journey: Questionable, but probably Mike Holdcroft from Newcastle-under-Lyme (Mike seems to have spent many hours criss-crossing the UK in search of Dundee this year. Hopefully someone can sort him out with a nice sat nav next time anyone lets him out).

Pool A Results

Pool B Results

Final Placing Results

And finally, a word (or rather picture) of thanks to the local companies that sponsored our charity raffle:

Jollys

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), email tourny@dundee.korfball.org.uk. or see the official tournament invite for more details.

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 – a band of volunteers to staff the day-long BBQ and blow the full-time horn would be particularly useful. 😉

* As in previous years, Dundee Day is being 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. You should contact Saints directly (korfball@saints-sport.com) if you want to enter the Beach Tournament on the Saturday.

Dundee Day 2015 – photo courtesy of Michael Holligan

Dundee Korfball Club hosted the biggest event in their history on Sunday, May 24. Sixteen teams of adults and two teams of juniors battled it out for some impressive new silverware on the astroturf at Dawson Park in Broughty Ferry. Visiting teams came from as far away as Staffordshire (Castle), Lancaster (3 teams for the second year in succession!) and Newcastle-upon-Tyne (Northern Storm), as well as every korfball club in Scotland (Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth, St. Andrews and Dundee). Each team played seven 20-25 minute games spread evenly across the day, with results determining pool positions through three stages of the competition. Most games were hotly contested affairs, with score ranging from 1-0 to 7-5. At the end of the day, the team from Edinburgh Mavericks came out on top, just pipping Edinburgh City on head-to-head results after the two teams had tied on points. The three mixed-ability teams from the Dundee fared slightly less well, but thoroughly enjoyed themselves and won several games. In the end though, two of them ended up battling it out for the wooden spoon, with Dundee Dugongs just losing out to Dundee Dolphins.

In the junior competition, Dundee Phoenix beat Perth by 2 goals to nil, but everyone was a winner: the ethos of the game at this level is very much just to get fit and have fun.

A collection of hi-res photos from the event are available on-line on the club’s Picassa page

Final placings

1 – Edinburgh Mavericks
2 – Edinburgh City
3 – Saint Andrews Alumni
4 – Castle 1 (Staffordshire)
5 – Edinburgh University 2
6 – Lancaster University 2
7 – Lancaster University 1
8 – Edinburgh University 1
9 – Saint Andrews University
10 – Glasgow
11 – Dundee Dragons
12 – Castle 2 (Staffordshire)
13 – Lancaster University Alumni
14 – Northern Storm (Newcastle-upon-Tyne)
15 – Dundee Dolphins
16 – Dundee Dugongs

Forget the weather: it’s bound to brighten up by next weekend, because as Half Man Half Biscuit once sang, “Korfball’s Coming to Town“.

This year’s (fourth) edition of DKCs annual Summer Tournament, “Dundee Day”, has attracted a record entry of 16 adult teams, who will be battling it out on the astroturf in Dawson Park from 10:30am to 4:30pm. It will also see us introducing a half-hour event for juniors, and potentially their parents and guardians, at around 12:40pm. Full details are available in the Dundee Day Information Pack.

Anyone who is willing to help us to run the clubs biggest event to date should make themselves known to Nigel or Mary as soon as possible. We will need lots of helpers on the day, and lots of cakes too. You don’t even need to like korfball to be a good helper – a band of volunteers to staff the day-long BBQ and blow the full-time horn would be particularly useful. 😉

Kinnoull Primary School from Perth have been crowned the Scottish Schools Open korfball champions following a narrow victory over Dunbarney Primary, from Bridge of Earn.

The championship matches constituted the main event of a broader Festival of Korfball held at Dundee’s International Sport Centre on Saturday 21^st June.  The festival was Scotland’s contribution to the 2014 “Worldwide Korfball Match”, which saw teams from across the globe participating in a wide array of korfball-based activities.

The event also formed part of SportDundee’s Commonwealth Games Challenge, a local initiative that challenged Tayside children to sample a broad array of sports over the weeks leading up to the 2014 Games in Glasgow.

Korfball is a sport of Dutch origin with similarities to netball and basketball.  Teams of four male and four female players- each able only to mark their own sex- attempt to score goals by throwing a ball through a korf- a basket 3.5m high with no backboard.  Players constantly rotate between attacking and defending, preventing positional specialism.

The 21 participating schoolchildren–drawn from the ranks of around half a dozen schools- were initially split into teams of 5-6 for a round robin of friendly matches, before being put through their paces in a series of training exercises by volunteer coaches from Dundee Korfball Club.  The championship finale was split over two games, with Kinnoull triumphing 7-6 on aggregate, winning one match 4-2 and succumbing to a narrow 4-3 loss in the other.  Both teams were supported by a handful of players from Blairgowrie and Dundee junior clubs, and Auchterhouse Primary School.

Attendees were also treated to a demonstration match between Dundee Korfball Club and a team composed of players drawn from the Rest of Scotland, while a handful of parents gamely volunteered to try the sport for themselves in another friendly match.

The Scottish Schools Open was first held in 2013, with Fife’s Lawhead Primary emerging victorious.  This year’s event marked the culmination of an extensive programme of korfball coaching provided in schools by Nigel Cooper, Secretary of the Scottish Korfball Association (SKA).   Graham Robertson, Chair of the SKA, praised the good turnout of children and the Festival’s positive impact on not only the children, but also the adult volunteers.

“Having attended myself I found my enthusiasm for the sport being reinvigorated by the infectiousness of the local participants and those committed members of Dundee Korfball Club”.

The Scottish Korfball Association and Dundee Korfball Club would like to thank SportDundee for funding this year’s Festival of Korfball.  In addition thanks are extended to the many schools and teachers who welcomed korfball into their curricula over the last few months, especially Suzie Bee (Kinnoulll Primary School) and Hillary Whittaker (Dunbarney Primary School).  Finally, the SKA would like to thank the many volunteers from Dundee, Glasgow and Edinburgh City korfball clubs who assisted with the Festival’s organisation, and whose tireless dedication ensured the success of the day.

Dundee Korfball Club currently runs junior sessions in Dundee (Thursdays 1730 – 1830) and Blairgowrie (Saturdays 1000 – 1100), as well as a satellite club at Birkhill Primary School (Tuesdays 1530 – 1630).  For more information about these sessions, please contact dundee@korfball.org.uk.

Copy: Michael Nicholson

Photos: Mary Cooper

more photos available here