EHA Cup finals this Saturday

CRYSTAL Palace National Sports Centre is the venue for England Handball’s finals day this Saturday, a great chance to see some of the best handball the country has to offer!

Four great matches have been lined up, and for the participants it will mark the end of a long season of handball action which has seen them reach the final hurdle.
The EHA Men’s Plate will see Deva and Olympia do battle at 11.30am, with the presentation to the winner at 12.40pm.

The Under-18 Girls Cup final sees North East Manchester Hawks take on Wirral at 1.20pm, with the presentations following at 2.20pm.

The Hawks are also in the Under-18 Boys final and face Warrington at 2.35pm, with presentations at 3.55pm.

Finally, the EHA Women’s Cup final will see London GD take on Ruislip Eagles at 4.50pm, with presentations at 6pm.

The final of the EHA Men’s Cup will take place at Bethnal Green on June 30 between Salford and London GD.

Edinburgh win Scottish Cup final

EDINBURGH were crowned Scottish Cup winners at the end of a thrilling day of action at the Ravenscraig Sports Centre on Saturday.

They ran out 41-20 winners over Dundee in the final, which was the highlight of a great day of action and a fitting culmination to a good season of handball action.

Earlier in the day Tryst had won the women’s final with a 35-22 victory over East Kilbride, while EK did have some glory, winning the girls Under-16 final 26-18 against Tryst.

East Kilbride’s Under-14 boys team win 20-16 against Livingston, however Livingston did take some glory from the day with a 22-18 win over Ayr in the boys Under-16 match.

Schools Finals line-up confirmed

THE line-up for the National Schools Handball competition is known after some thrilling action in the second round held last week.

More teams than ever before have taken part in this year’s tournaments, which have been split into different regions and age groups in order to fit in the amount of handball necessary to determine who makes it to the finals on Saturday, June 23 at the SportHouse complex in Barking.

In the boys event there were nine teams competing to finish in the top three and go through, and it was very close, going down to the number of goals scored.

The Bromfords School finished top of the group, while below them there were three teams all on 11 points, but after looking at the number of goals scored the teams joining Bromfords are All Saints and Harris, with Seven Kings missing out by just one goal.

In the girls competition it was Barking Abbey and Harris who qualified for the finals.

And in the Under-13 tournament, Harris, Erith School and the Ark Academy have reached the boys finals, while Harris and Ark Academy have also qualified for the girls U13 finals.

London Handball Development Officer Ari Bekker said afterwards: “It has been a great year for handball, we have had more teams competing in the National competition than ever before.

“The level has been extremely high and competitive throughout the rounds. It’s very exciting to have the national finals in London this year just a month before the Olympics. I’m looking forward to see the best teams from across the country competing against each other in the Finals on 23rd June.”

Chris Baker, coach of the Under-15 team from the Bromfords School said: “The Bromfords players have done extremely well as most of the players are very new to the game this is their first competition.

"The Buccaneers players have been playing for just under a year. It has been a great journey for them qualifying through the first round of this excellently run competition. And having one of our players Josh Da Silva was scouted for the England U16 team, so he will be going on tour to Sweden with the England squad which for him will be a fantastic experience.

“We would like to thank England Handball for this unbelievable competition, we are really looking forwards to playing against all the teams and wish them luck and may the best school triumph.”

And Harris Boys U15 player Josh Connolly added: “'The team was over the moon when they found out that they had qualified for the national final!

“The tournament was so close that the qualifying positions came down to goal difference and goals scored, this was very exciting and a testament to development of the quality of handball in the South of England. The team are looking forward to the Challenge of trying to became the best U15 team in the country.''

EHA Awards nominations now needed!

THE awards season is upon us, and nominations are invited for the England Handball Awards.

Your nominations must be in by June 5, so there is no time to spare!

Categories are:
Coach of the Season (all competitions)
Team Official of the Year (all competitions)
Referee Pair of the Season (all competitions)
Player of the Season (men's senior competitions)
Player of the Season (women's senior competitions)
U18 Player of the Season (all men's competitions)
U18 Player of the Season (all women's competitions)

Clubs may nominate one person (or one pair, in the case of the referees award) for the coach, team official and referee awards. This person may be from their own club or another club. A brief qualifying statement (150 words max) must accompany the nomination.

For the player awards, clubs are requested preferably to nominate players from opposing clubs. Clubs should therefore nominate a maximum of two players in any one category, with the proviso that only of those players may be from their own club. A very brief statement (100 words max) naming the player, his/her club and justifying the nomination should accompany the nomination. The deadline for nominations is 5th June.

All nominations are to be sent to Miriam Pedersen miriamp@greatersport.co.uk

Don't delay: Vote now!

Ruislip Eagles women win the league

RUISLIP Eagles Ladies successfully defended their National League title by securing a comfortable 32-20 win against Olympia on Sunday.

With London GD fielding a weakened team and unexpectedly losing their final game against Thames in the match before, Ruislip had the luxury of knowing that they were champions again before the match even started but were determined to finish with another victory.

The match was tightly contested throughout the first half with Olympia’s Dorota Basta playing an influential part but gradually Eagles exerted their influence over the game and went in at half time with a two goal lead.

From then on the result was never in doubt as Ruislip stepped up with the fast breaks and Dani Sposi scored 10 goals to ensure the comfortable win but it was not a match that pleased coach Mel Chowns from an aesthetic point of view.

“I am delighted we have won the league again but this was not a pretty match for the spectators and not our best performance but I guess that doesn’t matter on a day like today. We have had a very tough season with some horrendous injuries to key players so I am very proud of the team to keep going and secure another title.”

Ruislip Eagles and London GD will contest the Cup Final on June 9th but Ruislip could well be without Coach Chowns and Dani Sposi who are on GB duty in Spain.

Thames victory shocks London GD

THAMES climbed to third in the table on the back of their shock National League victory over London GD at Leyton SCORE Centre on Sunday.

London GD got off the starting block slightly better than Thames and were leading by a couple of goals throughout the first half of the match.

Thames were nevertheless trying to answer goal for goal to avoid letting their opponents develop too much of a lead. Halftime the score was 9:8 to London GD, with Emilie Enger Aas scoring for Thames HC; a split-second before the halftime whistle went.

This last-breath goal proved decisive as Thames came out of the break with renewed spirits. The second half was very much a one-sided affair.

Close, rigorous defending and taking more chances in attach soon led to a 3 goal advantage for Thames HC and mistakes started to creep in as London GD saw the hope for the League title slip away from them.

During the 30 minutes of the second half, Thames only conceded three goals overall whilst managing to score 9-4 of the penalty shots as the opposition's defence had to resort to fouls to stop the attacks from wings and back court players. After a team time out called by London GD's coach, they rallied round but it was a mixture of desperation and bad luck that in the end spelt defeat for the EHA Cup title aspirant.

Thames ended third in the National League and are hopeful of entering the new season with a quality team, challenging the rest for both the League and the Cup title in 2013.

Top goalscorer for Thames was Emilie Enger Aas with 9 goals followed by Olimpia deVeiga and Nikoletta Papp with 3 goals each.

Top international referee coming to England

FORMER elite IHF referee Peter Hansson will be delivering the EHA’s latest Referees’ Course this weekend in tandem with the Liverpool International Tournament.

The Swedish referee is an EHF lecturer and is coming over to help with the development of refereeing skills in England.

The free of charge course will see a number of sessions, both practical and theoretical.