Only two games for Nomads teams in the London Leagues today, both against Croydon and both comfortable. The thirds, well marshalled by player/coach Terry, cruised to a 15-4 win courtesy of a clear advantage in shooting power across the team and the Sixth team saw a 9-4 win with a debut goal from Reece, goals from Pete & Zoe, an audacious Tom Stockwell long shot and somehow four goals from an absolutely dire display of shooting from Nick Williams.

The Under 16's kicked off their season with a fine 20-2 win over Scorpions, the extra years of experience (in some cases Squad and London League experience) meant that a win was always on the cards against a younger Scorpions side but as with anything, you still have to impress with the manner of your win and with coaches Terry & Ean utilising their full squad the vociferous home crowd had plenty to cheer about.

Come on you reds!

After a battling and hard fought first half, with both sides trading single goal leads, trying to get a foothold in the game, the first half finished 6-6, a low score and but one that reflected the half well. No side appearing to be the best and too many shots finding ways to bounce of the rim of the korf rather than through it.

However, as in Nottingham, the reds came out all guns blazing and took a decisive 11-7 lead early in the second half, our top boys finding their rhythm after a sketchy first halves shooting and Nomads pulled away into what you would hope was a comfortable lead but in Korfball, this is never the case. If you can quickly score five goals, the opposition probably can too but with the loss of a three goal lead in Nottingham fresh in the minds of the Nomads players they battled hard to stay ahead

Although Bec had the score back to within a single goal at one point, they were wasteful with posssesion at key moments with some uncharachteristically poor passing seeing the ball fly off the court and back into red hands, relieving the pressure and given Nomads a chance to add to their goal tally and stay in front.

With time running out for the team in Yellow, Nomads stretched the lead to 17-14 and although there was just enough time for Bec to recreate the nightmare of Nottingham's late comeback, they failed and Nomads held on for that first win back at the top of British Korfball to the joy of the team and the assembled Nomads masses, some of whom are seriously considering adding a health warning to the first team fixture list!

The two points added to the points gained from the draws with Mitcham and Nottingham put Nomads up to 6th place ahead of Kwiek and Norwich Knights.

The reds travel to Kwiek for their next game and although their only win was a 10-9 victory over Norwich Knights all their defeats ahave been by small margins and their goals come from seasoned youth internationals with scoring records that compare favourably with the HSKL's other top players.

Nomads 2 battled to a 14-14 draw with Bec 2 with a young side that settled into 2nd team action as if they'd been playing together a lot longer, Baby Bell belying his years to hit two goals (although in the interest of sibling rivalry, Alex got three) and Bexx putting in what was regarded by many as one of her best ever games and Will Gosling is still handling the step up with a calm confidence and it was back to business as usual for the experienced heads after an off colour performance at Highbury. The win would have topped a strong performance but it wasn't to be and the strength of the London Regional league is making Croydon's attempts at bouncing back up to the National league look harder each week.

The excitement of the first team was followed by disappointment as the Thirds were squeezed out 11-7 by Northdowns, a slow start that left them 4-1 down early in the game was never quite recovered as Northdowns audacious long shooting proved surprisingly fruitful in getting them the goals to stay ahead of the reds.

The Fifth team got the day moving again with a comfortable 6-2 win over Supernova 4 with Dave Bond marshalling his section well and chipping in with two goals and i won the battle of the freakishly tall korfballers to grab two more. Simon Wavish and Tom Stockwell made up the six goals. Despite the lack of goals from the Fifth team girls, they were integral to the win, shutting out the Supernova girls intelligently and keeping them busy in attack. Well played all.

The Fourths were next up to the Epsom College stage but they were narrowly beaten 6-5 by Mitcham 3 and despite boasting three of the Korfballing Allans, the Sixth team also suffered an 8-7 defeat to Bec 5 (apologies for the lack of detail in these reports, i had to leave early!)

Nomads seventeen Bec fourteen. Well played all. More later.

Following on from last weeks single goal defeat, Nomads had the much needed first victory of the season taken away from them by the narrowest of margins, this week with a 13-13 draw away to Nottingham.

Nomads started well and hit the korf first to take an early 2-0 lead but Nottingham got back into the game strongly to take an 8-5 half time lead.

Half time team talks rarely have such a dramatic effect in Korfball but the squad will be hoping to replicate their start to the second half in every HSKL game as they flew back into contention taking a 10-8 lead with a batch of unanswered goals that wrestled the match back into their favour.

However it was to be heartbreak for the reds as despite getting 13-10 ahead with under 10 minutes remaining, Nottingham justified their higher league position by battling back to level the game at 13-13 to steal a point and leave Nomads with the bittersweet frustration of a point earned tainted with the feeling of a point lost.

If we are to take positives from disappointment though, it is worth noting that with a better goal difference than Norwich Knights we do move off the bottom of the Haven Sports Korfball League and after such a strong away performance we can take great confidence into next weeks game against Bec.

11:35am throw off at Epsom College, be there, be red, be noisy!

It was the usual mixed day for the rest of the teams, a situation that was somwhat forced by the injury situation meaning some expert team juggling and doubling up in games was needed to fulfill our fixtures.

The most important change was a couple of unlikely second team debuts for Duran and Pete who stayed on at a chilly Score in Leyton and stepped up magnificently in an otherwise dissappointing Second team game that ended in a comprehensive 16-3 defeat against Highbury 1. On the plus side Pete nabbed a debut goal and Will  stood out against a difficult player but otherwise it was a game to forget.

The fourth team also lost with an 11-3 defeat to Supernova 2, the Sixths picked up a 3-3 draw against Supernova 4 and the only win of the day came from the Fifths who came from 4-0 down to win 7-6 against Highbury 4 with Mary rolling back the years to score twice and Sam Lee keeping up his excellent goalscoring form.

Every team is at home next Sunday so clear your diary and make a day of it supporting all the teams as well as playing your own match!

In what was a frustrating weekend for the teams in red, the greatest frustration came from the Firsts narrow 16-15 defeat away at Kingfishers. A result that leaves the reds stuck on the solitary point gained from Mitcham on the opening day.

With only Trojans outclassing the young Nomads side so far (apologies for the lack of report on the 25-11 defeat) there are still plenty of positives and that first win back in the National League is not as far away as it may feel after such a narrow defeat with every other side seeming to be capable of taking points off each other the league may already have it's run away winners but there is no guarantee on any other position, from european qualification to relagation.

Looking forward, Nomads head away again this Sunday to Nottingham, who sit in third place having defeated Mitcham 14-12 at the weekend.

The goalscoring stats clearly show that they preyed succesfully on the weaker girls at Mitcham with eight goals coming from their own compared to a meagre two from the Mitcham girls, the apparent reliance on the consistent goalscoring of Ross Bower appearing to be the Greens weakness this season. Clearly a big performance will be needed from our girls to cancel out one of the sides with high scoring girls.

It is also worth noting that as a consequence of playing away three times in a row Nomads have a huge run of home games in the New Year (in fact we do not leave London at all) that will provide excellent opportunities to bring the noise and support from the Mitcham game into play again to help Nomads pick up more vital points.