England's Finest Prepare for Finals

THE best handball teams from across England come to Crystal Palace National Sports Centre on Saturday for a day of four EHA Cup finals.

Warrington Wolves take on the North East Manchester Hawks in the EHA Girls Cup final at 12noon, and that is followed by the Boys final at 1pm, featuring North East Manchester Hawks and Olympia Cannock.

Unbeaten all season in the league, Ruislip Eagles take on Olympia in the EHA Women’s Cup final at 2pm, followed by the Men’s final at 4pm which sees league champions Great Dane and runners-up Ruislip Eagles.

With the league title already in the bag, there has been little time for Great Dane to celebrate as they prepare for the EHA Cup final.

“We can’t rest yet,” said Great Dane captain Jordi Ferrer-Torras. “We’ll be ready and fighting for the final of the cup.”

Likewise, the captain of league runners-up and cup holders Ruislip, Marc Fayemi, was raring to go for the final despite conceding the league title.

“We’ve beaten Great Dane twice this season already and we’ll have to show them our quality in the cup final. We’ll be ready for them.”

It looks set to be a busy day for GB Team Manager Mel Chowns, who is also head coach for Ruislip Eagles Women and will be eager to see her domestic team complete the league and cup double, while also ensuring that Great Britain go through to the next stage of Euro 2012 for victory over Finland.

Fourth Consecutive Title for Great Dane

GREAT Dane secured a big 39-20 win over rivals Salford on the final day of the league season at Leyton SCORE Centre in London, overturning Ruislip’s goal difference and securing a fourth consecutive league title by just two goals. Richard Browne Reports.

Ruislip’s crushing 46-16 win over Nottingham earlier in the day had left Great Dane as outsiders for the title, especially as Salford had pushed Great Dane hard twice in the past two weeks.

But Great Dane came out of the blocks on fire and their evident early aggression saw them open the scoring in the first minute and build on their advantage to lead 8-1 after just seven minutes.

Salford battled well and almost pulled level, but the Danes rallied to lead 17-10 at the break.

Within a minute of the second half starting Great Dane extended their lead to 19-10 as Salford struggled to cope with their rivals’ attacks.

But the heat of the game led to Salford being down to five players with Popovic and Williams in the sin-bin, and Great Dane seized their chance to take a 27-17 lead.

A time out saw them doing the maths, and they needed six more goals in 11 minutes to overtake Ruislip and win the league. And with Salford down to six men again, the advantage rested with the Londoners.

A Salford timeout had little effect, and Great Dane were rampant, leading 35-18. A series of acrobatic saves from Sebbata helped keep Dane in the hunt and their 19-goal victory was soon in the bag.

“This has been the hardest season so far,” said Great Dane captain Jordi Ferrer-Torras afterwards. “The quality of play is improving every year and the teams are getting better and better.

“The spirit of the players and the fans here has just been fantastic. For the facilities we have here the atmosphere has been fantastic.”

And Salford coach Bill Baillie added: “I’ve been watching Great Dane play for over 20 years, and that’s the best I’ve seen them play. They were very strong, and the back court players very rarely shot off target. And none of our lads really turned up in defence.

“We’re very disappointed because we wanted to put in a good performance, but the lads will learn from these games and gain experience and will be back.”

EHA Cup: Battle Lines Drawn

WITH the league title in the bag, there will be little time for Great Dane to celebrate as they prepare for the EHA Cup final against rivals Ruislip this Saturday at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre.

“We can’t rest yet,” said Great Dane captain Jordi Ferrer-Torras. “We’ll be ready and fighting for the final of the cup.”

Likewise, the captain of league runners-up and cup holders Ruislip, Marc Fayemi, was raring to go for the final despite conceding the league title.

“We’ve beaten Great Dane twice this season already and we’ll have to show them our quality in the cup final. We’ll be ready for them.”

Ruislip Women Wrap up League

RUISLIP Eagles women finished off the league season in fine style with a convincing 42-15 victory over Deva on Saturday.

Just two weeks earlier, the young Deva squad had scored 30 goals against the champions in their cup defeat, but it was a very determined and strengthened Ruislip squad that faced the northern side last weekend.

The Eagles were keen to use the match to prepare well for this Saturday’s cup final, after the challenging cup semi-final against Great Dane. And they got off to a flier, racing to a significant lead after 15 minutes in a reverse of what had happened in the earlier match between the two sides.

Deva attempted to break up Ruislip’s flow and neutralise the threat of Telek and Sposi by marking them out but the tactic only left too much room for wingers Bjarnadóttir and Volgyi and line player Chebanova to come into the back court and fire in impressively from nine metres.

Deva coach Donna Hankinson changed tactics and contained Ruislip for a short while, but the champions had too much experience and power and piled on the pressure in the second half with more fast breaks and some good set plays.

Ruislip now look to win back the English Cup and remain the only club in England to go unbeaten all season. Ruislip’s top scorers were: Bjarnadóttir and Sposi with 10 each and Telek with 8.

Title Hopes Dashed for Ruislip

A PASSIONATE Ruislip Eagles performance got the final day of the season off to a flier when they hammered Nottingham University 46-16 - but it was to end in disappointment with rivals Great Dane pipping them to the Men’s title.

Ruislip went into their final game of the season 13 goals behind leaders Great Dane. And knowing that goal difference could be key in the title run in, Ruislip came out of the blocks firing on all cylinders and raced into a four-goal lead within four minutes.

But Nottingham played hard and refused to roll over and scored some good goals, but Ruislip were still ahead 21-11 at half time.

However, their lack of substitutes began to tell after the break and Nottingham’s hopes drifted away.

Ruislip continued to dominate and with every goal that went in increasing their chances of snatching the title, they were met with increasingly rapturous cheers. When the final whistle blew with the score at 46-16 a number of the team collapsed joyously on the floor.

However with all still riding on the final game between Great Dane and Salford the initial wild celebrations were slowly reined in to await the outcome of that game.

Olympia Claim Europe Spot

OLYMPIA overcame a combatant Manchester side without too much discomfort in the day’s second game, winning 28-21 to send them above Salford in the quest for the third European spot.

Knowing that a win would pile the pressure on Salford in the final game, Olympia started strongly and took an early lead and were looking solid at 4-1 up after 10 minutes. However, with Zsolt Deak in Manchester’s goal pulling off a sting of fine saves Olympia’s domination wasn’t reflected in the score line as Manchester pulled it back to 7-5.

Manchester’s aggressive defending style saw them concede three first half penalties but their robustness and tenacity ensured they remained within touching distance of Olympia, heading for the break only 13-10 down. However, a noisy crowd helped cheer Olympia on and they opened up a 21-14 lead.

Despite a lack of replacements, Manchester battled on and with the gap only five goals with ten minutes left, Olympia clung on nervously to their lead and when the whistle blew there were muted celebrations as they waited for the Salford result to confirm their spot in Europe.

Baby Hawks Fly into Final

JUST 12 months after their formation, North East Manchester Hawks are preparing to field both their Under-18 boys and girls teams in the National Youth Finals at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre next weekend.
The Under-18 girls will face Warrington Wolves in the final after beating an experienced Deva side 16-9 in their semi, despite the fact that five of their players had not even heard of handball six months ago.

Formed last summer by Donna Hankinson, Sue Whitehead and Nicola Reddin, the Hawks came about when a series of trials for a one-off team for the regional championships were held.

Hankinson explained: “We trained every Wednesday for a couple of months and soon realised that we had a dedicated and talented bunch of athletes who’d really fallen in love with our sport.

“We soon realised that if we didn’t give them a platform on which to continue they would be lost forever – hence the reason why the Hawks were founded.”

Since then their progress has been rapid, and they have around 70 per cent of their players with England Youth caps, while one - James Higgins - was selected for the GB Under-21s.

With regular help from GB captain Ciaran Williams, the club and the players have gone from strength to strength, and Hankinson added: “The finals are just reward for all of the hard work the players have put in over the last few months.

“No matter what the result on 4th June to have achieved so much in such a short time was nothing short of a miracle - we are the newest club with the least experienced players yet all we have done match after match and session after session is improve.”

If anyone is interested in joining the club contact Donna Hankinson via email at donna@turner-bianca.co.uk