The South Wales Echo featured our recent filming by the BBC with a story which you can see here. Hopefully anyone who is interested will come along to the tournament on August 11th. Well done to Sian for making all this happen.
During the summer, various Dragons have had fairly momentous events, so congratulations are due to …
For the first time in its history, 2 British korfballers have failed drugs tests. As korfball is increasingly taken seriously in Wales, it’s important that players realise that they are liable for testing both in and out of competition. While I don’t think any of us are on EPO or anything like that, be aware that some medications that you might be taking may be on the banned list and you may need to get a Therapeutic Use Exemption - Asthma sufferers in particular may fall into this category.
Advice on Therapeutic Use Exemptions
Further information and links can be found on the EKA website here
Mike Bushell from BBC Breakfast came along with his cameraman Simon (who took several blows from flying balls for his pains) to film our training session with Cardiff City yesterday. A friendly game was played against City and then Mike came on to play and be shown the basic rules.
The programme is due to air as part of one of his sports reports on Saturday 28th July, which run at 7.35, 8.35 and 9.35 am.
As is traditional, the Bristol tournament was played under hot sunshine, and Dragons were optimistic of retaining the title they won last summer (well, a team wearing Dragons tops won last summer, though lots of the players were from City!) with a squad of: Rachel, Helen, Ang, Ruth, hey boyfriend Stu - who plays National League for Bec, Gareth, Chris, Josh and Taff.
The first game was against Cardiff City, who had brought a large squad, primarily consisting of second team players. Games against them are always competitive though, and Dragons had to work for a 3-0 victory.
The first summer tournament of the year was accompanied by its usual corollary, the unholy early morning departure. The Dragons squad was led by Sian, the only first team regular, plus Julie, Amy, James and Josh from the seconds. We were supplemented by Ruth, making her Dragons debut plus guests: Jack from Cardiff Uni, Stuart from Bristol City, Kevin from Bristol Uni and Hannah from Horfield, We are equal opportunity ringer employers!
As forecast, the weather in Manchester was glorious, with just enough breeze to prevent us from completely overheating. The pitch was OK, though we soon learnt that the grass was too long to effectively use bounce passes. With 24 teams competing, the group games were only 15 minutes long, meaning that tense, low-scoring games were frequent. (more…)
In their debut tournament following official ratification by the International Korfball Federation of their independent status, Wales went to Luxembourg and won the Eurobowl, finishing ahead of France, Ireland, Scotland, the host nation and Sweden.
The Welsh team featured Lee and Angharad from Cardiff Dragons as well as 5 other players from Welsh clubs, along with a sprinkling of National League players. Congratulations to all concerned on a great achievement.
The IKF report (along with a photo of the winning team) can be found here.
April saw our club awards night and the league awards, in which several Dragons players gained recognition. Only 1 Dragons player managed to make it into the team of the year, compared to 4 for Bristol City which shows how well we played as a team to beat them. Twice.
Full winners and more photos below.
After the frivolity of the Awards night yesterday, it’s the hard graft of the AGM next, at Cardiff Uni Student Union, Monday 30th, 7-9 (though hopefully it won’t take that long).
Outdoor training starts on May 15th on Tuesday evenings at Howells School, Llandaff (directions here for anyone who hasn’t been there before), 7-8.30.
The last training session of the indoor season will be Monday, March 26th.
After a break for April and May, we’ll resume training outdoors at Howells School in Llandaff, on Tuesday evenings - the exact details are still to be finalised. We’ll still be having socials and potentially some friendly games in the meantime.
Final league tables are below
