Yes – there is a sport called Korfball and it’s probably the first time you’re hearing about it. Our Korfball club has been making huge strides since we started in September at the University of Buckingham, and I am truly excited to tell you all about our first term as a club.
So, what is Korfball? Korfball is a mixed gender sport which is relatively new to the University of Buckingham. It is an exciting and action-packed game with a blend of both basketball and netball rules. The University of Buckingham now has a club who have been playing the game since September and even though it can feel like a difficult concept to grasp at first, as soon as one gives it a try, it becomes so addictive, and Korfball can develop the ability to make that person want to play more and more.
In terms of a quick and simple rundown of how to play Korfball. There are 2 sides of the court with 4 players on each side (2 boys and 2 girls). On one side of 4 players there will an attacking side while the other will be the defending side. The aim is to score as many korfs (basically shots through the top of the basket) as possible and every 2 korfs the attacking side will switch with the defending side and vice versa. This goes on till the end of the match. Apart from the ability to score (which everyone can always improve on) anyone can play korfball making it a highly inclusive and friendly sport according to our club members and as the only mixed gender sport it allows people of diverse backgrounds to come together to play as one team irrelevant of their skills or experience.
Our Korfball club has seen some massive improvements since we first started a couple of months ago. We had our freshers fair stall in September which piqued a lot of people’s interest. We had many people come and visit our stall and have a go at shooting into a mini-Korfball post. We then continued freshers with free trials to our Korfball sessions which had a great turnout with many staying on to continue playing and we now currently have over 15 regular members playing Korfball each week with many of them also being part of our league team.
Before we became an official club, we took part in a 4v4 charity tournament in the summer where we played against 4 different teams. In our first 2 matches our team’s skill was not able to keep up with the other teams and we lost both matches. Our third match was the turning point in the competition with our team winning by a landslide and leading us to then take another victory in our fourth and final game which allowed us to finish on 3rd place. This was an amazing achievement as many of our players had never even played Korfball before that tournament and yet, we still managed to score some amazing shots.
Our University Korfball club is also tied with Buckingham Royals Korfball Club who have been helping us to train and grow as a community. They have also allowed us to play in the South Midlands Korfball Division 1 League, where we have already played 5 matches as UoB Royals which gives our members who are looking for some competition more chances to play. Whilst our first game in September as a new team and club ended in a loss of 26 - 6, this did not destroy our spirit and allowed us instead to learn from it about what we need to work on and our individual strengths and how we work in our separate groups including how we can change up the pairings between players. In terms of our most recent matches, we have now lost the last 2 games by 1 point, both in the last 5 minutes of the game showing how we have now adapted to the competitiveness of the league and the fact that we are now able to compete at the level needed by the league, showing how much our players have grown as a team over the last 7 weeks.
Some of our players have also shown amazing dedication and skills allowing them to continue to higher level leagues and matches including the Oxford Korfball Association league where we have some of our players accompanying Royals’ 1st team and helping them by playing and scoring in these matches. Our players not only helped Royals secure the win but also showed great tenacity when it came to shooting and defending. We also had a few players playing against other clubs including Harrow Vultrix Korfball club where our players used a variety of skills that they have accumulated including the use of a feed and the running in shot to counter their opponents defence and then showed great switching and defensive skills. This Sunday we also had some our players accompany Royals who were playing against Bucks’ first team. While Royals lost the match 14 – 16 our players showed great skill in getting the rebound and some good defending.
Recently, in November, we have also taken part in the Buckingham Sports Union Social Media Challenge. This allowed us to create some amazing content including memes of our members from training, quizzes about Korfball, training pictures and videos, current worldwide tournaments including those leading up to next year’s World Korfball Championships, baby pictures quiz, shooting challenges followed by posts about different shot types and reels about our matches including some funny moments from training which was enjoyed by all our members and Instagram followers. We started this competition with a solid lead in first place in the initial week with 60 points and we then maintained the lead week after week ending with 350 points by the end of the month crowning us with 1st place.
To finish off the term we then had 2 socials planned for our members. Our first social was a Korfball Breakfast which was a great success with our members thoroughly enjoying the time they spent bonding and eating a hearty breakfast. We also had a games night social which followed on after our final Korfball session of the year for our current and graduating members. In this final session we played exhibition matches and 4v4 games in different mixed teams. For our social, we organised a chill night in the OTM Refractory after many of our members had just finished their exams which allowed them to destress and have some time off. We had some friendly competition where we played some Mario Kart and Ultimate Smash Bros and many of our members seemed to enjoy it. We also had certificates for our members achievements over the past few months of being a club including most goals scored in matches, best boy and girl defenders, most improved player and many more. We also had prizes for our Instagram quiz challenge, this was a quiz where we had our members answer a series of questions about Korfball and its rules.
We now look forward to the fast approaching new year with many, many more things in the works for our Korfball club including more league matches which will allow us to wear our brand-new Korfball kit which we are all looking forward to using including getting some personalised ones for our members to use, and some other special events and socials including a special tournament and some friendly matches with other universities. We are also looking forward to seeing many new faces coming to try our Korfball club in the following year.
If you have any questions, please email 2010145@buckingham.ac.uk or message us on our Instagram and make sure to follow us for updates and information about Korfball.
We hope everyone has a great holiday and a lovely new year!
Josh, Korfball Club President