The First team lost 13-10 to Norwich Knights at the UEA Sportspark today, a disappointing defeat considering the positives from the opening day.

No match report as the Nomadskorf budget didn't stretch to a weekender in Norwich...

Onwards and upwards, next up is a trip to the League Champions Trojans on the 15th November.

With ears still ringing from the noisy support in Nomads opening draw against Mitcham, the First team heads up to Norfolk this weekend to take on Norwich Knights, with a first win of the season in their sights and with Halloweeen the night before the game, they will be hoping that the biggest fright in Norwich will come on the Korfball pitch for their opposition.

Whilst Nomads strengthened and built on a winning promotion campaign over the summer, Norwich lost arguably their most talented player in Charlie Vogwill and he immediately came back to haunt them, playing for Nottingham in their 21-10 win over Knights on the opening weekend.

Twenty-one is the highest winning total in the National League so far and a strong sign that there are goals to be got from the Knights defence if Nomads can find and exploit the gaps.

With the boys picking up 14 of the 17 goals put past Mitcham and looking in good shooting form, it looks like the age old girls win games argument will come into play and leave some interesting tactical decisions for the coaching team when they look at how to squeeze the most goals from the squad.

Add to that the rivalry built up at the Champions Trophy and you have another enticing Korfball game to look forward too.

Come on you reds!

In the first weekend of London League action, the Thirds comfortably defeated Highbury Seconds 10-2, the Fourths slumped to an 11-2 defeat against Supernova Seconds and the Fifths edged past Supernova Thirds with a 7-5 win. The Sixths picked up the default 10-0 win over Highbury Fourths (due to too many Highbury players playing down).

A strong start that will hopefully continue in the next round of games on the 15th November.

Nomads 17 Mitcham 17

It has often been said that the National League is dull, predictable and played in hidden away halls with no atmosphere. On Sunday night in Epsom, those criticisms were blown out of the water with a thrilling Haven Sports National League game between Nomads and Mitcham that left standing room only and ringing ears on top of a thrilling match experience.

With Mitcham sinking more of the early chances and Nomads losing Ean Irwin to an ankle injury early on, an intense start had every chance of peetering away into another win for Mitcham over their rivals in red as they held an early lead but the Nomads chances stopped bouncing off the rim and started dropping in the Korf and the reds took a narrow 5-4 half time lead.

An Ana Osbourne blam was the stand out highlight of an intense, if low scoring, first half and it elicited the a cheer of such volume from the Nomads hoardes that will leave many a trainer at the nearby Epsom Downs race course wondering what on earth had startled their horses the night before...

Shortly before half time, Steve Green made his return in Nomads colours and carried the air of a man with a point to prove which meant he fitted in nicely with a squad full of reds battling hard to prove their own points, Anthony Taylor in particular holding up well to the sort of barely legal physical battle you get in the top games whilst some fascinating individual battles between the two sides girls were being played out as both sides battled for any route to goal, the subtle pace and guile of Sam Rowbottom a threat as always and Jess Turner's tenacious defence limiting her opponents options. I would single out the entire side if weren't for the fact it would make me sound like a horribly biased sycophant.

In the second half the game had sprung further into life with more and more chances becoming goals and the lead changing hands multiple times as frayed nerves and tempers bounced around the hall.

At one point, Nomads had slipped 15-12 behind but recovered well to 16-16 before slipping a late goal that left Nomads hearts in mouths before, as if the script had already been written, Steve Green blitzed in to level the scores at 17-17.

The excitement and intensity of the Champions Trophy games in Norwich have continued as life as a Nomads fan is still a battle of nerves, pride and mental exhaustion as we make our slow clamber back towards the top of the English game.

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Nomads Seconds 12 Mitcham Seconds 8

Usually a second team game comes before the first team, now we know why, still mentally drained (and if your name's Joe Olds, physically drained) from the First team game the reds had to do something special to match what had gone before.

They flew into an 8-1 half time lead that made the result all but certain and led to the second half slipping back into Mitcham Seconds favour but a couple of Brian Carswell runners kept the lead comfortable for Nomads and it finished as a 12-8 win.

Although the points will be much appreciated there is still a lot to work on for the Seconds to really feel like they have played to their full potential.

Nomads 17 Mitcham 17 full time. Thriller!

Seconds 8 Mitcham 1 at half time.

12-8 Nomads win.

After the shortest possible absence, Nomads are back in English Korfball's top tier and what better way to start than with an evening fixture against the old enemy, Mitcham.

With big players moving onwards and upwards to Dutch Korfball and another year less left in the older legs.

Mitcham may not be at their peak but a great game is still on the cards with rivalries and reputations at stake.

19:20 throw off with the Second team game following.

See you there!

Despite the lack of minute by minute transfer updates on Sky Sports news, Nomads have been busy in the transfer market, boosting the squad for the return to National League action and increasing our selection options throughout the club and as a result we welcome to the club;

Kim Jones - bringing a formidable level of experience, guile, a deadly mid-range shot and has a National League winners medal in the Jones family trophy cabinet.

Nikki - formerly of Birmingham, Nikki will provide further competition for the female slots and has already taken an admirable Nomads like attitude to the club Social scene.

Sytze - This seasons Dutch import, Sytze holds the usual scarily consistent shot and Korfballing sense that you get from most Dutch boys and provides that interesting level of fear that you only get by having been playing Korf in its home country since you learnt to walk.

Steve Green - Coming home to Nomads after starting here as a junior and being part of the great Nomads side that ended up scattered across the National League and England squads. Last seen player-coaching Kwiek through a successful NL campaign last year and needing little introduction to anybody in the game, he will be a strong addition to the Nomads squad this season.

Nomadskorf, the coaching team and every Nomads member welcome you all to the finest Korfball club there is!

This Sunday Nomads 1, 2 and 3 will head to St Mary's College, Twickenham to play their Bec equivelants in some pre-season warm up games ahead of Nomads return to National League action this season. The games start at 10:15am and will hopefully serve as as positive start to the season for the squad and give the rest of us a Korfballing fix ahead of the new season.

A reminder to those who are actually playing in the games that you have a 9:30am meet time to adhere to!

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