Staff Reporter

WINDHOEK - Cohen Fistball Club (CFC 1) won the first round of the Bank Windhoek National Fistball League after seeing off hosts Sport Klub Windhoek (SKW) last weekend.
As a result, CFC 1 now leads the table with 12 points tailed by SKW 1 and CFC 2 in that order on 10 and 8 points respectively. 

Group stages
As widely expected, reigning champions CFC 1, who have been in exceptional form of late, started off the stronger team in Group A – sweeping aside Swakopmund Fistball Club (SFC 2) Deutscher Turn und Sportverein (DTS) and their stable mate CFC 3. However, SKW 2, forming part of Group A refused to be dominated by CFC 1. 
“Imawida’s” second strings came back stronger and inflicted CFC 1’s first set defeat since June 2018. However, they could not sustain the same style of play in their previous game as they went down 2:1 at the hands of DTS before dispatching DTS 2:1. 
SKW 2 beat CFC 3 and SFC 2 3:0 to secure 2nd spot in Group A by winning one more set compared to other contenders in the same group. Third place went to CFC 3 followed by DTS and SFC 2 in that order.
Record champions SKW 1 dominated Group B winning all their matches with a 3:0 score line to clinch the group in the end followed by CFC 2, who almost won all their matches except for a tough encounter against SKW 1 in which they eventually succumbed to defeat. 
SFC 1 and CFC 4 ended 3rd and 4th in the group whilst Cohen’s 2nd team put in an impressive performance against SKW 2 in the placement tie for 3rd and 4th spots.
CFC 3 lost 2:0 against SFC 1 for the 5th and 6th place battle – leaving DTS, CFC 4 and SFC 2 to pick up the pieces for the remaining 7th and 9th spots in the round robin stages.

Finale
Spectators were offered a high-quality finale between CFC 1 and SKW 1 as the latter got off to a great start quickly gaining ground. 
As a result, CFC 1 had to call in a time out to regroup after trailing 7:3. The decision paid dividends as CFC 1 started to recover some ground but eventually lost as SKW 1 pressed harder to win the set.
CFC 1 came back stronger in the 2nd set with an improved performance but had difficulties in finishing the set with a score of 10:5. However, their main attacker Rico Kühnle-Kreitz brought the set to an end with a powerful service to bring the score to 11:9 in favour of CFC 1.
In the 3rd set, the reigning champions left SKW 1 with no chance winning 11:4. The 4th set was exciting with spectacular rallies and terrific defensive actions.
Finally, CFC 1 once again held the upper hand finishing the set 14:12 to clinch victory 3:1. SKW 1’s defender Gernot Helm was voted Player of the Day. 
The second round of the Bank Windhoek National Fistball takes place on Saturday, 13th of April at CFC in Windhoek.