Issue 155February 2

2011

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

Men's English Lge (North) P W D L F A Diff Pts

Salford 11 10 1 0 349 232 117 21

Manchester 11 9 1 1 289 222 67 19

University of Manchester 11 6 1 4 292 265 27 13

Nottingham University 11 6 0 5 261 242 19 12

Liverpool Wolves 11 4 1 6 271 229 42 9

Deva 11 1 0 10 219 320 -101 2

Liverpool Speke Garston 10 0 0 10 142 313 -171 0

The top three teams fromboth the northern andsouthern section will goforward to the play-offs andcompete for the overallnational league title and theright to compete in theEuropean Challenge Cup. In the north, Salford andManchester are alreadythrough, but the third spot isbetween the University ofManchester and NottinghamUniversity.

Thrilling

And in the south, GreatDane and Olympia arethrough to the play-offs, butthe final place is betweenRuislip Eagles and Cambridge.

There was some thrillinghandball played in bothregions last weekend, withleague newcomers LiverpoolWolves battling to a 16-16draw with second-placedManchester, who hadpreviously won nine of theirten matches. With just eight playerstravelling to the GreenbankAcademy for Sunday’s clash,Manchester came up against aWolves side who had strength indepth and have an ever-increasing talent base. 9-7 ahead at half time,Manchester couldn’t stop theWolves biting back to secure adraw. With results from the normalseason carried forward to theplay-offs, Salford did themselves

a big favour bybeating potentialplay-off rivalsNottinghamUniversity 31-25at Nottingham tomaintain theirunbeaten record. And theUniversity ofManchester alsokept their play-off hopes alivewith a victory over Deva,although they were made towork hard for the win. Eight goals from StevenJameson helped Deva competewith their rivals, but withBerezowski scoring eight goalsand Ruiz Varela scoring seven,Manchester University ran out22-19 winners. Great Dane secured a narrow26-24 victory over Olympia at

Crystal Palace National SportsCentre to leap-frog theiropponents and take over thelead in the southern section. With Olympia leading 12-10 athalf time, Great Dane hit back tosecure a win which will alsoboost Great Dane’s play-offhopes, the result being carriedforward to the end of seasoncompetition.

Men's English Lge (South) P W D L F A Diff Pts

Great Dane 7 5 0 2 177 152 25 10

Olympia 8 4 1 3 200 189 11 9

Ruislip Eagles 7 4 0 3 176 177 -1 8

Cambridge 6 2 0 4 154 160 -6 4

Bath University 6 1 1 4 120 149 -29 3

Women's English League P W D L F A Diff Pts

Ruislip Eagles 2 2 0 0 42 36 6 4

Olympia 1 1 0 0 25 20 5 2

Deva 2 1 0 1 41 43 -2 2

Great Dane 3 0 0 3 55 64 -9 0

Teams Still HarbourPlay-Off Hopes

WITH just a few matches remaining in the normal Men’s EnglishLeague season, the line-up for the play-off league is still not setwith several teams still harbouring hopes of scraping into theend-of-season competition.

Men’s National League pictures byMathilde Friggieri

Issue 155February 2

2011

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

Battling Olympia ShootDown Great Dane

OLYMPIA Women boosted their title hopes when theyrecorded a 25-20 victory over rivals Great Dane in theirlatest National League clash at Crystal Palace NationalSports Centre in London. The fate of the match wasclose right down to the finalcouple of minutes, butOlympia maintained theircomposure and secured avictory which sees them gosecond in the table. With several victories undertheir belts already over guestteams, it was Olympia’s firstleague win. But they face another stifftest this Sunday when theytake on leaders Ruislip Eagleswho have won both theirleague matches so far. Also atCrystal Palace, Sunday’smatch begins at 12noon. Four goals from Ari Bekkerhelped Olympia to take anarrow 11-10 lead at half time,while Linda Bourkab scoredthree.

After the break Olympiafound the net with increasingfrequency, with Bekkeradding another four to finishas the top scorer. Bourkabalso doubled her goal tally tofinish with six.

In-Form

For Great Dane, AdelaJensouska scored five goalsand Alexandra Garaloska andDelphine Moral both scoredfour, but it was not enough. This Sunday’s Ruislip versusOlympia clash will see in-formEagles player Telek - who hasnetted 16 goals in their twoleague games so far - line upopposite Bekker who scoredeight on Sunday.

Women’s National League photosby Paul Fenech

Schools Catch the Handball Bug in ThanetIT has been almost four yearssince schools in Thanetbegan to catch the handballbug, and there appears to beno stopping the growth ofthe sport! The Thanet School SportPartnership (TSSP) has beenworking hard with severalother organisations to getthe sport into schools, whereit has proved so popular thatmany regular coachingsessions are now beingstaged across the town.

TSSP has received supportfrom the Ursuline College aswell as the Kent HandballDevelopment Group andEngland Handball. The main focus for the sportin Thanet is Dane Court, wherethe club meets each

Wednesday. But as well as theregular sessions, there areseveral one-off events beingstaged to further the handballcause. To find out more, pleasecontact Dave Walton on 07788150238.

Thanet Handball EventsWed, Feb 9 - Taster Evening for Y3-4, 4-6pmWed, Feb 16 - Y3-4 Handball Festival, 4-6pm

Mon, Feb 28 - Handball leadership and teacher trainingfor Change4Life Schools, 9.30am-3pm

Tues, Mar 1 - Thanet Y5-6 Handball Championship, 4-6pmWed, Mar 9 - Secondary School Handball Taster Festival

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

Issue 155February 2

2011

England Dreams? The Road Starts Here

DO you dream of playing handball for England? If you do, then a good place to start would be the England Under-16 trialsbeing staged in London next weekend, February 12.

Applications to attendthe trials at BethnalGreen TechnologyCollege must be sent byclub secretaries orteachers to HandballDevelopment OfficerAri Bekker by Monday,February 7. To be eligible to takepart in the trials youmust register with theEHA on the formavailable from the EHAwebsite, be school year11 or below, hold a UK

passport, play handballregularly and be ofgood standard, bereliable and self-reliant,and be willing to trainindependently tomaintain and increaseyour fitness.

Prepare

The trials begin withthe girls from 10am-12noon, while the boystrials are from 1-3pm.

Players must arrive ingood time to registerand prepare. Boys trials also tookplace in Cheshire lastweekend where a goodstandard of handballwas on display, but canthe London area matchtheir skills? To download theapplication form, pleaselog on toEnglandHandball.com

THE deadline for playertransfers between EnglishLeague clubs is 4pm on Friday,February 4. Completed documentation,returned registration cardsand the appropriate adminfee should be with the EHA bythat time.

Eligibility

This affects playerstransferring between non-related clubs, but not playersupgrading their membershipfrom development league toDivision One within the sameclub (i.e. moving up fromsecond team to first team). New registrations are stillallowed for players not yetregistered with any EHA-affiliated club this season.

Come And Watch The NextGeneration of International

Handball SuperstarsSOME of the bestUnder-18 handballplayers in England willbe on show thisweekend when theUnder-18 AASE LeagueChampionship play-offsare staged inWarrington. Top handball action isguaranteed in the eventat the BirchwoodSports and LeisureCentre on Brock Road,

with the boyscompetition takingplace on Saturday, Feb5, from 9am-1pm. And there is no let-upin the action, as thefollowing day it is theturn of the girls tocompete from 9am-noon. The League is part ofthe AdvancedApprenticeship inSporting Excellence,

which looks set toprovide the nextgeneration ofinternational handballstars.

TransferDeadline