On Sunday 15th May, seven of our Junior Handball players went down to Derby for an official England Handball Tournament. This began at 10am, meaning our players got the treat of an early Sunday wake, to make the 3-hour journey. They played alongside a variance of Handball clubs such as Trafford, Chelsea, Shropshire, and Northampton. Our Boys Viking Team consisted of Joel, Andrew, Oli, Charlie, George, Zac, and Brendon, as well as four players from Northampton, Vlad, Sebastian, David and Tymon, who couldn’t pull together their own boys’ team. In their first match, the boys started strong with a 5-5 draw against Shropshire. After an intense second match, they lost 16-5 to Chelsea, but still managed to make it to the semi-final. In the semi-final, after another nail-biting game, they lost 14-5 to Trafford. This put them in an admirable 4th place out of 6 clubs across the country.
The only Junior Handball girl participating in this tournament, Edda, played for the Girls Trafford Team. Beginning strong alike the boys, her team won 14-12 over Northampton. The second match, more intense than the first, resulted in a 15-9 loss against West London. Following this were two draws against Northampton (8-8) and West London (6-6). Overall, the Trafford Girls came 2nd out of the three girls’ teams participating, meaning Edda managed to achieve a silver medal for her efforts.
Overall, though it was difficult to play against new teams with different styles of play, the Derby Tournament was a fantastic opportunity for our Junior Handball players to have fun and improve their skills with more challenging opponents.
Below are some comments from the Vikings players:
Zac: ‘Derby Arena was an amazing venue to play the tournament at. The matches were fun but there was fierce competition. The boys team bonded well, and I enjoyed having players from other teams joining us.’
Andrew: ‘The tournament was a great experience, and I learned a lot from the other teams on where we can improve in the future. I really hope there more events like this one in the near future.’
George: ‘I really enjoyed the handball tournament because there were other people on our team that we didn’t know, but we used our teamwork and communication skills well to get to know them and work as a team.’
St. Mary’s victory in school competition
Congratulations to our three Vikings Players Brendan, Zac and Joseph M and their school team for winning the Under 13 Boys North Handball Competition. All the three boys agreed that it was an exciting tournament day with lots of action-packed matches, a fantastic experience to be a part of and they are looking forward to the next round. By coming out top in the North they are now proceeding to the National Finals in June. All the best of luck from the rest of the Vikings Family.