England gives an example: Korfball Fun

The Balham astro korf tournament finished on Tuesday 23rd August after 5 weeks of games. The winners were Ernst & Young, with Mitcham 1 runners up.

By all accounts the tournament was a success and achieved its main goal - which was to give London clubs a short, easy to get to competition for new recruits to play in. The following sets out the lessons learned.

Recreational Competitions
People enjoyed playing competitive korfball with mixed ability teams. Balham astro korf isn't going to replace the national league or the london league, but it is a good complement to it. There were no rules on eligibility and players subbed in for other clubs if they were short. Clubs played in the spirit of the competition and generally used other teams beginners where available; experienced players used their experience to help beginners.

Short Competition
Having a very short competition (5 weeks) was important. It's much easier to get new players to sign up to a short competition that has a relatively small cost. Having played in the Balham Astro League those new players will, I think, be more likely to join a club for a year and play in the local league.

Referees
We had 4 unqualified referees officiating at matches with experienced referees giving feedback. The referees didn't get qualified, but the experience they got will make it easier for them to get qualified in the future. Having all the matches in the same venue made it straightforward to allocate referees and referee assessors.

Sponsorship
We had about 100 people playing every week and we went to the pub after the games. Having that many people descend on a pub makes a big difference, the manager quickly identified our buying power and offered us a korfball specific discount.

Next Year
Having demonstrated the concept of the Balham astro league it should definitely go ahead next year. This tournament was organised by the LKA, but next year's should be organised by the participating clubs. On reflection, the astro pitch in Balham could accommodate two smaller pitches which would allow matches to be twice as long. I also think that there is demand for a different kind of tournament (a magic hat tournament - where teams are picked on the day out of hat) earlier on in the summer, perhaps buidling up to the companies tournament.

If anyone has thoughts on how the competition could be improved please let me know.