Head for Nottingham for Pre-Season Fun!

DON’T forget! The annual pre-season handball tournament at Nottingham will take place on Sunday, September 5.

The popular event is for both men and women and is being staged at Nottingham University’s Sutton Bonington Campus from 12noon until around 6pm. Teams from across the country are expected to attend.

The event also looks set to be run alongside an update event for referees, delegates and table officials.

For more information, please contact organiser Colin Wills on colin.wills@nottingham.ac.uk.

London Schools Event Proves a Big Hit!

DOZENS of youngsters from across London took part in the London Inter-Borough Handball Tournament staged at Newham Leisure Centre recently.

The event was for year seven and eight pupils, and after some thrilling matches was won by Westminster City School and Barking Abbey School in the boys and girls competitions respectively.

With six boys teams and five girls team, for many it was their first taste of handball - but most left hooked on handball and wanting to play the game more!

Teams from Barking and Dagenham, Newham, Haringey, Westminster and Greenwich attended, and London Handball Development Officer Ari Bekker said: “To involve more and more teams and schools in a competition like this and to see their fantastic play is great.

“You could see from the excitement on their faces just how much they enjoyed the games. It’s great to be able to get young people together from different boroughs and play in a handball competition.”

In the boys event, after some close group matches, it was Westminster City and Thamesmead who reached the finals, with Woodside High and Newham Flames just missing out by one goal in the semi finals.

Both teams in the final were playing for the first time, but after a great match it was Westminster City School who won.

And in the girls competition, runners-up St Angela’s School were beaten by Barking Abbey, who didn’t lose a match all day.

More handball events will be staged in the London area shortly. Handball coaching sessions take place at Newham Multi Sports Club Hub every Tuesday evening from 3-6.30pm.

For more information contact Ari Bekker, London Handball Development Officer, on 07738 385515 or e-mail her at aranka.bekker@newham.gov.uk

Improving England Overcome Ireland

THE England youth handball teams beat Ireland in both the boys and girls competition in a friendly tournament staged at Birchwood, near Warrington, on Saturday.

Just a matter of months since Ireland beat them in a club tournament, England showed just how much they have improved by winning the event, which was their first international matches on home soil and were hosted by the Warrington Wolves Handball Foundation at Birchwood Leisure Centre.

England fielded both their A and B teams in both the boys and girls events, and after England Girls B had lost out 10-4 to Ireland, England A battled to a 18-16 victory over England B.

And in the final match, England A won again, beating Ireland 15-10 with Ellie Whitehead scoring six goals, while Laura Black and Jess Milligan both added three. But it had been level at 7-7 at half time until a second-half push from the England girls saw them clinch victory.

In the boys event, Ireland were made to toil by England B before narrowly winning 20-19, but England A proved too strong for their B side, winning 26-11.

In the day’s final event, England A took on Ireland and after leading 12-8 at half time, they built on their lead and ran out 26-17 winners with James Higgins scoring nine, while Paul Roden added four. For Ireland, Anderson scored five and Harding four, but it was not enough to stop a much-improved England side.

A healthy crowd were treated to a parade of the teams before the action began, and Louaz Hofton, England Handball’s Director of Development, presented a special EHA Plate to the Irish Olympic Handball Association’s Susanne Moloney.

After the event, Moloney invited England back to Ireland for a re-match, to be staged in Dublin next year with the Under-16 teams.

England Youth Battle Well at Partille

ENGLAND’s youth handball teams passed a major milestone this week when both the boys and girls teams secured their first victories at the prestigious Partille Cup in Sweden.

The English teams attended a special Olympic Solidarity programme prior to the main Partille Cup, where they received special coaching twice a day as part of a programme to help developing handball nations improve.

After that, they were much-improved in the Partille Cup proper, with both the England side’s recording their first ever victories in the Cup.

The England boys team beat Norwegian side Reistad/Assiden 15-9, while England girls won 10-4 against Danish outfit Saeby HK.

Scottish team Tryst’s Under-18 boys won one game and drew another, while the Under-16 girls were unlucky to lose all their games, although they only lost their final match to Schiffdorf by two goals.

And Edinburgh-based Gracemount also played well, losing all five of their games but gaining important experience which helped them battle well in their final match against Haltern-Sythen which they only lost by three goals.

For more details about the Partille Cup go to http://www.partillecup.com/

England Youth Prepare for Ireland Challenge

AFTER enjoying a successful Partille Cup campaign last week, the England Youth teams will be in action again on Saturday when they take on the Ireland national youth side in a tournament in Warrington.

An action-packed six-match programme has been put together for the event at Birchwood Leisure and Tennis Complex at Birchwood, near Warrington, which will see the A and B sides from both the England Boys and Girls teams take on their Irish counterparts.

The day begins at 9am with the teams arriving and warming up, and following the parade of teams and respective Anthems, the matches will begin at 10am and conclude at 4pm with the presentation of trophies.

“The advent of the Olympic Games has seen a massive surge in handball’s popularity,” said EHA Director of Performance Mick Hegarty. “The EHA is very proud of the fact that its international programme has seen an extremely successful year.

“Our youth squads have evolved through an exacting regional selection process, participated in the Olympic Solidarity Camp with 12 other nations, competed in the world famous Partille Cup in Sweden, scoring their respective first victories, culminating in this international against Ireland.”

Brazilian Handball Teams Come to London

SEVERAL Brazilian handball teams visited London last week as they prepared for the Partille Cup in Sweden, with some fun and exciting matches taking place against local sides in London.

Sao Paulo’s Under-16 boys and girls (EC Pinheiros), along with their Under-14 boys and girls and under-12s were joined by another girls team from Santo Americano School for the visit to London, which included a trip to the Olympic viewing gallery in Stratford to see the progress of the site for the 2012 Olympic Games.

The Under-16 boys team took on their counterparts from the Newham Flames Handball Club, while the Under-16 girls team took on a mixed team made up of players from Olympia, Great Dane and Ruislip Eagles.

London Handball Development Officer Ari Bekker said: “This has been a fantastic opportunity for the players here in London to play against some great players from another Continent. It’s not every day chances like this come along!

“They were really friendly, and the matches were very exciting for both teams and played in a great friendly spirit, and we’ve been invited back to Brazil at some point in the future.”

And Newham Flames captain, Abdul Kadir, added: “It was great to had the opportunity to play against a Brazilian team. We haven't had much match experience, so it has really highlighted skills we feel we need to work on. We hope to continue improving. We enjoyed the whole experience.”

Teams Head to Sweden for Partille Cup

TEAMS from England and Scotland are in Gothenburg, Sweden, preparing to take part in the 40th edition of one of the world’s biggest handball tournaments, the Partille Cup.

Beginning today (Wednesday), the event goes on until Sunday and has attracted almost 1,000 teams from around 50 different countries.

England teams will play in both the boys and girls Under-16 events, and are attending as part of the event’s special Olympic Solidarity Project, which encourages teams from countries where handball is not a major sport to come along and take part. As well as England, teams from India, America, China, Benin, Gabon and Nigeria are also present as part of the scheme.

Three Scottish teams are also taking part - Tryst Under-16 girls, Tryst Under-18 boys and Gracemount Under-13 boys - as well as the Great Britain Men’s Under-21 side.

The England squads’ every move will be recorded by analyst Wayne Lang, whose thoughts were recorded on the Partille Cup website.

“We are going to meet players who have been playing the sport since they were seven years old. Our teams are here to watch and learn and to try out the new things they have learnt during the week.

”But England is on their way and handball wins new ground slowly but surely.

”Handball is up to an exciting future. And maybe the English national team in handball win a World Championship gold before the national football team does!”

All the British teams at Partille will play at least five group games, before moving on to the knockout stages at the weekend.

For more information about fixtures and results, go to www.partillecup.com/eng