A very wet and windy morning session and treacherous playing conditions did little to dampen the enthusiasm of the six players* who went along to Cotham RFC on Saturday to represent Oxford City at Bristol City's korfball tournament.
The tournament offered us the opportunity to play against some teams we don't often get a chance to compete against. Whilst the morning weather conditions made flowing korfball more or less impossible (a cool start soon gave way to a gusty westerly wind and a watery deluge) we competed well in every match, grabbing a victory against Leicester and performing crebitably against other opponents including Manchester Warriors. If memory serves, we only lost one game in the morning session, although apparently that was enough to see us in the lower half of the draw for the afternoon session.
(One casualty of the conditions was the club gazebo. Abjectly useless as it was in full summer (it didn't provide the cool shelter you would hope for from the beating sun and if there was an equivalent of Kavos for insects, the ceiling of the gazebo probably would have been it), we found it to be equally ineffective in adverse conditions. It was a total bitch to erect once the wind got up and rather than keeping out the rain, it managed to defy physics to funnel the water inwards, ensuring that everything within got soaked - chairs, bags, clothes, people. The final straw came when it began to blow away, the flimsy guys, pegs and superstructure putting up little resistance to the elements. The executive decision was taken that the gazebo should be jettisoned, its final resting place a large portable bin. Maybe it is still there. Frankly, who cares? R.I.P. Gazebo)
Lunch offered an opportunity to dry off (once the rain thankfully stopped) and although the wind did not abate, at least the sun came out in the afternoon. A very unfortunate loss on penalties to Bristol City was followed by a win over Farnborough Jets and we were by no means disgraced, played some good korfball in trying circumstances and defended valiantly at times.
In short, a good day's korfball.
*Our thanks must also go to all of the other players who represented us on Saturday - particular thanks must go to Lucy and Victor from Basingstoke who played valiantly for us all day.
