By Melina
To keep traditions going, Team Basel organized a trip to the spooky capital of Scotland to participate in the International Korfball Tournament hosted by Edinburgh University. A few Zurich and Lausanne members also joined the Basel force, leading to a total of 12 players (7 female and 5 male) who competed against 32 other teams for the title.
We arrived in Edinburgh on Friday and started the weekend strong by leaving everything on the dance floor of the Three Sisters pub, making our mark as a party force to be reckoned with. On Saturday the day started with a tour around a cloudy, but surprisingly not rainy Edinburgh, led by our local tour guide (a.k.a. yours truly), before getting to the court to face four teams, in 12-minute matches. Games started a bit slow, with a tie against the first and arguably easiest opponent, but then the energy picked up with two outstanding wins! The day ended with another tie in a challenging but very fun game against Holland 2. Although undefeated, we ended 2nd in our Group, behind Bristol, a team we had beaten by 4 goals!! Despite the unlucky ranking we didn’t let it get our spirits down, but instead dressed up fancy and enjoyed a traditional dinner and ceilidh (Scottish dance) with the other teams.
On Day 2, we had to face three more teams and there was no place for error! We started with a comfortable win against Northern Storm, followed by a close win against Edinburgh city thanks to an amazing buzzer beater from Andy! Our final game of the day was against Edinburgh Mavericks, whereby our team made a great effort, and kept the score close for the entire game, but unfortunately lost the match by one goal. This result had us finish the tournament in 8th place, and although we all felt we could have ended higher we still had a great weekend full of team-building, endless fun and great memories!
Finally, we would like to send a special kudos to Inez Trouwborst (participating on behalf of Team Lausanne), for being the top scorer and MVP of the team! 🥳 Team Basel and Zurich should definitely start getting a bit nervous about facing her in the Alp League (I know I am) and potentially organize support groups for victims of her deadly shots. Did this story inspire you to join an International Korfball Tournament? Then read the story below!
