HANDBALL NEWSEnglish edition 26, April 1 2008

BRIGHT FUTURE FOR GB AFTERSUPERB CHALLENGE TROPHY

Team P W D L F A Diff Pt

Bosnia Herz 3 3 0 0 99 56 43 6

Finland 3 2 0 1 98 57 41 4

Israel 3 1 0 2 79 80 -1 2

Malta 3 0 0 3 30 113 -83 0

Team P W D L F A Diff Pt

Great Britain 3 3 0 0 72 49 23 6

Faroe Islands 3 1 0 2 70 59 11 2

Estonia 3 1 0 2 58 68 -10 2

Cyprus 3 1 0 2 52 76 -24 2

TEAM P W L D F A Diff Pts

Great Dane 6 6 0 0 176 109 67 12

Manchester U 6 4 0 2 176 144 32 10

Manchester 6 3 2 1 164 163 1 7

Cambridge 6 2 3 1 165 173 -8 5

Oxford 6 1 5 0 142 166 -24 2

Bolton 6 0 6 0 144 212 -68 0

Handball News is produced by Snowdon Sports for the British Handball Association, supported by

For more details please contact 0845 230 0803 or log on to www.englandhandball.com

for five matches.

Tryst player Stuart

McLaughlan was banned

from competing in the rest

of the 2008 British Cup.

For more details log on

to the England Handball

Association website at

www.englandhandball.com

Mar 30: Faroe Islands 17 Finland 25

Challenge Trophy Final

Semi-Finals

Mar 29: Bosnia 20 Faroe Islands 21

Mar 30: Great Britain 16 Bosnia 23

Bronze Medal play-off

Mar 27: Great Britain 19 Faroe Islands 16

Mar 28: Great Britain 24 Estonia 16

Men's Play-off NewsPLAY-off leaders Great Dane

take on second-placed

Manchester University at

Leyton on Sunday in a must-

win match for the student

side.

The clash of the top two is

the final game in the

programme, but before that

Cambridge, fourth, and

Manchester, third, will play

with both needing points to

maintain hopes of glory.

And in between those

two games, Bolton will play

Oxford and will be looking to

score a victory and avoid

the wooden spoon.

National Division One Play-Off table

FIXTURES, April 6

Men's National League Play-offs (Leyton, London):

Cambridge v Manchester, Oxford v Bolton, Great Dane v

Manchester Univ.

THE England Handball

Association has placed

bans on three players

following an incident in the

British Cup match between

Olympia and Tryst at

Leyton on March 16 which

led to the game being

abandoned.

Olympia’s Arturas

Kaskelis received a 40-

month ban from all

competitions, while team-

mate Vytautas Lenkevicius

was banned from further

involvement in this year’s

Cup, and was also banned

from the English League

Group Stages: GB results

Mar 29: Great Britain 16 Finland 29

EHA ruling on Olympia versus TrystHigh-flyer: Holly Lam-Moores in action against Cyprus.

Main Round Group B

Main Round Group A

Mar 26: Great Britain 29 Cyprus 17

GREAT Britain Women achieved their target of

finishing in the top four of the European Challenge

Trophy in Cyprus last week, but narrowly missed out

on the bronze medal after losing 23-16 to Bosnia

Herzegovina.

Head coach Jesper Holmris

had targeted a top four finish

in the event and that is what

they achieved, leaving the

squad in good spirits and

optimistic for the future of a

young team.

Their defence was superb

throughout and they scored

many goals from fast break

attacks, and with every

member of the squad playing

at the top of their game it

gives Holmris and his team a

positive base to work from as

they plan the next stage of the

GB team’s development.

With the team's focus on a

very mobile and aggressive

defence, the players' strength

and fitness was tested to the

full and proved to be

outstanding throughout the

gruelling tournament,

demonstrating that the work

being done with the World

Class Handball programme,

both in Denmark and

Sheffield, is paying dividends.

The team who finally

knocked Great Britain out of

the competition, Finland,

went on to win convincingly in

the final where they beat the

Faroe Islands 25-17.

The GB campaign had

started in confident style, with

a 29-17 victory over hosts

Cyprus, and then remained

unbeaten through the group

stages with victories over the

Faroe Islands (19-16), and

Estonia (24-16).

But in the semi-finals they

lost out to eventual winners

Finland 29-16, and the next

day battled hard for the

bronze with previous

tournament winners Bosnia

Herzegovina, only to lose 23-

16.

Top scorer in the

competition was Holly Lam-

Moores, while Kelsi

Fairbrother was named in the

all-stars team as the best right

wing in the tournament, as

voted for by each team’s head

coach. Goalkeeper Sarah

Hargreaves narrowly missed

out on a spot in the all-stars

team after a consistently

strong performance, but was

just beaten by her Bosnian

counterpart.

* See page two of Handball

News for more pictures from

the Challenge Trophy.

HANDBALL NEWSPhotographs by Andreas Papadopoulos

CHALLENGE TROPHY PICTURE SPECIAL

Handball News is produced by Snowdon Sports for the British Handball Association, supported by

For more details please contact 0845 230 0803 or log on to www.englandhandball.com

Great Britain Women's squad, pictured after the 2008 European Challenge Trophy.

Great Britain women, pictured in action

against Cyprus (blue shirts) and Bosnia

Herzegovina (black shirts) at the 2008

European Challenge Trophy.