Handball News, October 21 2009 by Frazer Snowdon

HANDBALL NEWS Edition 93, October 21 2009 - page one

THE BEST IS YET TO COME, SAY

GB AFTER FRANCE DEFEAT GREAT Britain women have vowed to battle back stronger and fitter when the European Championship resumes next year, following their 16-42 home defeat to France at Crystal Palace on Saturday. Battling GB were always playing catch-up against a taller and physically stronger France side, who were the World Champions in 2003. Victory was never really on the cards for GB, but they will learn from the experience and bounce back when the qualifying matches resume in the spring. “It was tough and

France didn’t take their foot of the gas which is the way it should be so they just proved what a professional team they are,” said captain Lynn McCafferty afterwards. “You’re putting 120 per cent into every single minute and it’s just so tough, when they are a lot taller than you, a lot more powerful than you and a lot more aggressive than you.

Report: Andrew McSteen and Frazer Snowdon

Great Britain try to repel another France attack.

“We were obviously trying to give them as much back and it’s hard to sustain it because we are still developing. We will get fitter, stronger and better as time goes on. “This match wasn’t about us coming out and saying ‘we can shock everyone and win’. It was about seeing how far we have come and how far away from France we are and what we can do about it. “We are looking at developing further before the return match in France in May, we are in this competition to compete not to make up the numbers.” Joint top-scorer in the match was French winger Siraba Dembele, who said: “It was a good experience to come to London. We didn’t know the GB team, it was a good match to play in for the European

France's Amelie Goudjo shoots above the goal during their clash with Great Britain. Photos: Ken Kamara.

Championship qualification, we found GB aggressive and hard to play against. “They don’t have a lot of experience playing international matches like this, but they had a lot of talent on show and gave us a good game.” GB head coach Jesper Holmris was happy after the match: "We’ve learnt a lot as a squad. Instead of just talking about it, we can feel it now on the body, and it gives

us new motivation to do extra hard work and that’s the good thing about playing teams like France. “Of course we can’t play teams like this a lot and its good to have them once or twice a year to see what it is like to play the very best. "It was awesome in front of the home crowd again, I hope they enjoyed the game, but it’s too early for us to play teams like France."

Scottish League Round-up Garnham on the Move A STRONG defensive performance from Liberton caused Scottish League title hopefuls Glasgow some real problems in the second week of the league North of the border. More organisation at the back – and some outstanding saves from goalkeeper Kacper Rogala - meant Liberton leaked

less goals, leaving Glasgow frustrated at times. However, Glasgow still ran out winners, 30-21. East Kilbride also improved in their tough clash with Tryst, their young players gaining good experience but still going down 27-43. Six goals from former Tryst player Chris McManus helped Stirling make a good debut in the league, but they still went

down 26-44 to a hugely experienced Cumbernauld side. A well-drilled Gracemount side showed no mercy to Ayr, running out 47-16 winners. The national team players will now head to Malta for the European Challenge Trophy from Oct 30 to Nov 1.

GREAT Britain ace Robin Garnham has signed a new contract with top Swedish club, Karra HF. Garnham has been training with the team for a few weeks, and impressed coaches enough to earn himself a contract. “Karra have just gone up one division, and have

won three out of four,” he said. “I feel very positive about the move and my future here in Gothenburg. The training is tough but very good for me, since they make me run like I’ve never done before as they play a really fast style of handball!”

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 GREAT BRITAIN v FRANCE: HOW WAS IT FOR YOU? Edition 93, October 21 2009 - page two

HANDBALL NEWS gave two London teenagers the chance to go behind the scenes at the Great Britain v France Euro 2010 clash at Crystal Palace. Aamena Kidiya and Bushara Hamida report. MY friend Bushara Hamida and I have helped out the Leyton Orient Community Sports Programme for a while now, coaching handball and helping in the communications department. We have also played for the Squirrels and Newham Flames handball clubs, and have both been lucky enough to travel to Europe and compete in youth handball tournaments such as the Berlin Cup in Germany and the Partille Cup in Sweden to and have seen how hard the competition is around Europe. So to come to Crystal Palace and see the former World Champions play in London was a great opportunity for us to see close-hand how well the professionals play. The venue for the match was really easy to get to and the floor seemed great, so hopefully one

day I’ll get to play there. Before the match Bushara and I went to interview some fans in the stand to see if they play handball themselves and to find out who they were going to be cheering on. The majority of the fans were supporting Great Britain and had come because they themselves play in school or have an interest in the sport.

Prepared After interviewing them we watched how both teams prepared themselves before a match and I took notes which I can hopefully take put into practice with my own teams. But once the start of the match got closer it was down to work. My job was to sign the media in to the press box and help with any queries they had – the box had the

Does Handball Rock your World? If you have been following the exploits of the Great Britain women's team and want to know more about handball, there are several ways to get involved. Log on to BritishHandball.com for more on the GB teams. Or to find out where your nearest team is, go to EnglandHandball.com or ScotlandHandball.com.

PR for the France team, cameramen and many reporters. During the game I had to keep a tally record of who was scoring the goals for both teams and when. I realised that, because I was concentrating on doing the task I was given properly, I paid more attention to the game then I normally do. The France team not only outplayed Great Britain but they physically looked a lot stronger as they were tall and very muscular. By paying more attention I was able to see the strengths and weaknesses of both teams. Unfortunately, the score didn't go Great Britain’s way, although after the first half I thought they may be in with a chance to narrow down the score as they seemed to have improved their game from the first 10 minutes.

Roving reporters: Aamena Kidiya and Bushara Hamida at Crystal Palace.

However France were too good and maintained their high standard of scoring goals throughout the match, even though there was a great atmosphere throughout the game from the GB fans. After the match everyone in press box went down to the court to interview the players and coaches from both teams and when they had finished, my working day was over. I really enjoyed my day but it would have been better had Great Britain won of course! Seeing how many people turned up to see the match

and experiencing the great atmosphere, I am really looking forward to watching handball at the Olympics. I hope that the Olympics will make more people aware of handball and become interested in playing or watching it. The Great Britain women will be on CBBC’s Sportsround programme soon explaining the game, so if you have friends who don’t know about handball then get them to watch it!

English League Round-up NOTTINGHAM University scraped past rivals Manchester University 1714 in the English League on Sunday in a lowscoring but action-packed clash at the University Park in Nottingham. Eight goals from Cedric Biguenet helped them to victory, while Dana Muhammed added four,

but their rivals battled well with both Hough and Castro adding four. Ahead by 10-6 at the break, Nottingham faced a fightback by Manchester in the second half and with three minutes remaining the scores were level at 14-14, until Nottingham hit back. In other English League

(North) action, Liverpool beat city rivals Speke Garston 32-23 at Greenbank with Carvalo scoring 11 goals, while Manchester beat Wirral 3520 with Aurelien Bouche scoring ten for the victors. In the Southern Section, Cambridge made a good start to their season with a 26-18 win over Ruislip.