Glenelg Korfball Club

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2009/07/worlds-largest-solar-audio-system-delivers-105db-to-40000-spectators/#more-342503

Earlier this month, Grzebik Design completed work on what they are calling the “world’s largest solar powered loudspeaker system” in the Taiwan National Stadium in Kaohsiung. It is capable of cranking out 105 dB of sound to 40,000 spectators.

The Taiwan National Stadium makes use of 60 distributed Apogee Sound AE-7SX weather-resistant loudspeakers for primary seating area coverage, 12 Apogee Sound ALA-5WSX weather resistant Acoustic Linear Array loudspeakers provides field coverage, and 2 Apogee Sound AFI-205 and two AFI-Point5 loudspeakers provide Control Room audio monitoring. The 76 loudspeakers are powered by 52 Peavey Electronics model PV2600 and 3 model PV1500 power amplifiers. Additional signal processing equipment includes Apogee Sound loudspeaker controllers, Symetrix SymNet Digital Signal Processing equipment, an Altair 48-channel mixing desk, Tascam CD, DVD and cassette players, Peavey Electronics, microphones, and CUE Touch Panel Controllers, all wired together with 9,500 meters (5.5 miles) of Klotz Cable.

Naturally, going 100% solar with an installation like this requires a buttload of green tech:

The ultra-modern $US5 billion Taiwan National Stadium, designed by renowned Japanese architect Toyo Ito, and constructed for the 2009 World Games, features a stunning 14,155 square meter roof incorporating 8,844 solar panels, which emulates the form of a flowing river, and generates 1.14 million KWh annually preventing the release of 660 tons-per-annum of atmospheric carbon dioxide. On days when the Taiwan National Stadium is not in use, the electricity generated from its roof is fed back the city’s electrical grid where it will meet almost 80% of the area’s energy requirements.

Indeed, if you look at the images of the roof, it seems to be completely covered in “a flowing river” of solar panels.

A very disappointing end of tournament for Australia against Great
Britain. A slow start, missed penalties, short shots and run-ins and
lack of fitness turned what ought to have been a tight match into a romp
for the British.. At half time, the Australians had managed to recover
from a shocking 2-9 start to be only 3 goals down (8-11) and back in the
hunt for a win. But the British were able to extend the lead to 6 in the
opening minutes of the second half and retain that 6 goal lead until the
50th minute (14-20).. But the Australians were tiring and the last 10
minutes saw an almost unbelievable 16 goals scored!
Final score was 18-31, the highest tally for the tournament and making
the British the only non Dutch team to score 30+ goals in a match..

Other finals were less dispiriting. Czech Republic fought back against
Portugal to level the scores in the final seconds of regular time
through a Penalty shot. Taking the match to their second Golden Goal
decider. Clearly the Czech team has a game plan for Golden Goal as they
managed to score quickly to seal the win and claim 5th place.

Chinese Taipei played Russia for 3rd place and once again it was a
tightly fought contest. The Taiwanese team in front of a sold out
stadium and 16 TV cameras broadcasting to local TV overtook the Russians
after 18 minutes and took a 5 goal lead into half time 10-15. In the
second half, 2 Russian substitutions did nothing to assist them, instead
allowing the Taiwanese to break open the match with a 5 goal spurt.. The
Taiwanese taking Bronze 18-25.

Neither the Dutch or Belgians had been troubled by opponents in the Pool
or Crossover matches. The Belgians had surprised many with the manner in
which they'd dispatched the Taiwanese and Russians but now had to prove
themselves against the true measuring stick, the Dutch.. Over the past
few years, the Dutch have made a mockery of their fiercest rival so it
was to some (pleasant) surprise that at half time, the Belgians were
still in the game, only 3 goals down 13-10.. It took until the 40th
minute for the Dutch to open the distance between the teams and hold the
gain and at the 52nd minute with an 8 goal advantage, the match was all
but over. The Belgians did themselves proud to fight back to reduce the
margin to only 5. The Dutch (as expected) taking the Gold 25-20

Overall, placings in the tournament were to expectations. Perhaps the
only surprise being that Chinese Taipei did not challenge the Belgians,
but clearly the Belgians have improved and are somewhat of a challenger
to the Dutch. Whether the introduction of the Shot-Clock has had an
impact on the results will be seen in future tournaments. Certainly, the
scores across the tournament are higher than they have recently been
demonstrating that the rule has improved the spectacle which was its
primary aim. Crowd numbers and the inclusion of Korfball on EuroSport 2
TV throughout Europe is also another small stepping stone to improving
the footprint of our sport. So overall a successful tournament for the
IKF, if not Australian Korfball .

There is a possibility that we may be able to catch the final day's competition in video..
I can't get it to work, and all the instructions are in Chinese but there is a live streaming page here
http://hichannel.hinet.net/2009wg/live.html
it seems to be suitable for Internet Explorer users only so you need to use the IE Tab plugin if you're a Firefox user and it tries to install a DRM component which fails on my work PC.

Link comes courtesy of my Ultimate Frisbee colleagues.. Hopefully those of us without Eurosport 2 can now watch some World Games Korfball too!
Steve

Australia faced Portugal for an opportunity to play off for 5th place on
Tuesday. Hamo led the way for the Australians with 7 goals (including 3
penalties) and the opening 2 goals of the match.
It was tight at half time 7-6 in favour of Portugal and "game-on" for
the second half....
Unfortunately, no-one told the Australians who seemingly forgot to
return to court as the Portuguese put on the opening 4 goals unanswered.
The Portuguese females were dominant all match, scoring freely in
offence (more than half the Portuguese score) and denying the strong
Australian female lineup many opportunities in defence. Only Jess May
scored and only once. But the Australian males also struggled to find
the basket. Australia adding only 4 goals to 15 in the second half!
Going down 22-10, a very disappointing result given the half time figures.

Great Britain squared up against Czech Republic in a tight, exciting
(despite very inaccurate shooting) match. After a blazing start, taking
the lead out to 2-6, the Czech's missed consecutive penalties and
allowed the British back into the game. Both team's inaccuracy evident
in the half time scoreline 5-6.
Despite losing a star player to a nasty knee injury, at the 53rd minute,
the Czech's were up by 3 and looking to finish off the match but the
British found a patch of accurate shooting from distance and pegged back
the margin to be down one goal at the 56th minute...
3 minutes later the scoreboard had not changed and it seemed the Czech's
would scrape home a win. With seconds remaining however, Britain were
awarded a free pass and levelled the score to take the match into the
first Golden Goal decider for the tournament.
The Czech's had the first attack in extra time and scored to put the
British under extraordinary pressure to re-level the score in their
first attack. They failed to do so and Czech were jubilant. 12-13 Golden
Goal..

The final 2 matches of the day were to determine who would play off for
first place on Tuesday. Belgium faced Russia but unlike the warm up
friendly in China, the Belgians totally outclassed the Russians in this
match. It was over in the first 12 minutes with Belgium up 7-0 from 6
different scorers! The Russians only managed to score their second goal
of the match in the 35th minute!
Sharpshooter Bart Cleyman (who plays in the Semi-Pro Dutch
Korfballeague) finished with 10 goals (5 Penalties). Final score 24-8.
The Belgians have not been challenged as yet in this tournament.. and
talk of the Taiwanese being the next big hope to upset the Dutch seem to
be premature..

Finally, as expected, the Dutch easily accounted for the Taiwanese. Jos
Roseboom with 9 goals (3 penalties) and purportedly worlds best player
Andre Kuipers with 5. Final score 29-13..

Tuesdays Finals are as follows.
2pm (Adelaide Time) 7-8th: Australia - Great Britain
4pm 5-6th: Czech Republic - Portugal
6pm 3-4th: Chinese Taipei - Russia
8pm 1-2nd: Netherlands - Belgium

Well, some exciting first halves by the Australian team shook the confidence of both Czech and Russia, but both managed to recompose themselves in the second halves of their matches to easily overcome the Australians. Poor shooting accuracy was the difference between the teams.

CZE-AUS
In the first match of the tournament, one which I predicted could be a surprise win for Australia, our team got off to a poor start. 9-4 down after 22 minutes, it was not the ideal start necessary for demoralising an opponent! To their credit however, the Australians slotted 5 of the next 6 goals to go into half time a very competitive 10-9 down.

After half time however, the Czech team used their distinct height advantage to control the rebound at both ends of the court. The shots were still coming from the Australians but they weren't falling through the basket..
At the 55th minute with a 20-12, the Czechs relaxed and the Australians managed to catch up and finish a respectable 21-16. Dennis Giles top scored with 7 goals (including 3 penalties and another missed).

RUS-AUS
Another slow start saw Australia behind the Russians and taking a time-out after 16 minutes down 6-2.. But for 2 successive missed Penalties in the 18th minute, the Australians would have been down by one goal again at half time. As it happened though, the team went into the half with a 3 goal deficit, 9-6.
The Australians caught up early in the second half, bringing the score to 9-8. The Russians broke the charge however, putting on 4 unanswered goals, then another 3 to expand their lead to 16-9 at the 50th minute.
The game ran out 18-12. Top Scorers were Luke (3), Megan (2) and Dusty (5, including 4 Penalties).

Who knows what the effect of those 2 missed penalty opportunities might have had? But missed shots again were the Australian's downfall.

(Hamo star's in this KOC photo from the match demionstrating his "jumping capability" against the taller Russian opponents
and an IKF Slideshow of all the day's matches including some Australians is here)

NED-AUS
Some thought this match was a foregone conclusion.. But after 9 minutes, a newcomer might have thought otherwise, Australia 0-1 up and having missed a penalty to boot!!
In the 10th minute, the Dutch finally remembered they were supposed to put the ball through the Yellow thing and levelled.. The first goal sparked the team and they shared the scoring to be 5-1 with 5 different goal scorers 5 minutes later! At 22 minutes, the scoreline looked more like what was earlier expected, 10-2 and the entire Dutch team on the scoreboard at least once..
At half time, the Dutch were up 12-3 but were forced to run lines as punishment for scoring less than 15 goals against a team the coach clearly had no respect for.. Uncharacteristically for a Dutch team, the second half was more intensive than the first (usually they're so far in front they relax in the second and allow the underdog to "catch-up"). This time, they pulled out to a 25-4 lead at the 47th minute, then took off the pressure.. The match finishing 37-10.
The Australians were happy with the result. It's one of, if not the, longest times the Dutch have been held scoreless at the start of a match and in this first International tournament under the shot-clock, they managed to run down the Dutch clock twice!

(IKF Photo slideshow, showing off the no-sleeve Dutch Uniforms and many Australian's in the Green uniform here)

OTHERS
Other highlight matches from the Pools were Taiwan-Belgium.. Expected to determine who will face the Dutch, the Taiwanese were expected to win by many
observers following last year's Youth World Championships performance where they finished second.. The Belgians had everything to prove and came out hard leading 14-9 at half time.. Their defensive pressure increased in the second half and they ran out easy winners 30-16.
This result gave Great Britain great confidence, having only lost 25-13 to Belgium, so the following day's Taiwan-Great Britain became a crucial win for the British. They lead at half time 7-5, but at 45 minutes, scores were level (11-11) and the Taiwanese had the momentum and slowly drew away to win 17-14.

and in Pool A Czech Republic - Russia yesterday would determine who finished in the Top 2 to continue on to the Top 4 playoffs. The Czech's started well, up 7-5 at half time and increased their lead with the first 3 goals of the second half to 10-5.. But Russia recollected themselves despite a Czech time-out halfway through a spurt of 5 Russian goals and scores were level 11-11 at the 45th minute. The last 10 minutes saw rapidfire scoring of a goal per minute but the Russians were the more effective winning the game and the right to play Belgium for a chance against the Dutch 19-15.

Final pool standings are:

Pool A		Pool B
Netherlands	9	Belgium	9
Russia	6	Chinese Taipei	6
Czech Republic	3	Portugal	3
Australia	0	Great Britain	0

Today's matches will be:

3:15pm (Adelaide time)	Portugal Vs Australia
5:05pm	Great Britain Vs Czech Republic
6:55pm	Belgium Vs Russia
8:45pm	Chinese Taipei Vs Netherlands

AUS07	Brad MARKS	M	A
AUS12	Dennis GILES	M	A
AUS02	Jessica MAY	F	D
AUS06	Lia MATTHEWS	F	D
AUS09	Luke ROSIE	M	D
AUS11	Mark HAMILTON	M	D
AUS04	Megan O'KEEFE	F	A
AUS01	Vanessa BRAITHWAITE	F	A

The Opening Ceremony experience for the Australian Korfballers in Taiwan must have been incredible.
From the photos it really appears that they had an Olympic Games style ceremony!

I totally got the time conversion wrong, putting Taiwan 90 minutes ahead of us instead of 90 minutes behind!
So match times are actually (Adelaide time):
3:15pm Friday – Australia : Czech Republic
3:15pm Saturday – Australia : Russia
3:15pm Sunday – Australia : Netherlands
3:15pm Monday – Cross-pool matches
> 2pm Tuesday – Finals

Well tomorrow (Friday) sees the opening of the 2009 World Games. Ticket sales to all Korfball matches have exceeded expectation with Internet tickets sold out to all matches!! (50% of tickets were available via the Internet, the other 50% will be sold at the door).
To my knowledge, even International Tournaments hosted in Holland are poorly attended for non-Dutch team matches, so quite possibly this could be the most strongly supported International Korfball event ever!

Match Times:
Australia will play at 3:15pm Adelaide time every day of the tournament except Tuesday (assuming they don't cause a ruckus and upset a few teams!)
Friday - Australia : Czech Republic
Saturday - Australia : Russia
Sunday - Australia : Netherlands
Monday - Cross-pool matches
Tuesday - Finals

Expectations:
International expectation is that Australia will be comprehensively beaten in every match of this tournament. However, there is at least a glimmer of hope in those of us who have been watching the International scene for years. In the 2007 World Championships, Australia pushed England to two 1 goal margin losses, this year, they have the advantage of playing competitive Korfball using a shot clock, something the English have not incorporated into their domestic competition. The shot clock has seen a marked jump in goals scored in the SA State League, Will that jump carry through to International performances? The Australian Team for this tournament is also one of the strongest teams (on paper) that we've sent away for a number of years. And finally, it's an Australian Team painted as an underdog!! They have nothing to lose and everything to gain. I expect the team to rattle a few International cages..

In the Pool matches, the opening game of the tournament against Czech is a "must-win" for Australia. The Czech team was once talked up to be competitors to Belgium, but have since fallen away from that high standard. The Czechs will come into the match confident of an easy win, giving the Australians an opportunity to shock their opponents with a better than expected performance.
In Saturday's match, they have a tough ask. On Monday 13th, Belgium, Russia, and China played some friendlies in Shaoxing, China (venue for the 2011 Open World Championships) as a pre-tournament warm-up. Both Belgium and Russia easily accounted for China, but the match between them was a close one with Belgium breaking a deadlock with only 2 minutes remaining to win by two goals. From this result, we can deduce that Russia continues to field a strong, competitive team. one that will be very difficult to beat.
Finally, the Dutch match is always a learning experience... no more needs to be said on that matter!

In the Cross-pools, Australia would hope to face off against Great Britain. Portugal has always been a bogey team and it is expected that Belgium and Chinese Taipei will battle it out for top place in the Pool, a bit of a grudge match after the 2007 World Championships where Chinese Taipei made history to be the first team to knock the Belgians out of the top 2.

Video/Streaming:
Unfortunately for those of us not in Taiwan, there will be no or limited streaming video of the events. PayTV channel Eurosport 2 has picked up the International broadcast rights from the International World Games Association (IWGA) but are only showing the Semi Finals and Finals on Monday and Tuesday. Video can be streamed here after paying a Euro$4.95 subscription and (by the looks of it) duping your IP address to look like you're in Europe as the streaming service denies connections to Australian IP's.. (If that's all gobbeldygook to you, it's either because I used the wrong terminology, or more likely because, like me, you really have no idea what I'm talking about!!) Suffice to say it's unlikely that anyone in Australia will be watching streamed video.. With a huge amount of luck, Foxtel subscribers may be able to catch a glimpse of video on Eurosport News.

Keeping up to date:
For Korfball fanatics or friends of players keen to stay up to date with match progress, live stats will be available from the IKF at worldkorfball.org.
Korfball.com Forums will be another place where people can grab, share and discuss news of the World Games. It's UK-centric, but that just makes it more fun, ribbing the Poms.
Finally, the Korfball SA and club sites (the one you're reading now) will be kept as up-to-date as possible with as much media and news as I can find.

News of the week is disappointing in that it appears Sikopi are unable to continue with their Under 19 team and are looking to withdraw them from the competition.  This is a shame as they appeared to be quite competitive and were the runners up from last year.  Confirmation is still to be made by KSA but they have had to forfeit  the last couple of weeks.

A good game in A grade saw Sikopi just manage to beat NAKC with both teams scoring throughout the game, it was pretty even down to the wire, Sikopi missing three of their regular males for this game, but an old face in Kieran Ryan was welcomed back to help them out it seems.  Sikopi's experience may have just got them over the line on the day.  But NAKC have to be happy with their performance,  top scorers in the males were the two young players for NAKC in Adam Robertson with 7 (3 pen) and Daniel Crispe with 6 (1 pen), females was Sue Thalbourne from Sikopi with 4.

Boomers took on Glenelg in the other game and the first half was probably one Boomers want to forget?  Glenelg lifted their defence in this one and put some good pressure on the Boomers attack.  Boomers getting the shots but under pressure and unable to convert.  Glenelg couldn't maintain this into the second half though and Boomers started to play more freely and score what they had been missing.  Final score to Boomers 22-12.  Top scorers both from Boomers, James Tye and Megan O'Keefe with 5 each.

 

B Grade saw Boomers lose their first game for the season at the hands of Glenelg.  Boomers have suffered from fade outs in the second halves of their last few games and this was no exception.  Glenelg with a few decisions that went their way came up trumps in the last few minutes with 4 unanswered goals to seal the game at 15-13, Peter Corcoran (Boomers) with 6 and John Spurr (Glenelg) with 4.

Mitcham managed to put a full team on the court and showed that they are competitive when they do, only going down to Arista 14-17 (Although this game is under review as Arista, with the A grade bye, played two girls who played A grade the previous week) Allan Brown (Arista) and Blake Horrocks (Mitcham) with 5 each and Michelle Duffin (Arista) and Vanessa Braithwaite (Arista) with 3 each.

NAKC gained some revenge when they beat Sikopi 21-15; neither team had trouble scoring in this game with some good shooting throughout.  NAKC just shot better in the end, Daniel Papalia (NAKC) with 7 (1 pen), Jess Crispe (NAKC) and Ashlyn Wetherall (Sikopi) with 4 each.

 

C Grade saw a return to form for Boomers, with a couple of players back they managed to win a low scoring game at 12-3.  Mark Reichstein (Boomers) with 3 and Shannon Dodd (Boomers) with 2

Sikopi (Blue) took on Arista and after their untimely forfeit last week they came out firing; Sikopi scoring 18 and Tyson White got half of those with 9 (2 pen) Arista still managed 11 and Sharyn Bungey with more than half of them with 6 (1 pen) but 11 was not enough Sikopi comfortable at 18-11.

NAKC maintained their spot in equal first with a good win over Sikopi (Red) 18-14.  Again these two clubs showing that they can score goals (First C grade game this season with 30+ goals) Daniel Papalia (NAKC) with 6 (1 pen) and in what appears to be her first game of State League Korfball Megan Wilde (NAKC) with 5.

Under 19 saw only the one game with Glenelg v Bitcham (Boomers/Mitcham combined team) with the game going goal for goal throughout it was Bitcham who held onto a slim lead for the last few minutes, but Glenelg grabbed the extra point with a last ditch effort to get an 8-8 result.  Blake Horrocks (Bitcham) with 3.

In the other Under 19 game, Sikopi forfieted to NAKC.

We are almost half way through the season and I'm thinking that our intrepid little korfballers (in our Under 13's) that are playing each week are ready for a little bit in print.  So if someone can fill out some team sheets for the games we will gladly include them.  

Whilst on team sheets, some clubs are slipping back into old habits with just first names on the sheets, this makes it very difficult to accurately record information and makes it much harder than it should be.

Please take the time to write players full names, if you don't know it then find out, it would be a shame to have to forfeit a game because someone was to lazy to ask.