The 2018 Tyne & Wear County Handball Schools Games saw three south of Tyne schools crowned county handball champions in the under-15 and under-13 girls and boys competitions held at Temple Park Leisure Centre in South Shields on Wednesday.
The morning’s girls under-13 matches saw some particularly high-scoring games in the 10-minute matches, with both Sunderland’s Castle View Enterprise Academy and South Shields’ St. Wilfrid’s RC College picking up impressive 12-0 wins over Walbottle Campus, while Wallsend’s Churchill Community Academy also notched an 8-0 scoreline over the Newcastle school. St. Wilfrid’s RC College went on to win the U13 girls competition unbeaten to retain their title, beating runners-up Castle View Enterprise Academy 4-1 in their final match.
Sunderland’s Oxclose Community Academy also went undefeated in winning the under-15 girls competition with two wins and a draw, taking the gold medals with a close-fought 1-0 win over runners-up St. Wilfrid’s RC College in the final match. North Shields’ John Spence High School finished close behind in third place ahead of Walbottle Campus.
In the afternoon’s boys matches, St. Wilfrid’s RC College under-13s once again scored the biggest win of all the games with an 11-3 victory over Walbottle Campus. However, Washington’s Oxclose Community Academy greater consistency won them the competition unbeaten with two wins and a draw, just ahead of the South Shields school. Churchill Community Academy just pipped Walbottle Campus for third place.
The boys under-15 competition went down to the wire and was ultimately decided on goal difference. Washington-based Biddick Academy’s 7-0 victory over Churchill Community Academy in the penultimate match helped them to a +10 goal difference, which proved enough to pip Walbottle Campus who could only beat Boldon School 3-1 in the last game of the day for an aggregate +7 goal difference. Boldon School’s 5-1 win over Churchill Community Academy proved to be the decider in gaining them third place.
Organisers Tyne & Wear Sport and Newcastle Vikings Handball Club would both like to congratulate all the county champions who will now go on to take part in the North East Regional Handball finals on Thursday 26 April, also at Temple Park. We would also like to thank all the schools for taking part in a fun day of competitive handball and we also look forward to welcoming all school handballers to take part in the forthcoming county trials, the first round of which is on Saturday 24 March ahead of the Vikings’ home league matches against Leeds Beckett University.
Girls U13 Results:
Castle View 12-0 Walbottle
St. Wilfrid’s 8-4 Churchill
Churchill 1-8 Castle View
Walbottle 0-12 St. Wilfrid’s
Churchill 8-0 Walbottle
St. Wilfrid’s 4-1 Castle View
Girls U15 Results:
St. Wilfrid’s 2-1 John Spence
Oxclose 4-1 Walbottle
John Spence 2-2 Oxclose
Walbottle 2-6 St. Wilfrid’s
John Spence 4-2 Walbottle
St. Wilfrid’s 0-1 Oxclose
Boys U13 Results:
Walbottle 1-1 Churchill
Oxclose 4-1 St. Wilfrid’s
Oxclose 7-1 Walbottle
Churchill 1-3 St. Wilfrid’s
Churchill 4-4 Oxclose
St. Wilfrid’s 11-3 Walbottle
Boys U15 Results:
Biddick 3-0 Boldon
Walbottle 5-0 Churchill
Biddick 3-3 Walbottle
Churchill 1-5 Boldon
Churchill 0-7 Biddick
Boldon 1-3 Walbottle