Glasgow’s men retained their Tyneside Handball Tournament crown, with Bedfordshire’s Cranfield University Wolves claiming the women’s title, in an entertaining action-packed day of quick-fire handball matches at the Temple Park Leisure Centre in South Shields on Saturday.
Hosted by Newcastle Vikings Handball Club, the end-of-season tournament now in its third year welcomed teams from across England and Scotland, offering spectators a great chance to see some fast-paced handball action close at hand.
The early group matches were all close-fought affairs, before the three experienced Scottish men’s teams picked up the pace and began to rack up some big scores. Edinburgh claimed the biggest win of the day in beating York Hunters 18-2, before East Kilbride’s EK82 defeated Newcastle’s second team 18-4.
The day’s highest scoring match saw EK82 beat York 24-10, with the Scottish side’s Chris Mowat going on to take the tournament’s top scorer accolade for the second year running with his 32 goals. But it was Glasgow who were to top the men’s group unbeaten in their five matches.
With the home sides giving a run-out to several new and inexperienced players, Newcastle’s two men’s teams and women’s team all struggled to get into their usual attacking flow. But both the men’s teams did eventually gain some joy in each winning their final play-off matches 10-8 and 13-7 over EK82 and York Hunters respectively, the Vikings men’s first team thus claiming third place overall.
A strong Cranfield Wolves side also won all of their three group matches to top the women’s table. Julia Schneider’s top-scoring 12 goals for Glasgow’s ladies then helped them claim third place with an 8-2 win over a tiring Newcastle Vikings team.
The women’s final was a more evenly contested game however, the mixed York/Durham universities’ ladies team pulling back from a 2-goal half-time deficit to tantalisingly level the game at 8-8 in the last minute. Cranfield then scored their tournament winning goal with just seconds to go, 9-8 the final score.
Yet the men’s final between Glasgow and Edinburgh proved even closer and saw a thrilling climax to the tournament. Level-pegging each other 5-5 at half-time, the game was to end in a 10-10 draw and go to a sudden-death penalty shoot-out. After each side scored their first attempts, both teams’ second shots were agilely saved by the two goalkeepers, before Glasgow finally won the shoot-out contest 2-1 in the third round, scoring the decisive penalty throw before their goalkeeper saved well for the second time to clinch victory.
Newcastle Vikings Handball Club would like to thank all of the teams for coming to take part in an enjoyable day and look forward to seeing everyone again next year.
Men’s Group
| Position | Team | W | D | L | For | Against | Goals +/- | Points |
| 1 | Glasgow | 5 | – | – | 55 | 29 | +26 | 15 |
| 2 | Edinburgh | 4 | – | 1 | 55 | 18 | +37 | 13 |
| 3 | EK 82 | 3 | – | 2 | 65 | 39 | +26 | 11 |
| 4 | Newcastle Vikings 1 | 1 | – | 4 | 25 | 37 | -12 | 7 |
| 5 | York Hunters | 1 | – | 4 | 24 | 67 | -43 | 7 |
| 6 | Newcastle Vikings 2 | – | – | 5 | 19 | 59 | -40 | 5 |
Play-offs and Final
| Team | Score | |||
| Glasgow | 10 – 10 (2-1 pens) | Champions | Glasgow | |
| Edinburgh | Runner-up | Edinburgh | ||
| EK 82 | 8 – 10 | 3rd Place | Newcastle Vikings 1 | |
| Newcastle Vikings 1 | 4th Place | EK 82 | ||
| York Hunters | 7 – 13 | 5th Place | Newcastle Vikings 2 | |
| Newcastle Vikings 2 | 6th Place | York Hunters |
Women’s Group
| Position | Team | W | D | L | For | Against | Goals +/- | Points |
| 1 | Cranfield Wolves | 3 | – | – | 23 | 15 | +8 | 9 |
| 2 | York / Durham | 1 | 1 | 1 | 25 | 19 | +6 | 6 |
| 3 | Glasgow | – | 2 | 1 | 21 | 23 | -2 | 5 |
| 4 | Newcastle Vikings | – | 1 | 2 | 16 | 21 | -5 | 4 |
Play-off and Final
| Team | Score | |||
| Cranfield Wolves | 9 – 8 | Champions | Cranfield Wolves | |
| York / Durham | Runner-up | York / Durham | ||
| Glasgow | 8 – 2 | 3rd Place | Glasgow | |
| Newcastle Vikings | 4th Place | Newcastle Vikings |
Top Scorers: Men Chris Mowat (EK 82) – 32 goals
Women Julia Schneider (Glasgow) – 12 goals
Newcastle Vikings Men 1: Faisal Albathali (GK), Amaury Michelant (6 goals), Stephan Stricker (7), Leif Hubert (7), Robert Thompson (4), Simon Heintz (10), Jack Woods (1), Jonathan Bastit (2), Chris Bowe (2), Sam Turner (1).
Newcastle Vikings Men 2: Daniel Walsh (GK), Mike Cooke (GK), Dawid Miozga (13 goals), Matthew Lamb (6), Jason Lee (7), James Price (5), Craig Swanson, Holger Schulz, James Porter (1), Angelo Maracci.
Newcastle Vikings Women: Andrea King (GK), Marie-Louise Brevet (4 goals), Judyta Turulska (4), Sofie Vaula (2), Gesa Junge (1), Blessing Ogbee (3), Claire Jennings, Kathryn Powell (1), Sandra Christke (3), Felicity Powell.
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