London GD keep title hopes alive

London GD maintained the push for the Men’s National League title when they beat Leeds Hornets 40-24 at the Greenbank Sports Academy in Liverpool on Sunday.

Second in the table, London GD will need to win their remaining two matches – and hope Salford lose both theirs – if they are to take the 2011-12 title.

Against Leeds, London GD had Juan Carrasco to thank for scoring ten goals, while Phillip Altong chipped in the eight.

Marcin Cwik scored 13 for Leeds, but it was not enough to avoid defeat for a Hornets team who had just the seven bare players for the match.

In other matches, third-placed Ruislip Eagles beat Manchester 31-24 with Christian Nguelo scoring seven goals. For Manchester, Minas Georgiou and Semit Liatouji both scored seven goals, but Manchester couldn’t overhaul their opponents.

Table-topping Salford were given a 10-0 walkover in their clash with Cambridge, who failed to raise a side for the match.

But Salford’s title is far from certain – their final two matches in the play-offs are against second-placed London GD and third-placed Ruislip Eagles.

Play-off Hopes on Hold for Wolves

LIVERPOOL Wolves’ hopes of reaching the end of season play-offs will have to be put on hold for another week after they were beaten 25-20 by Leeds Hornets in the National League Northern Section on Sunday.

Both teams kept scoring at the beginning of the match. This wasn't Liverpool Wolves’ plan, who were hoping their previously successful 5:1 defence would bear better results than that.

However, both left half and left winger from Leeds, polish players Ivojciech Bienias and Marcin Cwik proved too difficult to mark for the young Liverpool defence and kept scoring throughout the half with not much opposition.

On the other side of the court, Liverpool Wolves struggled with an old enemy of theirs: missing clear shots on the goal. Both Leeds goalkeepers excelled in the game and stopped Liverpool Wolves from being able to keep up with Leeds scoring run.

Towards the end of the half, Liverpool Wolves switched to a deep defence marking the top Leeds players, and that halted Leeds attack. Unfortunately, sometimes due to an aggressive Leeds defence and sometimes due to their own fault, the Wolves kept missing shots and the goal difference remained three-up for Leeds at half time.

The second half started as the previous one finished. Liverpool Wolves kept marking Leeds’ two best players. Things were not going to get better for Leeds unless the other players in the court stepped up to the occasion and were able to be dangerous and score goals. And so they did.

Kami Katebi and Danial Skuza kept moving without the ball to achieve penetrations against a sometimes paralysed back defence from Liverpool. Leeds kept finding gaps, and so the distance between the teams grew bigger, as Liverpool's attack didn't get much better, with missing shots from almost every position, including line, wing, half, centre and even penalties!

Mid-way through the second half the Leeds players started to get tired and their aggressive defence became sometimes too dangerous. The referees started giving them two minutes with 10 minutes to finish the game, but Liverpool only managed to cut the goal difference by three and the final score was a victory for Leeds: 20-25.

This victory leaves the table very open in the fight for the third place for the play offs. Deva, with three matches to go, and Leeds and Liverpool Wolves, with two each, can all still go through if they win their remaining games.

Avery Hits Form as Salford Win

LEADERS Salford cruised to a comfortable 35-12 victory over Leeds Hornets in the English National League’s northern section, to maintain their narrow advantage at the top of the table.

The game began in the usual manner for Salford as they quickly opened up a five-goal lead. However, some great goalkeeping from Lukasz Narel in the Leeds goal gave them a spur of hope and allowed the Yorkshire side to get back to within three at the quarter hour mark.

Alas though, that was the closest Leeds were to come. Salford's almost impenetrable defence allowed Leeds to score just one more goal by half time. In comparison Salford retained their rhythm scoring a further 7 to go in at half time ahead 13-4.

The second half was to be no better for Leeds. Salford's superior fitness combined with their strong defence just made life too difficult. Even when they did manage to get a shot on target Rob Avery in the Salford goal proved to be more than a match for it.

By the 50th minute Salford's lead had grown to 20 goals at 28:8. Although the Leeds goalkeeper was still making life difficult for Salford, who had to revert to a wide variety of creative shooting techniques to beat him. By full time though, the gulf between the two teams was evident for all to see with Salford notching up another victory by more than 20 goals at 35 goals to 12.

Notable performances on the day came from Lukasz Narel in the Leeds goal, despite the final scoreline.

From Salford Aden Woodall with 10 goals and 6 assists, Josh Hampson with 6 goals and Ryan Goodwin with 5 goals and 4 blocks were the notable court players. And with a 62 per cent save rate, plaudits also must go to Rob Avery in the Salford goal.

Baptism of Fire for Newcomers Leeds Hornets

Newly promoted Leeds Hornets faced a baptism of fire as they played their first game in Division One against last year’s Northern League champions, Salford, who ran out 31-22 winners.

With Salford scoring an average of 32 goals per game and only conceding an average of 20, this was going to be a tough task for the newcomers. However, Leeds seemed to relish the task and came out confident to show that their promotion was well deserved.

Salford's defence was strong throughout the game. Only two of Leeds’ shots came from breaks through the defence and only two from fast breaks.

In attack, Salford were equally as efficient. Once again notching up more than 30 goals. Indeed, if it weren't for a number of technical errors that score could've easily been over 40!

But Leeds themselves proved to be no pushovers. Whilst the scoreline may indicate a comfortable win for Salford, in reality this was far from the case.

Leeds made Salford work hard for their victory and after a few games they will doubtless become one of the favourites to reach the end of season play-off slots and the offer of a place in next year's Super 8 League.

In the day’s other match, Liverpool Wolves beat Nottingham University 28-22.

Deva were handed a 10-0 win over the University of Manchester, who couldn’t raise a side.

* This Sunday, Liverpool Speke Garston play Salford and Manchester play Liverpool Wolves at Greenbank Sports Academy in Liverpool.

And at Birchwood in Warrington, Nottingham University play the University of Manchester, while Deva face Leeds Hornets.

* Pictures from Sunday's matches are available here

Deva Win Nottingham Tournament

DEVA Handball Club were crowned Nottingham Tournament champions 2011 after a thrilling event at the city’s university on Sunday.

With most of their players all being home-grown and under-23, Deva battled well in the event at the Sutton Bonnington campus and proved that the future of handball in England is in safe hands.

With six teams playing in a round-robin format, it was not until the penultimate clash of 15 games that the title was decided.

Newcomers to the National League this coming season, Leeds Hornets provided Deva with some stiff opposition, and the fate of the match was in the balance right to the final whistle of the 25-minute game which Deva eventually won 11-10 after an end-to-end match.

While Deva’s top-scorer was Tyler, the play of the tournament was Leeds Hornets’ goalkeeper Lukasz Narel, while the Fair Play Award went to the South West Select side which was made up on players from Bath, Bristol and Cardiff.

Other teams who took part of played a vital part in making it such a success were Liverpool Speke Garston, Nottingham University, Deva, Manchester University and an East Midlands Select side featuring players from Lincoln and Peterborough.

Next year’s event looks set to be bigger and better, with organisers aiming to make it a two-day international event.

Dozens of photographs from the Nottingham Tournament - take by Michele Davison - are available to view here