Lois Haddock, who’s played Korfball since the age of 13, expresses her love for the sport that has been profound in her life.
“I think it’s a really great sport to learn and to be friendly. It’s one of the few sports you can come into as a true beginner and we try to run our second team as completely non-competitive.
“It’s there for people to learn and enjoy, and the first team we try and run as a competitive team. There’s a great social life, especially for the younger players who are living there (Gloucester). It’s a good way of meeting people.”
Korfball was first played in 1902, with it’s rules being similar to netball, basketball and ringball. The name ‘korf’ comes from the Dutch word ‘basket’, as the sport originated in The Netherlands by Dutch teacher Nico Broekhuysen .
It is widely regarded as one of the earliest sports to feature mixed-gender rules.
“It has four men and four women on the team, with the court split in two. At one end you’re attacking and the other end you’re defending. A third of the way in from each end you set a 12 foot high post
“After two goals are scored, attackers become defenders and defenders become attackers. So you have to be able to do all the roles.”
The rules of Korfball are set-up to make sure it’s fair for all players of all capabilities. Blocking, tackling, holding is not allowed. Players are not allowed to kick the ball either, making the game revolve around tactical awareness.
“It’s great because the men can’t dominate the game, because you have to be marked by someone of the same sex. So it’s who’s stronger than their opposition.
“It sets up a game which is truly mixed, and because it’s mixed it’s friendly, and perhaps a lot of the spitefulness you can see in some other sports isn’t there.”
