Handball News, May 25 2011 by Frazer Snowdon

Issue 171 May 25 2011

GB Men Prepare for Turkey Meet GREAT Britain men have begun their busy summer of international action this week, flying to Turkey for a training camp which will see them take on their hosts three times. Following that the team will travel to Brazil and on to Lanzarote, as they continue to play teams with differing styles of handball to give themselves experience of a wide variety of nations. The week-long training camp in Turkey will include two matches against Turkey’s first team, while they will also play a second-string Turkish outfit.

Good Test They are due to play Turkey A on May 26, and Turkey B on May 27. Following a rest day, they will then take on Turkey A again on May 29. “Turkey will be a good opponent for us,” said assistant coach Bill Baillie. “When we

played them in the Loughborough Series earlier this year they only beat us 28-26. “But they had two or three of their main players out for that game as they couldn’t get visas, so I think they’re keen to take us on again. “It’s a good test for us as we’re about on the same level, but their team is older and more experienced with a lot of players in their late 20s and early 30s. “Hopefully, because we’re playing their B team too, we will get to see some of their younger players too. “They play a typical Mediterranean style of handball. They have an aggressive defence, we normally play against 6-0 defences, whereas they are quite open and similar to African and Asian teams in a lot Great Britain’s Chris McDermott, in action against of ways.” Turkey earlier this year. Pic: Michele Davison.

Sign Player Sponsorship Deals BRITISH Handball sponsor TastyLimburg have stepped up their support of the GB national women’s handball team by providing personal sponsorship deals with three of the GB team. The agreement was signed with Zoe Van Der Weel, Holly Lam-Moores who will become ambassadors of the TastyLimburg brand and Lynn McCafferty who will be sponsored by Dutch Engineering giant Stork, during a reception in London, and will help the players hugely as they prepare for the 2012 Olympics. The reception was held at the Harrington Hall Hotel in Kensington, where TastyLimburg welcomed officials from the 2012 Olympics, from the region of Limburg in Holland, and from business from across Britain keen to link up with the forwardGB Handball athletes Holly Lam-Moores, Zoe Van Der thinking brand. Accompanied by some fine food brought Weel and Lynn McCafferty with officials from TastyLimburg and British Handball. direct from the region, TastyLimburg

announced their plans to host an Olympic lounge in the capital during the games next year, in conjunction with British Handball. The lounge will have a Brazilian beach club theme, and will feature a beach handball court as well as hospitality areas. Following the sponsorship signing with TastyLimburg, several of the GB players who have just moved to London attended a meeting with Crystal Palace Chamber of Commerce, where Chamber members were interested to explore ways of making the most of their new Olympic-hopeful neighbours. * British Handball’s next promotion event will see the GB men’s team attend a Handball Challenge at St Pancras International Station on June 1 where they will be encouraging members of the public to pitch their skills in a game of accuracy and speed against the GB players.

Handball News is produced by Snowdon Sports Media Partners Ltd for the British Handball Association For more details please contact 0845 230 0803 or log on to BritishHandball.com or EnglandHandball.com

Issue 171 May 25 2011

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.

Photos by Mathilde

A Salford timeout had little effect, and Ruislip’s crushing 46-16 win over Nottingham earlier in the day had left Great Dane were rampant, leading 35-18. A Great Dane as outsiders for the title, series of acrobatic saves from Sebbata especially as Salford had pushed Great helped keep Dane in the hunt and their Dane hard twice in the past two weeks. 19-goal victory was soon in the bag. But Great Dane came out of the blocks on fire and their evident early aggression Quality saw them open the scoring in the first minute and build on their advantage to “This has been the hardest season so far,” lead 8-1 after just seven minutes. said Great Dane captain Jordi Ferrer-Torras Salford battled well and almost pulled afterwards. “The quality of play is level, but the Danes rallied to lead 17-10 improving every year and the teams are at the break. getting better and better. Within a minute of the second half “The spirit of the players and the fans starting Great Dane extended their lead here has just been fantastic. For the to 19-10 as Salford struggled to cope facilities we have here the atmosphere has with their rivals’ attacks. been fantastic.” But the heat of the game led to And Salford coach Bill Baillie added: “I’ve Salford being down to five players with been watching Great Dane play for over 20 Popovic and Williams in the sin-bin, and years, and that’s the best I’ve seen them Great Dane seized their chance to take play. They were very strong, and the back a 27-17 lead. court players very rarely shot off target. Friggieri A time out saw them doing the maths, And none of our lads really turned up in and they needed six more goals in 11 defence. “We’re very disappointed because we minutes to overtake Ruislip and win the league. And with Salford down to six wanted to put in a good performance, but men again, the advantage rested with the the lads will learn from these games and Londoners. gain experience and will be back.”

Next Up: The Cup 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 on June 4 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.”

Issue 171 May 25 2011

Pleasure and Pain for Ruislip Eagles 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 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 their earlier match. 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 (pictured) and Volgyi and line player Chebanova to come into the back court and fire in 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.

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 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.

Play-Off Reports by Richard Browne

Issue 171 May 25 2011

Baby Hawks Fly into Finals 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. – 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 Dedicated Ciaran Williams, the club and the players have gone from strength to Formed last summer by Donna strength, and Hankinson added: Hankinson, Sue Whitehead and “The finals are just reward for all of Nicola Reddin, the Hawks came the hard work the players have put in over the last few months. about when a series of trials for a “No matter what the result on 4th one-off team for the regional June to have achieved so much in championships were held. such a short time was nothing short Hankinson explained: “We trained of a miracle - we are the newest club every Wednesday for a couple of with the least experienced players months and soon realised that we yet all we have done match after had a dedicated and talented bunch match and session after session is of athletes who’d really fallen in love improve.” with our sport. If anyone is interested in joining “We soon realised that if we didn’t the club contact Donna Hankinson give them a platform on which to via email at donna@turnercontinue they would be lost forever bianca.co.uk

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.

OXFORD University secured promotion to Division One of the English National League for next season after topping the Development League South play-offs at Cranfield University on Saturday. But Oxford didn’t have it all their own way, and were given two close games by hosts Cranfield and University College London. Seven goals each from Jens Krause and Halfdan Lynde Ottosen helped Oxford beat Cranfield 25-23, while Julien Faure also scored seven for Cranfield. And in their second match they won 31-27 against UCL. In the day’s other games, UCL beat Imperial Eagles 29-24, with El Hawary in great form, scoring 13 goals, while Hugo Mazel of Imperial scored seven.

Tryst Edge to Scottish Cup Victory TRYST secured the Scottish Cup in style on Saturday, beating rivals Gracemount 33-29 after a thrilling day of handball. The league leaders are on track to do the double after beating Gracemount in the Cup final, but they were made to battle all the way for victory. The match was close throughout, but towards the end both sides found themselves a man down and it was Tryst who adapted better to clinch the win. In the women’s final Glasgow overwhelmed Gracemount 32-13 to secure victory over an Edinburgh side

which was missing a couple of key players. Earlier in the day East Kilbride beat Ayr 16-13 in the Under-16 boys final, with their experience proving key, while Livingston battled back from a fourgoal deficit at half time in the Under-16 girls final to beat East Kilbride 18-13. A stronger squad proved the difference for East Kilbride, who beat an under-strength Livingston team 3219 in the Under-14 final, while East Kilbride came out on top after a wellfought five-team mini tournament for the Under-12s, narrowly beating Gracemount in the final.