It’s that time of year again where teams of all sports from Leeds Beckett University and University of Leeds are gearing up for Varsity 2023. None other than Max Gordridge (Leeds Beckett Korfball president) and Liam Scannell, who are valuable team members of the Leeds Beckett Korfball team.
Many people including me will have never heard of ‘Korfball’; Korfball is a ball sport played by hand. It takes a few moments to learn, but a lifetime to perfect. By passing and quick movement players must elude their personal opponents to shoot the ball through a Korf – the Dutch word for basket. In the standard game, teams consist of eight players – four male and four female.
Liam stumbled across Korfball when he first came to university, “I went to the freshers fair and I’d never heard of the Sport before, I asked what it’s about, signed up for it and came along to the first session and I’ve really enjoyed it since.”
Max believes the Sport is very Niche, but he recommends anyone coming along, “I’m like Liam, when I first came to Leeds Beckett University, I’d never played before, I went to freshers fair, and I’ve also really enjoyed it since.”
“It’s very similar to Basketball and Netball and those sorts of sports, so If you like those I would really recommend coming along, or even if you just want to come along and watch, it’s a really interesting sport to watch, it’s very high intensity, so I’d really recommend anyone coming along, and hopefully they sign up,” said Max.
Looking ahead to Varsity
Leeds Beckett Korfball Mixed team had an up and down season, finishing 6th of 8 in the Korfball Championship. But both Max and Liam are fixated on finishing the season strong with a win over their rivals in Varsity.
“There’s definitely that rivalry there between us.”
“I hope they lose every time.”
“Last year we won our Varsity game with a last second shot, and we were very happy about that, so there is definitely a big rivalry there.”
“Sadly, we lost to them in BUCS, but after that we performed well and managed to finish above them, so they’ll probably want their own back in Varsity, especially from BUCS and last year’s Varsity, but I reckon we’ll beat them again,” said Max.
Nervous or excited?
Liam said, “With being a fresher I haven’t played Varsity before, but I’m really looking forward to it.”
I asked Liam whether he was nervous or excited ahead of his first Varsity, “A bit of both, obviously nervous to try and get the win, but very excited to participate against Uni Of Leeds, but yeah, I’m really looking forward to it.”
Biggest fixture on the calendar?
On Varsity press day, I asked Max and Liam whether they thought Varsity was the biggest fixture on their calendar.
“It’s definitely up there, BUCS is really important, but at the start of the year everyone is talking about Varsity, as everyone wants to do well in varsity,” said Max.
“Coming off the back of some big performances in the Nationals down at East Anglia, we’re very prepared and we’ve definitely made big improvements,” said Liam.
Varsity is the perfect opportunity to promote the niche sports such as Korfball, as ahead of 2023-24 season they are looking to recruit more players to add to their squad, but first they have to overcome the hurdle of beating their rivals University of Leeds in this year’s varsity.
