The weekend of 27 to 29 January 2012 marked the annual Edinburgh International Korfball Tournament (or EIKT for short).
The first major tournament of the year, EIKT offers two packed days of korfball, as well as a huge Scottish céilidh dance on the Saturday night, set in the traditional surroundings of Teviot Row House, the UK’s oldest purpose-built students’ union.
This year, twenty-four teams from across the UK and Europe competed for something shiny and this is how we got on…
Manchester’s finest. Or thereabouts.
Socials:
Upon arriving in fair Edinburgh on Friday night, we descended upon the city centre in search of a late bar and a quick bite to eat. The bite to eat was very quick and the bar we found stayed open very late, so it all worked out quite nicely.
Between “The Pyramid of Death” and what best be described as the “Downing Straw of Doom,” we announced our arrival in the city with a bang (or more accurately, a glug).

It may look friendly, but the Pyramid of Death is a cruel mistress (just like Paul).
Warriors’ very own Scousewife demurely models the Downing Glasses of Doom.
The traditional céilidh on the Saturday involved much of the same, but with added dancing and a lot of this…

SNAKE! Obviously…
Game summary:
1st game – Stockholm 3-3 Warriors (Mossy:2, Jonesy: 1)
Thankfully, our first match on Saturday morning was at a sensible time (11:15) and allowed for the more delicate of the Warriors clan to recover from the antics of the night before.
Unsurprisingly, we were a little slow to wake up and although Mossy was on fire, we only managed to draw against a very spirited (and infinitely less hungover) Swedish team.
Whilst we probably should have won the tie, we were consoled by the very sweet (and equally random) “Visit Stockholm!” pencils that they passed around at the end of the game.
2nd game – St Andrew’s University 2-2 Warriors (Sophie: 1, Jonesy: 1)
The team got off to a great start, thanks to some very vocal support from the sidelines, with two quick goals from Sophie and Jonesy.
However, the St Andrew’s lot battled hard and promptly scored two goals by way of a response and with the tournament games only being fifteen minutes in length, we did not have enough time to finish off the game before the theme from “Countdown” (yes, you read that correctly – the theme from “Countdown!”) brought the match to a close.
3rd game – Edinburgh University (3rd team) 1-2 Warriors (Jonesy: 2)
The first game of the afternoon also signalled our first win of the day. Which may or may not have had something to do with the threat of a ten shot drinking fine, each, if we lost.
Pavlov, eat your heart out.
4th game – Original Ruff Shakers 6-1 Warriors (Paul: 1)
Los Luchadores may have been the Harlem Globetrotters of the tournament, but Originals Ruff Shakers – consisting of a number of National League players – were not far off the pace. And it showed.
Mums across the country tell their children that, “It’s not the winning, it’s the taking part that counts,” which is probably for the best, given that we were, for the want of a better word, destroyed. Despite being thoroughly tonked, it was the most enjoyable game of the weekend, in a sadomasochistic sort of way.
A big shout out goes to Dr Blood, whose long range effort managed to prevent a complete whitewash.
5th game – UEA 2-1 Warriors (Si: 1)
We should have, but didn’t, win this. Not that we are bitter or anything…
Sunday
6th game – Athens 5-2 Warriors (Jonesy: 2)
In a Groundhog Day performance reminiscent of our 1st game of the weekend, drink and sleep deprivation managed to get the better of us and we were duly punished by a far-too-hyper-for-first-thing-on-a-Sunday-morning Greek team whose long distance shooting soon picked holes in our gin-soaked defence.
After the game, our Athens friends rubbed ouzo into the wound. Literally. They actually gave us a bottle of ouza. εβίβα!
7th game – Birmingham 3-5 Warriors (Kim:1 , Jenny: 1, Mossy: 2, Tom: 1)
If our seventh game of the tournament were an episode of Friends, it would be called: “The one where Fish got blammed.”
It says a lot for the quality of said blam that none of us can remember our match-winning performance!
And, thanks to the wonders of digital photography…

8th game – UEA 0-1 Warriors (Kim:1 – we think…)
Our final match of the weekend was the play-off for, er, thirteenth(!) place.
As mentioned above, the first time we played UEA, we should have beat them. The second time we played them, we did. Phew!
Final standings and league tables:
Shamelessly (but lovingly) lifted from the EIKT 12 website: VIEWABLE HERE.

Tiger! (of “Tiger, Dragon, Snake” fame…)
Honourable mention:
Despite being *that* close to winning the tournament (for “that close” read: miles away), we were able to take solace in the fact that Los Luchadores, the eventual victors of the weekend, included a number of current (Mike and Mel) and past (Fro and Marv) Warriors. ¡Warriors para la victoria!

Mi aerodeslizador está lleno de anguilas.