Here are a couple of photos separated by almost 19 years: two New Zealand teams, each on their own korfball adventure in Taiwan.

 

What the Mixx U19 representative team achieved in the more recent photograph is not to be taken lightly. After a rough start to the tournament’s U19 grade, with a heavy loss in the first match, we found our feet and started to play much closer to our potential, meaning a three-way penalty shootout was required to determine which team from our pool would make the quarter finals. Cody Siegenthaler and Tyrell Eden were accurate from 2.5 metres, earning Mixx the right to take on Hong Kong, who we managed to defeat.

 

Next up, in the semi-final Mixx led for most of the match against Lizhong. Our opponent is formidable. Five of the players we were up against had been part of the Chinese Taipei team that went to the U17 World Cup in 2023, where they created a massive upset, beating the Netherlands in the final of that tournament, a result that rocked world korfball. Although we proved we could go toe to toe with them, in the end we didn’t quite manage to hold on to win that game, and Lizhong went on to take out the U19 crown, leaving Mixx to contest third and fourth place. We won that playoff, and therefore the trophy that is in the second photograph.

 

Several people have suggested that our Mixx U19s are the first New Zealand korfball team to win an international trophy. They are not, though you have to go back a long way, to the other photo, before all the players in the present team were born, for the only previous occasion.

 

In 2006 the Chinese Taipei Korfball Association organised a warm-up tournament, the Capital Cities Cup, ahead of the Asia Oceania Korfball Championship, which in that year was in Hong Kong from 4 to 9 July. New Zealand prepared a team to compete in the tournament, which was the first senior team to travel to play korfball overseas.

 

This was a couple of years after korfball was established in Wellington and Auckland, following on from the beginning of regular korfball in Christchurch in 1997. With the two North Island centres going, we were able to hold regular inter-provincial tournaments, which were well contested: Auckland, Wellington and Canterbury each lifted the trophy at one time or another.

 

Included in the New Zealand team in the historical photo were four players from Auckland and five from Wellington, with the other eight from Canterbury. Pulling this team together, and organising first a trial, then training camps in different cities was quite a task, though between them they did an excellent job, managing to build team unity despite being spread so far and wide. Most of the players only had a couple of years’ korfball experience, though they were highly motivated to wear the silver fern, and respected the honour of playing for their country.

 

Going to Taiwan to compete, a few days before the Asia Oceania tournament in Hong Kong, was a great option at the time, and that part of the trip was a success. New Zealand finished as second runner up at the Capital Cities Cup, behind the host team and Australia, which was also using it as a warm-up event. For one of the players, Mike Oppenheim, and Rujune Cheng, the Taiwanese liaison officer assigned to the team, that tournament was a life-changer: they fell in love, Rujune followed Mike back to Wellington, and they have been together ever since.

 

Around their necks in the 2006 photo the players are proudly wearing the bronze medals they won, while front and centre the team has the handsome trophy they were awarded for third place. 

 

Unfortunately, although the team in the photo was the first from New Zealand to win a trophy, they were also the first to lose a trophy: it went missing somewhere on the flight between Taiwan and Hong Kong, either stolen or misplaced, and never seen again.

 

In Hong Kong at the Asia Oceania Korfball Championship New Zealand struggled, finishing sixth out of seven teams, beating only Macau and failing to qualify for the following year’s World Championship. With no international korfball to look forward to, most of the players drifted away, eventually leaving Wellington and Auckland with insufficient numbers to continue regular korfball.

 

Nineteen years on, we can therefore say that the Mixx U19 team is the first korfball team to bring a trophy home to New Zealand from an overseas tournament.

 

Feedback from our generous hosts, the Chinese Taipei Korfball Association, is worth every bit as much as winning the trophy. Tournament organiser Tina Yu sent us this message: ‘Everyone loves the team and is very impressed by your performances! CTKA is happy to have you! The players perform their best at every match regardless of the opponent’s level, that makes NZ a great team that earns everyone’s attention and respect. We definitely want to have you here next year!’