Report by Toby...Last Sunday saw Bucks 3 contest two more SMKA league games, against Mighty Oaks and Roos.

Report by James....Great news, MK Bucks have qualified for the second round of the EKA cup!

Yesterdays replayed fixture concluded with a thrilling fight back from two goals down, to go two goals up and finally win by one goal.

 

Starting with a three goal lead, the Bucks quickly gave up their advantage letting in a few quick goals and allowing the Notts players time to shoot and collect at will. With no shot clock, and a few very tall players, Nottingham were able to recycle easily and it was only a matter of time before their shots would start falling. However Milton Keynes played a very intense defensive game, covering and communicating well preventing any easy shots being taken. The scores levelled out and Milton Keynes matched them to half time. The previous fixture saw a golden goal victory for Nottingham so it was clear this would be a tight game, but our attacks had faltered somewhat. John Timman made changes bringing on Suzanne and Cam to change up the attack and counter the height advantage. Cam was given strict instructions to win the game. And win it he did. Ali paved the way with three superbly taken goals, including a good trick shot from the feed, making amends for her 12 missed running ins during the previous match. Cam followed this with three goals in 15 minutes, taking over penalty duties from James. Five minutes remaining and Bucks were two goals down, 8 vs 10. Ali and Cam started scoring and we were soon level, the crowds on the side line were settling in for the inevitable golden goal… No need. Draw wouldn’t be good enough for us, two rapid goals knocked the stuffing out of Nottingham , who managed to claw one back, but they had left it too late. Final whistle, cue shouts and cheers and the need to book the hall for the second round match against National League team KwiekVicta. Kick off this Sunday 12noon at Courtside.

 

Superb performances include an expert demonstration of collect from Hannah, and very tight defending from Pete, who made his opponent look slow.

Line up:

John, Long Paul (2), Ali (3), Chelsie

James (1), Pete, Caz, Hannah

Subs

Suzanne, Cam (3)

Report by Toby....Yesterday saw Bucks 3 take on both Mighty Oaks and Walton Rogues in SMKA division 1, having already got one win on the board at the start of October, when we beat MK Roos.

 

Oaks have a reputation for being physical, but also athletic, and have improved their game steadily in recent seasons.  We were still confident of a win, however, and scored a rapid five goals without a reply.  Whilst Oaks did get on the scoresheet, we kept focused and emerged convincing 13-3 winners. 

 

The second match, against Rogues, was expected to be much tougher – we beat them narrowly in last season’s cup final, and they’re probably got better since then.  We knew the match would be all about their four danger players – Adam, Chelsie, Ed and Megan – and that we’d win or lose it depending on how well we shut them out; playing in pairs and switching at the right time was very much the game plan.  We got off on the wrong foot, conceding two early goals, and struggled to get into much of a routine; when we got to 5-2 down, there was a risk of us getting annoyed with ourselves and each other, and letting the game slip away.  In credit to the team, we kept our heads up and pulled the game back, in fact taking a one goal lead – but Rogues didn’t give up either, and got themselves back ahead despite some excellent defending from Bucks.  The game finished 8-8, which was probably a fair result – there were outstanding performances from Adam P in both collect and defence; from Kirsty in dealing with the significant threat from Chelsie; and from Nov in casually notching up half of our goals by himself!

 

Overall, it wasn’t a bad performance from us – we defended well (Rogues have been scoring at will so far this season, with 16 being their lowest score prior to our match), but struggled to take our chances in attack.  That’s a similar story to last year, but with the added complication of there now being another team in SMKA that can advantage of it!

We played two action-packed preseason friendlies against the Oxfordshire Select side on Saturday, winning the first match 9-4, as we carried on preparations for the regional league campaigns.

Coach John reported that this was an excellent practise session for all teams involved. The spirit of the day was good and I believe that most of us enjoyed this. He added "I saw some training exercises being executed but also noticed that we still have some work to do. We need to do this more!"

We are still looking for players, especially men (but women are welcome too!) for our local league teams - beginners are welcome! Have a look around the site if you want more info.

Preseason Training will begin on Thursday 18 August and last six weeks until the start of the season in October.

 

Pre-season will consist of six weeks training interspersed by two friendlies against an Oxford and either London or South West team and a team BBQ/ training/ AGM discussion day.

 

The squads will be picked in advance of the October matches and all players will have the chance to demonstrate their ability and determination.

 

These sessions will welcome everyone. Those wishing to play regional league are encouraged to turn up. Training with Bucks will not remove your eligibility to play for any club in the SMKA. 

Day was split in half with morning rankings determining afternoon pool structure. Bucks started cold despite the temperatures. Only one or two players were on their game. Although we took plenty of shots, had lots of running in chances and recalled old tricks to win the odd penalty or two, we defended poorly and consistently let in early goals. In a ten minute game, you can’t do that and win.

Suffice to say we lost two games we should have won and ended up bottom of the group. Never losing by more than one was relatively commendable.

Bit of sunbathing, a burger and strawberries and cream for those savvy enough to pack a lunch we returned facing all the other loses who’d spent the morning getting beaten. Our first game started late so we were able to see some of the teams who had qualified for the higher pools. Both Emma and Mandy commented on the terrible quality of the korfball on display before mumbling the end of their sentences, realising all the teams on display had finished the morning stronger than us…

Darren had made me promise not to try and poach Chelsie so no discussions were had directly, but after the previous summer recruitment resulting in a season of pretty bad results, it was thought a strong afternoon of korfball would not hurt our case. So two objectives were sought. Firstly, to get Charlene shooting, she’d worked a lot of space in the morning, but refused to take the glory of scoring. When Toby, who appears to also despise the joy of scoring, you need to take responsibility yourself. And secondly to win every game convincingly.

First match, first blood MK Bucks. Anyone who has seen Suzanne play knows she is quality. And she proved it, shooting from miles out, running round her player with ease. Quality performance. More support could have seen more goals from her. Mandy saw to that, berating anyone who wouldn’t pass to a girl. Girls win games. “Cough…bull…ahem…it”

Great support play and great shooting from the boys was the order of the day. Pete’s lightening movement bewildered his defenders, opening up a number of outrageous opportunities for one handed running in shots. Toby ended his 0/27 running in streak. Penalties were won with the greatest of ease showing age and experience is no substitute for youthful vitality. A sentiment supported by the tricky little 65 year who taught Emma a thing or two.

Superb support play and pretty much a 100% afternoon running in record saw Chelsie closing in on the top goal scoring title for the afternoon. She was on fire and helped carry the other division. Bit of a worry, so through the cunning placement of a puppet manager, Caz, who travelled the whole way to support and stand on the side line with a clip board desperately trying to even out some pretty daft tan lines, quickly subbed her off to allow the chief penalty taker claw back some goals. Well done Pete on winning them.

Four afternoon matches, four thrilling victories taking maximum points. Best result: 11vs2 thrashing. Large cup won. All players eventually happy with their performance. Lessons learned? Shoot from closer and surround yourself with better players.

Ready for Korfstock, ish.

Our second team, the Uber Bucks, are South Midlands local champions for the second year running!

This was after wins in the final two matches. Thanks to Toby for the report!

Hatters were without Beth and Tom, two of their more influential players, but even so we still had the likes of Charlie, Hugh and Rachel to contend with – and Hatters proved in the first minute that they were going for it by scoring a nice running-in shot in their first attack. We responded quickly, and then went on a good run of goal-scoring to open up a 7-1 lead. Goals six and seven were almost identical long shots from Pete, which must have made his defender think twice about the choice to give him a bit of space and play for the rebound! Hatters put a bit more pressure on after the break, and closed the gap to 9-5, but we managed to get back into our stride and scored five unanswered goals to effectively seal the match. Sensing a big scoreline, though, we kept pushing all the way to the end, with Katie getting a long shot to bring up 20, by far our highest ever score against Hatters! Nov finished it off with a flourish, sinking a ridiculously casual shot from the half-way line! We ran out 21-8 winners against the second place team in the competition, which was a great way to wrap up the league!

Our final match was against City, and it was the challenge of relaxing and enjoying it, but still focusing enough to win. Perhaps inevitably, we struggled to play in quite the same way as the first game, but we still defended well to limit them to just five goals. We got 12 ourselves, including some very cheeky poacher’s goals from Kirsty, who was in great form around the post throughout the afternoon. Whilst the result was academic, it was nice to end with a win!

Due to the bad weather, Tornadoes 2 were unable to travel from Kent to play the 2nd team this Sunday (December 5th) so that match has been postponed to a later date.

Instead, the 2nd and 3rd teams (Uber Bucks and Star Bucks) will play each other in the SMKA match delayed from a couple of weeks ago. This will follow on from the Star Bucks match against Mighty Oaks, a league match brought forward so that we could use the hall time after Hatters were unable to field a team against Oaks this weekend.

The Uber Bucks (our second team) got their first win of the season, with an 8-3 victory over Luton Hatters.

Although this was in the local SMKA league, it was still revenge for the defeat at Luton in the South East Regional League a couple of weeks before, especially since Hatters fielded 8 of the 10 players who had been involved in the regional match.

The team was Simon (2), Toby (2), Emma (2), Kirsty (1), Katie (1), Pete/Paul W, Mandy and Adam.

This was also revenge for the 18-11 defeat that Hatters had just handed to Star Bucks (our third team) immediately before! Despite losing it was still a strong goals total.
The Star Bucks team was Jon P (6), Steve (1), James Steward (2), Paul D (2)/James Sloan, Charlene, Sam, Ellie and Caz/Emma

Unfortunately, the first team's losing run went on, narrowly losing 10-14 to Norwich Ice despite being level at half-time and drawing level midway through the second half with some great shooting from John T. Surely the win will come soon...

Good evening Korfballing Folk,
 
Another social completed, so time to update your calendars with the next dates!
 
Up next is the MKX Quiz Night at Hazeley School on 19th November, 19:00 - 22:00.  £4 per person, as well as cheap bar and hot food.  As there's a fairly early finish time, we may head into town afterwards.  I think we've certainly got one team, but it would be great if more could join us!
 
This will be followed by the Christmas Party on Friday 10th December.  Always a great night in our social calender, this year it will be held in our Club local 'The Eight Bells'.  The 3 course meal will cost £16.95 person and am am collecting a £5 deposit to book your place.  I will distribute the menu as soon as I have a copy, but it's a fairly standard menu.
 
Planning into the future, I am organising a fundraiser after the January payday on Saturday 5th February.  Put the date in your diaries now!  The main aim is to raise funds for club hoodies, so lets get friends along too!  If anyone can offer any help with organisation I would appreciate it!
 
And finally, planning the end of season bash, put Saturday 7th May in your diaries now!
 
Carolyn