Enter NOW for Cell Cup!

ENTRIES are now being taken for the 2011 Cell Cup in Hungary, one of the biggest and most popular events on the world handball calendar.

The tournament in Veszprem is for both male and female teams ranging in age from under-9s to seniors, and is a great way to meet handball players and fans from across the globe with hundreds of teams expected to take part in this year’s event, which is the 14th such competition.

Taking place from August 18-24, the event will see each team play several games, with under-9s playing two halves of ten minutes, while the match length increases through the ages to the seniors who play two halves of 25 minutes.

For more details please go to www.cellcup.hu

Ruislip Celebrating Two Wins

RUISLIP Eagles are celebrating a double victory this week after both their men’s and women’s teams secured victories over title contenders.

Last year’s EHA Cup winners, Ruislip Eagles men (pictured) beat last year’s league champions Great Dane 27-26.

Leading by seven goals at half time thanks largely to a strong defence and good performance by keeper Andrius Rinkevicius, the Eagles faced a backlash from Great Dane after the break, but just clung on for victory.

And Ruislip women also won, 24-20, over league newcomers but title contenders, Deva from Chester.
Eleven goals from Telek helped the Eagles to victory, but they had to fight back from a 10-14 half time deficit.

Elsewhere, in the men’s league Liverpool Wolves won 36-10 over Speke Garston, while Manchester edged last Deva 29-27.

Olympia overcame Cambridge 24-30, while in the women’s league, Thames beat Cambridge 29-17 at Moulton.

EHA Cup Draws Made

SALFORD will take on Manchester University in the pick of the ties in the first round of the EHA Men’s Cup, which was drawn last week.

The pair drew 31-31 in the first week of the season back in September, and although Salford have fared better since then and are top of the Northern Section, they will not underestimate their rivals, who are fourth in the table.

Second in the North, Manchester will travel to Oxford University for their first round clash, while Southern Section leaders Great Dane will entertain Warwick University.

The first round of the Cup is on March 5-6, with the quarter finals on April 9-10, semi finals on May 14-15 and the final on June 4-5.

First round losers will go into a plate competition, with the matches on the same dates as above. In both the Cup and Plate, there will be a re-draw after each round.

Liverpool Tournament: Book Your Place NOW!

THE highly-popular Liverpool International Handball Festival looks set to attract another great line-up for the 2011 event on May 27-29 - and if your club wants to apply you need to act NOW!

The event is always over-subscribed, with many teams travelling over from Europe to take compete with teams from across Britain.

The men’s event will see four groups of four teams in action, while the women’s event has places for eight teams. There will also be a wheelchair handball competition.

For details of the event, please contact Peter Irving on 0151 327 1208 or at peter.irving7@ntlworld.com

Sweet Victory Gives Ruislip Title Hopes

LAST season’s runners up, Ruislip Eagles Women posted their intensions to take back the league title by winning a highly competitive and incident-packed match against champions Great Dane.

Ruislip started brightly but were soon rocked by an injury to influential back court player Lenka Kocisova and this interrupted their flow.

Both defences were strong and Ida Griffith was in fine form in goal for Great Dane, keeping out the Eagles attack.

At half time the Eagles had a narrow lead of just three goals, and Coach Mel Chowns was unhappy with the finishing of her squad as too many chances went begging.

Great Dane came out fighting in the second half and soon levelled the scores. Further incident happened though when Danes Anne Kandler took another hit and went off for a period - and without her influence the Eagles pulled away again and built up a five-goal lead.

But when Kandler returned Great Dane clawed back to within two goals before a two-minute suspension - thanks to the sending off of the Danes coach - eased the pressure on Eagles and they saw out the match to take the match 18 - 16.

But the match took its toll on both squads though with Kandler struggling at the final whistle and Sposi and Papenfuss for Eagles joining Kocisova with injuries.

The Eagles had to regroup for the match against Cambridge 24 hours later, and it was a very different team that lined up. Without either of their recognised goalkeepers, Kocisova bravely agreed to go in goal as she wasn't able to play on court, and without several of the players who saw off Great Dane, Ruislip had just seven players plus coach Chowns on standby if needed.

Ruislip built up a comfortable lead in the first 15 minutes but Cambridge, with some bright young British talent in their team, did not give up and kept within touching distance in the first half.

However, in the second half Ruislip stepped up the pace and pulled away with some great fast breaking from Telek and some great heroics from Kocisova in goal.

Coach Chowns got a 15-minute run, turning back the clock 10 years and even getting on the scoresheet with a shot from the left wing.

Ruislip can now head into the festive period happy with their start and looking forward to resuming battle and meeting rising team Deva.

Cambridge Boost Play-Off Hopes

CAMBRIDGE Men gave their English National League play-off hopes a shot in the arm last weekend, beating Ruislip Eagles 29-26 in a thrilling match at Moulton, Northampton.

Their victory was revenge for a two-goal defeat suffered in their first match of the season, and gave them only their second victory of the season.

Ruislip fielded a near full squad, whilst 11-man Cambridge gave a debut to 17 year-old schoolboy George-Catalin Micu.

Cambridge were the first to get into their stride, with some well-worked moves and a penalty giving them a 3-0 lead after five minutes, and they extended their lead to 10-5 half way through the first half.

Ruislip have a reputation for resilience, and a series of Cambridge misses brought the score back to 10-9, before Cambridge regrouped with a time-out. Consistently accurate top-corner shooting from distance by Zsolt Majoros allowed Cambridge to pull ahead 16-13 at half time.

The opening exchanges of the second half saw Ruislip clawing back at Cambridge, to level the match at 19-19 with just 15 minutes to go.

It remained goal for goal for a tense period of a few minutes, with both sides well-matched and having the measure of the other.

At 22-22, this season's French signings Olivier Wertheimer and Marc Briant combined to give Cambridge the decisive advantage they were to hold to the end of the game.

First Wertheimer scored a fine individual effort after engineering a gap on the right side of the Ruislip defence, then Briant followed up with a delicate lob from the left wing and a fast-break down the middle.

From 25-22, Ruislip were never able to get within two goals of Cambridge, and even a last-gasp man-to-man defence in the closing minute was unable to make an impact, with Cambridge running in the last goal to give a deserved 29-26 win.

For Cambridge, Zsolt Majoros scored eight goals and Marc Briant six. For Ruislip, Hugo Mazel scored 8 and Azzedine Messis six.

Close Results in Northern Section

THERE were some close encounters of the handball kind in the Northern Section of the Men’s English League on Sunday, with two of the three matches decided by just one point.

Salford and Nottingham beat Liverpool Wolves and Deva respectively by just one point, and as the league continues to see improving skills from many teams the 2010-11 season looks set to prove close to the end.

Liverpool Wolves put up a tremendous fight against an experienced Salford side, but went down 22-23.

The two sides were neck and neck for much of the game, with the Wolves’ defensive performance keeping Salford within reach - especially through the performance of goalkeeper Stuart Clarke.

Nottingham University secured a 19-18 victory over Deva to maintain their unbeaten start to the season, but with their next clash being against Salford in two weeks time, that could all change.

Leading 9-5 with half time approaching, Nottingham made some careless errors and Deva reduced the deficit to 9-7 at the break.

With one goal separating the two sides, Deva pushed on with their rivals a man down, but Nottingham held on for the win.

And in the day’s other match, Manchester beat Liverpool Speke Garston 28-10.

Bids for University Championships Due In

BIDS to host the 2011 University Handball Championships close on Monday, with the popularity of the event in recent years giving organisers some criteria to meet.

Venues must have two courts available for the bulk of the two-day event on February 19-20, and courts should normally be marked out at 36 x 19 metres.

The hosts will be responsible for all aspects of local organisation, while the England Handball office will handle other aspects such as entry fees and provision of trophies.

Final proposals must be addressed to EHA Director of Competitions, Carl Norman, and sent to the EHA office. Details can be found on www.EnglandHandball.com

Great Dane Women Record First European Victory

GREAT Dane Women beat Greek side AS Aris Thessalonikis 31-20 in the European Challenge Cup last weekend to become the first British women's team to record a European victory in over 20 years.

The London club were playing in the competition for the first time after qualifying as English League champions, and travelled with a squad of 17 to Leiria in Portugal for their two matches in the second round of the tournament.

“It was a fantastic and memorable experience for everyone,” said player Anne Kandler. “The final whistle was lost in jubilation and we won the title for the most passionate celebration for sure.”

Hosts Juvelis provided their first opposition, watched by more than 300 spectators.

Great Dane started nervously, and every technical mistake was immediately punished. But the Danes fought themselves back into the game and kept a 4-5 goal difference for most of the first half.

“The Portuguese team proved to be a physically strong opponent and their aggressive and clever 5:1 defence caused some problems,” added Kandler.

The second half followed a very similar pattern – a passionately fighting Great Dane team playing some good handball, forced the Portuguese to show their best until the end when they were 32-19 winners.

“We learnt our lesson that we can keep up with the other teams, now we only need to reduce our own technical mistakes,” added Kandler.

After some intense sessions with osteopath for all the Great Dane players, they took on Thessalonikis in their final match, and looked a different team from their opening game with variable and aggressive defence.

“The first half was relatively equal and the team played probably their best handball: beautiful goals from the wings, powerful shots from the back, impressive goalkeeping and fast breaks lead to a half time score of 16-13,” explained Kandler.

“And the second half proved that youth cannot replace experience - the oldest player of the Greek team was younger than the youngest player of our team!” she added.

Great Dane extended their lead gradually to a comfortable 31-20 victory, while in the final game of the tournament, Juvelis beat Thessalonikis 36-25.

Kandler scored 12 goals in their two games, while Iris Manu scored 11, including ten in their victory over Thessalonikis.

“It was a great experience,” added Kandler. “And the team would like to thank our coach Paulo Silva for inspiring us to a great result, Karin Modig for doing a great job in organising our Challenge Cup adventure, and our osteopath Alexia Lescure for ensuring that everyone survived it.”

National League: Wolves Begin to Bite

NATIONAL League newcomers Liverpool Wolves maintained their strong start to the season with a 33-19 victory over fellow new boys Deva at Birchwood Sports Centre on Sunday.

Both teams were quick out of the blocks to put pressure on each other, and early in the match Deva forced a string of spectacular saves from Liverpool’s in-form goalkeeper Yetis Calis.

The first stages of the match saw the two teams locked in an end-to-end battle, with perhaps the pace forcing too many careless turnovers and missed opportunities from both sides.

However, it wasn’t long before Liverpool Wolves found their form and eased into an early lead. Deva’s defence was highly physical but the Wolves were strong on the ball and managed to make the most of their opportunities in the constant six metre line tussles.

In other action, Olympia beat Ruislip Eagles 23-21 in the southern section of the league with both goalkeepers Rinkevicius and Zamani in good form.

* Wolves mascot Wolfie entertained the crowd with a penalty challenge at half time, which was won by 11- year-old George Roberts who was presented with a mini handball for his efforts.

Advanced Handball Apprenticeships Launched

TALENTED young handball stars of the future are being offered the chance to study and train as professional athletes under England Handball’s new Advanced Apprenticeship in Handball Excellence.

Starting in November, the scheme will give 20 of the current County Squad Athletes the chance to be part of the scheme, which lasts two years and is a University entry-level qualification.

Part of the EHA’s first High Performance Centre in Warrington, the scheme looks set to expand to London where a second High Performance Centre is scheduled to open in September 2011.
England Handball Director of Performance, Mick Hegarty, said: “The AASE programme has seen athletes like double Olympic gold medallist Rebecca Adlington benefit without compromising her studies.

“This qualification is, without doubt, a significant step for England Handball to support our best young players in their studies, their career prospects and their handball destinies.

“It must not be seen in isolation of the handball community and it is important that our current clubs get on board as they have a vital partnership role to play. I sincerely hope that the handball community embraces this opportunity.”

For more details of the scheme, please go to http://www.englandhandball.com/