Handball News
Issue 111 March 10 2010
Handball Development Set for Major Boost in London THE growth of handball in Great Britain has taken another big step forward with the appointment of a full-time Handball Development Officer in London. Ari Bekker, who began her three-year contract last week, is already a familiar face in the capital’s handball scene. She grew up in Hungary where she played and coached the game before moving to England eight years ago.
She has played handball in the National League with four different clubs, and has extensive contacts within the sport. For the last three years Ari has helped the Leyton Orient Community Sports Programme develop handball into one of the most popular sports in several schools across the region. And she can now continue that work with the backing of the EHA, Newham Borough Council as well as Leyton SCORE.
GB’s Larsson Moves to Norway GREAT Britain ace Steven Larsson has moved to Norwegian club Oppsal for the rest of the season, and looks set to play a key role in helping them reach the top flight. Oppsal, a club based near Oslo, have big ambitions to reach the highest Norwegian League. Larsson (pictured) has moved for the rest of this season, but aims to impress his new employers in the final four months of this year and earn himself a contract for next season.
He has moved from Danish outfit Lemvig in search of stability, with economic problems in Denmark forcing many teams to cut their wage bill and roster.
Pic: Dan Rowley/Colorsport
“The feedback and interest from the children and in the sport has been extremely positive and I feel it can be great success with hard work and enthusiasm in developing handball further,” she said. “I look forward to work more closely with Newham Sports Activity Team and England Handball.” Her role will focus on an ambitious handball development programme aimed at increasing participation and creating opportunities for
competition at all ages and groups, paying particular attention to building capacity and strengthening links between schools, the FE/HE sector and underrepresented groups. Developing leadership and a volunteer workforce will also be a key responsibility in sustaining handball beyond 2012.
Play Your Part in the GB Olympic Dream BRITISH Handball is looking to recruit people to three key positions within the GB men’s programme - Team Manager and two Under-21 Assistant Coach. The vacancies offer an exciting chance for the right candidate to travel with the respective teams to training camps and competitions across the world. Applications for the roles should reach andrea.snowdon
@britishhandball.com by March 22. For more details on the roles, please log on to BritishHandball.com and click on the ‘opportunities’ link on the left.
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
Handball News
Issue 111 March 10 2010
Battling Nottingham Surge Into Play-Offs THE line-up for the English Men’s National League play-offs was completed last weekend after Nottingham University secured a hard-fought 31-28 win over Liverpool Speke Garston. That victory meant they leap-frogged Liverpool into third spot, securing their place in the end-ofseason competition where they will battle for the overall national title. All regular season games have been completed with the exception of Salford versus Wirral, which will take place on Thursday evening, but barring a big upset the fixtures for the play-offs are now confirmed and begin this Sunday. Southern Section winners Great Dane will play Nottingham at Moulton, Northampton, in the opening clash on Sunday, and will
start as favourites to maintain their unbeaten record. Following that clash, Olympia will meet Manchester, while Cambridge are scheduled to play Salford in the final match of the day. However, with several players due to attend a training camp with GB Under21s in Liverpool this weekend, Salford may not attend. Nottingham’s victory over Speke Garston was their first of 2010, but was just enough to put them through to the end-of-season competition. Speke scored first and it took Nottingham a while to get into gear, but they eventually opened up a 16-13 half time lead. Nottingham played with more confidence in the second half, defending more strongly and taking a
Results, March 3 Men’s English League (North): Salford 24 University of Manchester 28.
Results, March 6 Men’s Scottish League: Tryst 51 Ayr 23, Cumbernauld 30 Liberton 26, Glasgow 55 East Kilbride 20.
Men’s English Lge (North)
P
W
Manchester
12
11
Salford
11
7
Nottingham Univ
12
6
2
4
303
Liverpool
12
6
1
5
304
Liverpool Speke Garston
12
4
0
8
300
304
-4
8
Manchester Univ
12
3
0
9
245
328
-83
6
Wirral
11
2
1
8
222
303
-81
5
P
W
D
L
F
A
Diff
Pts
Men’s English Lge (South)
Results, March 7
five goal lead early on. But Nottingham took their foot off the gas and let Speke Garstonback in. However, Nottingham University did just enough to win with Guillaume Bodet (pictured) scoring eight goals, while Jon Mardaras provided another seven. But the outstanding performer on the day was Hennessey who scored an impressive 12 goals for Liverpool Speke Garston. Nottingham University’s success this season has largely been built on their defence, and both keepers played superbly. Rafael Manzano has clearly settled into the team after joining the team in the New Year, while captain Dana Muhammed was as dependable as ever. D
L
F
A
Diff
Pts
0
1
364
244
120
22
0
4
314
283
31
14
300
3
14
290
14
13
Great Dane
8
7
1
0
230
166
64
15
Cambridge
8
5
1
2
201
169
32
11
Olympia
8
4
0
4
181
187
-6
8
Ruislip Eagles
8
3
0
5
156
185
-29
6
Thames
8
0
0
8
137
198
-61
0
P
W
D
L
F
A
Diff
Pts
Gracemount
9
9
0
0
363
207
196
18
Cumbernauld
9
8
0
1
260
188
72
16
Fixtures, March 14
Glasgow
9
7
0
2
319
240
79
14
Tryst 77
9
5
0
4
280
199
81
10
Men’s English League play-offs (Moulton, Northampton): Great Dane v Nottingham, Olympia v Manchester, Cambridge v Salford.
Liberton
10
3
0
7
246
288
-42
6
Ayr
10
1
0
9
186
318
-132
2
East Kilbride
10
0
0
10
218
432
-214
0
Men’s English League (North): Nottingham University 31 Liverpool Speke Garston 28.
Fixtures, March 11 Men’s English League (North): Salford v Wirral.
Men’s Scottish League
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
Handball News
Issue 111 March 10 2010
Cumbernauld Cling to Scottish Title Hopes CUMBERNAULD kept alive their feint hopes of taking the Scottish League title with a win over Liberton on Saturday - but they had to battle hard before taking the points 30-26.
Action from the Cumbernauld versus Gracemount clash earlier in the season.
Second-placed Cumbernauld are now two points behind unbeaten league leaders Gracemount, and must hope that their rivals slip up in one of their next two games. If that happens, the fate of the title could come down to the clash between Cumbernauld and Gracemount on the final day of the season on April 17. Against Liberton, Cumbernauld opened up a four-goal lead late in the half with some fast breaks, and although Liberton reduced
IHF Announce Rule Changes A SET of amendments to the rules of handball have been announced by the International Handball Federation. The changes - which take effect from July 1 2010 cover a range of topics, but contain alterations to rules regarding fouls, unsportsmanlike conduct GB v Iceland - March 31 and passive play which all Get your tickets NOW at National League players BritishHandball.com! and officials should be aware of. The IHF documents detailing all the changes are available for download from EnglandHandball.com
that deficit to two in the second half, Cumbernauld held out for victory. Alan Govan led the way for Cumbernauld scoring seven goals, while Vincent Martinez, Christophe Kraemmer and Florent Dumont netted five each for Liberton. In other Scottish League action, Glasgow overwhelmed East Kilbride 55-20 to maintain their slight hopes of challenging for the league title. Having finished second in the British university Championships a fortnight ago, they proved too strong
for a young and inexperienced EK side. All of Glasgow’s players found the net with Danos Sagias scoring 14 goals and Christoph Boettger 10 goals. Andy Wallace and Mick Laverty scored seven goals each for EK. And in the day’s other Scottish match, Tryst beat an Ayr who had just the bare seven players 51-23. Bruce Hunter was the top scorer for Tryst with 16, while Gary McCafferty added 15. Kriss Szulc scored 11 goals for Ayr.
New Website Makes it Even Easier to Play Handball! A NEW website looks set to make it even easier for people to get into handball - in fact just about any sport you can think of!
enjoy the benefits of the website by creating and updating their very own profile page, as well as keeping
existing
and
prospective new members GetIntoTheGame.co.uk has just announced a link- updated with their very up with British Handball latest club news and which will enable information. prospective handball players to find their local clubs with ease. Handball clubs around the country will be able to
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