North Downs 2 travelled to Epsom to face the team in second place in the London Premier League with an interesting line up!!

With the loss of a coupe of players over Christmas it seemed this was going to be an extremely tough fixture and Nomads didn’t disappoint. North Downs had to rely on some old friends to step back onto the Korfball pitch to field a team and as a result one our sections had four players who had never played together before.

The match started with Nomads getting their noses in front (2-0) and that score line continued the same for ten minutes with neither attack able to score. North Downs settled down and put in a run of 3 unanswered goals, the game was nicely balanced and scoring opportunities going begging. North Downs were awarded a penalty and up stepped temporary captain Bill who despite much practice recently took a comedy penalty and missed, which brought cheers from him team mates (thanks Bob!!!).

Anyway North Downs scored another two unanswered goals and took a 5-2 lead into half time. The second half continued in much the same vein but Nomads converted a couple of shots to bring the scores to 5-4. North Downs again managed to put some daylight between them and Nomads, but the awarding of a penalty to Nomads could have changed events. The penalty taker stepped up shot and missed but the ref decided that one of our players had put the penalty taker off and let him have a second go and he scored. This rankled the North Downs team and it seemed decisions weren’t going our way today but through tough defending and patient attacking we came away worthy 8-6 winners.

Big thanks to Mark and Susie Slaughter and Linda Simmons for helping out. By my reckoning despite what the league table shows this put North Downs in third place on goal difference. Well done all!!

What can I say about the second team! Another great result 10-5 and again worth noting how far our newest players have come this season. The team spirit is fantastic and everyone is just looking forward to the next game.

Match report by Vicky Goode.

North Downs 2 travelled to Addlestone to face Woking on Sunday, with the threat of relegation still looming. We really needed a win to secure a place in the LDKA Premier Division for another season.

But it wasn't going to be easy - Woking are well ahead of us in the league and recent results generally hadn't gone our way. However, we did (miraculously!) have exactly the same team as the week before, which had seen a shock victory over Bec 3. Could we build on that success and stage another win?

The match started off as a tight and tense affair. They scored one, we scored one - it was nip and tuck until the break when Woking unfortunately were one goal up. So at half time we were 5-4 down.

But we came out storming in the second half, scoring goals in quick succession. We were always in charge and the opposition didn't like it - they started to snap at each other and the number of loose balls increased. Which we were always more than happy to pick up!

Having Ian de la Mothe back in the side is invaluable - he's able to control the game and gives the less experienced players in his section guidance and confidence. Plus those 'Inspector Gadget' arms really annoy the opponents! At the other end of the pitch, the presence of Richard Crabb for the 2nd week in a row really helped to bring that section together into an attacking force to be reckoned with. Mark and Richard scored 7 of the 11 goals, ably assisted by Vicky and Claire Saunders. Even though Vicky (who had been sick 3 times the night before) threatened once or twice to bring up her breakfast. Luckily she restricted herself to a few choice burps!

Some beautiful goals were scored. Perfect long range efforts from Claire Synott, Richard and Ian stunned the crowd, and a very cheeky little spin number from Mark put a smile on everyone's face.

Once again the Claire Synott/Liz combo proved to be unbreachable in defence, with Bill linking the play together in his section to form a quartet to strike fear into Woking hearts. Claire Saunders and Vicky, working together for only the 3rd time, put up a good fight against very experienced girls.

Vicky was unlucky not to receive at least 3 defended calls when she had definitely obeyed the boys instructions to 'go tight' and Claire Saunders kept her opponent pretty much out of the game.

The mood in the camp afterwards was ecstatic - 2 wins in a row, 2 great performances and a team we can all be proud of. Followed by England winning the rugby against France - what a day for sport!

Score: 11 - 8

Goals: Richard (5) Ian (3), Mark (2), Claire Synott (1)