Welcome to Korfball Canterbury

About Korfball Canterbury

Since it’s reintroduction to New Zealand in 1996 by Christchurch based Rob Smith, korfball has been based mainly in Canterbury under the umbrella of Korfball New Zealand (KNZ). With the welcome establishment of Auckland and Wellington as new regions in 2004, the original KNZ constitution was rewritten to reflect the new national structure and make KNZ a truly national representative body.

At the same time as the changes to KNZ, Korfball Canterbury was formed to continue the local activities undertaken in Canterbury by KNZ over the previous eight years. Korfball Canterbury was officially incorporated on 2 December 2004.

Korfball Canterbury is run by a voluntary committee of current and past players. The committee members of Korfball Canterbury all love their sport and they aim to:

• promote and develop the game of korfball.
• administer tournaments and competitions between teams playing korfball.
• introduce korfball into schools, other learning institutions, community groups and wherever else possible.
• encourage and facilitate the establishment of clubs and branch societies whose aim is to play and promote korfball.
• assist in the selection and administration of Canterbury representative korfball teams for fixtures and tournaments.
• represent the interests of Korfball Canterbury to Korfball New Zealand.
• seek and provide funding at a local level.

A brief history of Korfball New Zealand in Canterbury

In late 1996, with guidance from the International Korfball Federation (IKF), Christchurch based Rob Smith set out to re-initiate korfball in New Zealand. Rob, along with his partner Ursula Cheer, was introduced to korfball while living in Cambridge in the UK, in 1990. Rob also played and administered korfball in London for Mitcham Club, the most successful and longest established English korfball club.

In 1996, Rob and Ursula got together a group of friends and started building on that initially involving more people by word of mouth.

A visit by the renowned international coach Ben Crum in 1998 was of great help to the Canterbury korfball players.

Initial games/training sessions were at Christchurch Boys High on Sunday mornings and also outdoors at Hagley Park on Tuesday evenings. Our first competition was at Shirley Boys High on Tuesday evenings in 1998.

A year later Cowles Stadium became available for the Canterbury players and since 1999 this has been the home of our Tuesday night competitions.

In 2002 a Canterbury Under16 team took part in Korfball Australia’s national Under16 championship in Victoria. After this successful trip it was decided to form an Under23 team to represent New Zealand in what was to be New Zealand’s first participation in international korfball. In January 2003 at the Asia Oceania Youth Korfball Championship in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, the New Zealand Under23 team competed with Australia, Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong China. In a very close encounter for the bronze medal, New Zealand lost by a single goal to Hong Kong, and thus missed qualification to the 2004 World Youth Championships. This Under23 team consisted solely of Canterbury based players.