Korfball is a sport that has it’s origins in the Netherlands and Sweden. It is a mixed gender ball and basket game, with similarities to netball and basketball, but with a different evolution. It was invented by a Dutch school teacher called Nico Broekhuysen in 1902, after he attended a sports education conference trip to the Swedish town of Nääs. He had gone to study how to teach gymnastics, but whilst doing so he saw a local team game called ringboll. This was played by shooting a ball with the hands, similar to basketball, through a ring atop of a three metre high poll. Players were restricted to certain areas of the pitch, similar to netball, but it was unique in respect to men and women playing together on the same court.
Broekhuysen was inspired. Upon returning back home to Amsterdam he simplified the rules in order for children to better understand how to play and added a basket, instead of a ring, so that people could better see if a point had been scored or not and he called it Korfball. As it grew in popularity the Central Europeans took the lead in developing the game. The oldest club in the world, H.K.C. ALO, was set up in the Hague in 1906 and the International Korfball Federation (IKF) was founded in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1933. Korfball was even a demonstration sport at the Summer Olympics of Antwerp 1920 and Amsterdam 1928. These countries have also dominated the World Games (a multi-sports festival that are held every four years for sports that are not included in the Olympic Games), with the Netherlands winning every four year tournament since 1985 and Belgium coming second at each one except the 2017 event, where they instead came third. The Germans have also won two bronze medals. Continental championships have shown a similar level of dominance, with the Netherlands winning all six tournaments since 1998, with the Germans and the Belgians also medalling in each four year cycle. At the World Championships Belgium have managed to knock the Dutch off of the top spot only once, when they were the host nation in 1991. The Dutch league still remains the benchmark for others who admire the game.
Today Korfball is played on a 22 yard x 44 yard (20 metre x 40 metre) court, inside during the winter, or outside during the summer. The playing area is divided into two half court zones. A moulded basket is held on top of an eleven foot (three and a half metre) high pole, with one of these targets used in either zone, placed two-thirds of the way between the centre and back lines. Teams attack opposite ends in order to score a point and are made up of eight players, four women and four men. Korfball is similarly to netball however there is slightly more freedom to roam in this sport. Whereas in netball players are restricted to a small section of the playing area, depending on their position, in Korfball four players from each team are placed in either zone, fundamentally creating a four versus four in each half of the court. After every two goals have been scored, the players stay in the same zone, but the teams change direction, with the attackers becoming defenders and the defenders becoming attackers.
The sport has spread across the world, however, with countries from each continent participating at major events. There is even a growing popularity here in Scotland. The British Korfball Association (BKA) was affiliated with the IKF in 1946, however it took a bit longer for things to become established north of Hadrian’s Wall. The first club to be founded in the country was in the Scottish capital city, as Edinburgh University Korfball Club came into being in 1991, with Saint Andrew’s K.C. following a year later. In 2016, the BKA was formally dissolved in order to strengthen the sport within the individual home nations with each country that makes up Britain organising their own national governing body. In 2007 the Scottish Korfball Association (SKA) became officially affiliated with the IKF, with a Scottish league starting up the same year.
The 2007/08 season involved five clubs, entering nine teams across one division. The inaugural season included, Edinburgh University (three teams), Edinburgh City (two teams), Edinburgh Mavericks (one team) and Glasgow (one team) and St. Andrews University (2 teams) who became the first ever Scottish champions. The league was stable enough to remain the same size for the next few years, before Dundee, Glasgow’s second team and Edinburgh University’s fourth team joined a newly created development league and then Northern Storm, from the English city of Newcastle joined the Scottish Korfball League for the 2014/15 season, in search for better competition.
At this point there were enough teams playing at a high enough level for the SKA to have two standalone divisions to their league structure, with promotion and relegation being introduced following the 2015/16 season. Edinburgh Mavericks’ second team won the inaugural second division. Strathclyde University entered a team for the 2016/17 competitions and basically acted as a replacement for Northern Storm, who decided to exit the league in 2018. Currently, there are seven clubs, across four cities, affiliated with the Scottish Korfball Association. There are 17 teams; Glasgow (two teams), Strathclyde (one team), Dundee (three teams), St. Andrew’s University (two teams), Edinburgh University (three teams), Edinburgh City (four teams) and Edinburgh Mavericks (two teams) who are spread across two divisions. The Edinburgh Mavericks and St. Andrew’s Universities have been the most dominant clubs in the first division, winning four Scottish Championships each, with the Mavericks winning it more recently in the three years in a row up until 2019. Edinburgh City have three titles and Glasgow just the one, however the West Coast team have finished as runners up on three occasions. The SKA Cup semi finals involve two pools of teams, the winners of which go through to the Grande Finale, with the runners up from either group playing off for third place. Edinburgh Mavericks are the most recent Scottish Cup winners, having won the final in 2019, before competitions were disrupted by Covid-19. On finals day, there are also two All-Stars exhibition matches, made up of the best players to have been nominated by each club in the league, plus another one with players specifically aged 23 year and under, which seems like a great idea and one that I think more sports should take up.
Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic has slowed things down for the past year or so. The 2019/20 season was curtailed before it’s completion due to the virus, with the 2020/21 season being cancelled altogether. However, the SKA has been running refereeing courses online to help to raise the standard of officiating across the leagues, once competitions are restarted. It’s not just the domestic games that have been affected by the pandemic. Scotland haven’t had the chance to play internationals since 2019, which was a friendly against British rivals Wales – a game that the Scots ran out 15-11 winners. In 2018, Scotland competed in the European Championships, finishing 14th, with wins against Wales and Serbia, they are currently ranked 27th globally. Scotland Korfball hopes that they can resume the league at some point in 2021. If you fancy a game, then you can find a club at the national governing body’s website…
