Colchester Chronicle

New Year, new you.

What about korfball?

Yep, it’s time that The Chronic caught up once again with Colchester’s first korfball team to find out what has been happening along Hawthorn Avenue since our last chat with Ben Hall back in October.

You may remember how Ben was incredibly ambitious about setting up the first korfball club in Sunny Colch. All he needed was a mix of sporting / social males and females.

Simple, right?

It seems that way, what with the club now having the name of the Colchester Wildcats, a player pool to cover a couple of teams and a website as well.

All they need now is some opposition…

As a recap, korfball is a mixed Dutch sport with similarities with both basketball and netball. The unique nature of the game is that each team must contain four male and four female players. Boys mark boys, girls on girls [yeah...] and then it all gets a little mixed up afterwards in the pub.

It seems that korfball in Colchester has been growing since we last spoke with Ben. Three months on, and how did those early taster sessions work out?

“The taster sessions were a fantastic success. Beforehand I was a bit nervous about the numbers that might turn up as there wasn’t that many people confirmed. But we had 16 turn up to the first session and 15 to the second, which is a great turn out. There was a really great atmosphere at the sessions and everyone was really enjoying themselves.”

Four boys, four girls per team – it doesn’t take a mathematical (or blogging) genius to work out that the Wildcats have more or a less a couple of teams already in place. Which must make it slightly easier for those end of training session friendly games.

And so who has been coming along to korfball at the Colchester Academy?

“The current make-up of our club is about three quarters beginners and one quarter experienced players. The male to female ratio is heavily female biased! So we are looking for some boys for the girls to play (Korfball) with!”

Which shouldn’t be too hard to find…

Anyone around Sunny Colch who has been involved in setting up a new sporting team knows that it isn’t all about jumpers for goalposts at Castle Park, or even hunting down korfball posts in Colchester. A club needs a little structure, a lot of organisation and plenty of socials.

What has been happening behind the scenes in Colchester?

“We are in the midst of creating our identity. We began life as Colchester Korfball Club with a view to let the club decide the name. So we are now Colchester Wildcats Korfball Club. Within the last few days we got our logo, which is really fantastic and created by a member of the club.

We are now deciding our team colours. After that is done we will be able to order in our team shirts. Did I mention our website went online a few days ago as well! Other than that we have had a couple of club socials and are lining up our first matches. Our first time on the pitch as Wildcats will be at a tournament in Cambridge at the end of January!”

Brilliant.

An away day out in Cambridge to represent Britain’s Oldest Recorded in the korfball world, and then hopefully a social?

“The social side is going really well. We have had two socials in the lead up to Christmas and have another social next week. The mixed sex nature of Korball makes it an extremely sociable sport. We also have a very friendly club in Colchester Wildcats so the social side of things has built up very naturally.”

But any sporting team wanting to survive now needs to think about legacy [URGH] and sustainability [URGH, URGH.] Which is why it is so great to hear how the Wildcats are already looking towards the future and looking to train a youth team within the town:

“The really big behind the scenes project is the Sportivate funded sessions. We have organised eight of our training sessions specifically to allow 14 – 21 year olds to start playing Korfball. They will get their first two sessions for free and then the rest of these sessions at a heavily discounted rate.

Sportivate has funded this project, which is Olympic legacy funding designed to get young people into sport. These sessions start during mid-February and we are extremely excited to be attracting young people to Korfball.”

Sport, socials, MIXED teams – still not sold? Korfball is an extremely energetic sport, but it is also accessible at all levels.

Ben adds:

“Korfball really is the most fantastic sport. It is mixed sex which lends itself to being very inclusive…everyone can play! Because of this inclusiveness, Korfball clubs tend to be very social places where you can meet new friends easily.

This isn’t to take away from the sporting side of Korfball. It is fast-paced, great exercise and a game which really promotes team play. At its highest levels it is highly tactical and played internationally. It really offers something for everyone.”

Tempted?

Training resumes for the Colchester Wildcats at 8pm – 9pm on 15th January at the Colchester Academy along Hawthorn Avenue. It will then continue at the same time every Tuesday.

“To get involved in with Colchester Wildcats just turn up to one of our training sessions with trainers and sensible clothing for sports. Check out our website, Facebook and Twitter page if you want more details. Or send us an email to colchesterkorfball@live.com. We would love you to contact us if you have any questions and even more delighted to have new people along to try out Korfball.”

Today Colchester, tomorrow (ish) Cambridge.

The CRAZY world of korfball.

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