UEA’s First Team Qualify for Nationals

On Saturday 24th November UEA’s first team went to Birmingham to compete in the Korfball British Universities Southern Tournament, a regional qualification tournament that brings the best teams together from the South of UK, to battle it out for eight places at the BUSA Nationals. The winners of the Nationals (hosted by UEA this year) will be crowned UK Student Champions.

Back Row: Ami (coach), Adam, Paul, Jimmy, Tom, Alex, Swaraj, Danny (coach's fella and music man) Front Row: Debs, Jess, Steph, Katie (captain), Hannah, Becca

The first match started nervously with Reading taking the lead thanks to a questionable penalty before UEA first equalised with a goal from Jimmy Seymour before taking the lead with a penalty from club president Paul Ashworth. Despite their dominance, UEA weren’t able to add any more goals to their tally, but they came away as victors. First team coach Ami Broughton stated: ‘they got the job done.’

The second match of the day was a totally different affair with UEA struggling to get a foothold in the game. Before long UEA were 4-0 down after some brilliant korfball from Birmingham but to their credit UEA pegged the score back to 4-2 with another from Jimmy Seymour and a running in goal from Steph Allen. A last minute goal from Birmingham meant the game end 5-2 but this was to be the only defeat for a fired up UEA side.

Some clever korfball confused Cambridge early on with Steph Allen adding to her tournament tally. Despite an equaliser from Cambridge, UEA soon restored their lead with a cheeky goal from Paul Ashworth, his second of the day. Despite a bombardment of shots from UEA’s attacking division there were no more goals, UEA chalking up their second victory of the day.

UEA went into their final group game needing a 9 goal victory to qualify for the semi-final, a task made even more difficult when Cardiff took the lead. However, Steph Allen once again scored to get UEA up and running. A change of ends saw Paul Ashworth score a penalty before captain Katie Ladd chipped in with her first goal of the day. The girls in the attacking division frequently got the better of their opponents but were unable to capitalise and add to the score. The victory meant, though, that they had qualified for the national tournament in March.

At the end of the group stage UEA, Cambridge and Birmingham had all won 3 games meaning that the final standings would be settled by goal difference. Unfortunately, this meant third place for UEA and 5th place at best.

The final match saw UEA face Aston, both sides keen to finish on a high. An impressive long shot from Steph Allen, her fourth of the tournament, opened the scoring and led to a massive cheer from the watching crowd. However, UEA were quickly on the back foot and three goals in quick succession left them staring down the barrel at a defeat. However, a timeout was called where coach Ami’s wise words proved just the ticket. An invigorated UEA soon seized control with the goals starting to pour in. Two further long shots from Steph Allen, one from Jimmy Seymour before two more goals from Katie Ladd and a goal from Alex Edwards meant UEA had won their last game, and in style. The 7-3 score line made for good reading and confirmed UEA’s position in the top half.

All in all, despite one defeat to the eventual winners of the tournament UEA played superbly for the most part, and the signs are good for the National Tournament at our very own Sportspark later this year – see you there!

So the final standings of the tournament were as follows:

1. Birmingham
2. London
3. Oxford
4. Cambridge
5. UEA
6. Aston
7. Kent
8. Bristol
9. Cardiff
10. Reading

The Nationals take place on the first weekend in March.

Thanks to Hannah Driver for writing the report and Harry Low for making it sound a lot better!