With all the Covid shenanigans of the past year and a bit, it’s perhaps (in fact, definitely) gone unnoticed that our korfball club is now five years old (albeit having only played four seasons of competitive korfball). For newcomers, the nosy, nostalgic (or those with nothing better to do) here is a brief history of our wonderful club.

2016–17

Lancaster Phoenix was founded in slightly unusual circumstances. Ellen and Andy moved to Lancaster from Cambridge and, with the help of some kind folk at Lancaster Uni, managed to find the names and contact details of various ex korfballers scattered around the North-West. The job was then to track them down and convince them to play in matches. With no coach, no equipment and no venue, this seemed like the easiest option, rather than trying to, you know, train like the other clubs. There followed the sort of recruitment process you often see in a film montage, as one-by-one, Ellen tempted them out of korf-retirement. A bullet was bitten (possibly several bullets) and Lancaster Phoenix affiliated with England Korfball and entered the North-West League.

With no kit, we agreed to play in white tops and met up for the first time (although it turned out that most of them knew each other, anyway) at, or on the way to, our first competitive games in Manchester. It’s become a very familiar journey but felt at the time very much like venturing into the unknown. Setting the tone for a spectacular first season, we won our first game against Warriors 3, with Andy notching the first ever Phoenix goal (as he may have pointed out on several occasions and in several zoom quiz rounds, subsequently). Although Manchester Uni 2 denied us victory with the last shot of our next game, we started as we meant to go on, with Manchester 2 the only team to defeat us going into the final game. Despite beating Manchester 2 this time, Phoenix missed out on the title on goal difference or maybe head-to-head or some other technicality. Nevertheless, a fine first season with the promise of better to come.

2017-18

With Andy having completed his coaching qualifications, we were now able to train. We secured a Sport England grant to get some posts, replacing the ones Warriors had kindly leant us. Following some excellent recruitment (including Dutch Superstar Number 1, Marleen, joining us from Lancaster Uni on a free transfer) we decided to enter two teams into the North-West League for the new season and also ordered some kit, which thankfully didn’t have any images of skulls, unlike the first prototypes Sal showed us. Our second team finished in a creditable ninth place (I think – curse you, Fixtures Live, and your untimely demise: where are when I need you?). Our first team went into their final game against Manchester 2 (again) with a proud 100% record but, unfortunately, suffered a narrow defeat. Nevertheless, we finished as North-West League winners in just our second season and we went into a play-off match against Leeds Uni for promotion to the Central Regional League. A heavy defeat here saw us re-evaluate and decide, perhaps, we weren’t quite ready for promotion yet.

The niggling reason for this decision soon manifested itself, as we said goodbye to founder member, Sal, and Sophie, who both moved to Manchester and joined Hawks. Amongst the other changes, Darius departed for the newly established Liverpool Uni team, having finished his placement (George had already done something similar when his placement ended prematurely a few games into the season and he returned to Sheffield). We also lost four other players who had been with us from the start (or close enough) Carmel, Charlie, Nat and Kam. A few other people (Ryan and Michael, most notably) drifted away around this time, but there is a danger of this turning into one long story of players leaving us so probably best to move on.

2018-19

We were boosted going into the new season by some new players arriving, including Zak (returning to Carnforth having graduated from Sheffield Uni) and Dutch Superstar Number 2, Jasmijn, who had somehow ended up in Hest Bank and played for us briefly at a level far beyond our comprehension before returning to the Netherlands after a couple of months. Colette became the first player to transition from first to second team and continued to bang in the goals. A slightly closer season ended in much the same way as the previous two, with a deciding game against Manchester 2. Unfortunately, on this occasion, we ended up playing the game with seven players (let’s not go into the reasons for that again) – needless to say, it didn’t go well. Our second team had a similar season, finishing in mid-table, with an ever-diminishing core of key players and struggling to field a full team without borrowing from the firsts.

More departures followed, as Marleen returned to the Netherlands, only returning for a brief cameo, and we lost another of our founders when Adam also moved to Manchester and joined Hawks, depriving us of our two let’s-just-give-it-to-one-of-them-and-see-if-they-can-dig-us-out-of-a-hole options. Chris Lyon, our top scorer in the second team for the previous two seasons and having deservedly forced his way into the firsts, also moved away from Lancaster to join Castle, while Zak moved back to Sheffield to do a masters. Some major recruitment was needed.

2019-20

We had a fantastic Workplace tournament in the summer and managed some smart recruitment. With the North-West League now split into two divisions, we were joined by Mike (or Micky Wigglez) looking for some stability after a nomadic korfball career, Matt (rediscovering his love of the game from his Uni days) and Christin, who went straight into our first team on the back of a couple of training sessions, with George moving up to the first team. We started the season in a newly-formed first division of the North-West League, with slightly lower expectations (aiming for a top five finish) after so many changes, but also feeling cautiously optimistic. It was a similar scenario to our first season, with several players meeting each other for the first time before the opening game against Man Uni, which we won, before a hard-fought last gasp win over Hawks 2. Despite a couple of defeats (to Manchester 2 and Warriors 2) we kept picking up wins elsewhere, including in another double-header against Warriors 3 and Manchester 2, both of whom were beaten comfortably.

Availability became an increasing issue in the second half of the season, especially for Phoenix 2, who had a reliable core of players (the Slacks – Chris and Amy – Victoria, Hayley and Alice P) but continued to be reliant on the very generous guest player rule, although we were boosted with the arrival of Mark, who joined Alex in the inexplicable category of ‘people who would rather ref than play’. P1 lost what turned out to be our final two games of the season against Hawks 2 and Warriors 2. Nevertheless, with just one game left of the season, P1 once more sat in second place, while P2 were fifth in division 2, with games in hand on the teams above and having won six out of their nine games.

With the unexpected secondment of first team regular, Alice Wright, at the start of the season adding to the earlier losses, it was clear we needed to do some recruitment over the summer. But Covid had other ideas!

2020-21

We did some zoom quizzes.

And so to now …

That might have been a bit of a simplification. We did train when we could – some socially-distanced shooting over the summer and then from Easter onwards outside at Highfield. We ran some beginners’ sessions and recruited some lovely new people. Our first juniors transitioned to playing with the adults and are poised to make their debuts in the North-West League in 2021-22. We finally managed to find a hall slot at a sociable time (thanks, LRGS) and moved to a new venue after four years with the lovely University of Cumbria. Crucially, the new slot allowed us to schedule the adult training after the juniors, making it easier for players to transition. More importantly (and bear in mind the last point was crucial) after five years we had undergone a Phoenix-like transformation (from the ashes, presumably) and gone from a small collection of korfballers scattered around the North-West to a significantly larger collection of primarily-Lancaster-based korfballers. Still playing, still smiling and still, often, winning.

That, then, is the story of the first five years of Lancaster Phoenix. A story of success, of grit, determination and courage in the face of adversity. A story of regeneration. But, most importantly, a story of people playing korfball. Because it’s fun. And because, once again, we can!