Newcastle Vikings Handball Club’s juniors enjoyed their first win of the season in a friendly mini-tournament against Scottish club Tryst 77 on Saturday, although the Cumbernauld-based side went away with the honours.
The round-robin tournament at South Shields’ Temple Park Leisure Centre saw a mixed team of Newcastle Vikings junior players, featuring seven girls from the Tyne & Wear County Under-16 side, taking on the year 02 and 04 age group girls of visiting former British champions Tryst 77, the club of Great Britain’s 2012 Olympic handball women’s captain Lynn McCafferty.
Newcastle’s juniors narrowly lost 6-8 to Tryst 04 in the opening game, before the more experienced Tryst 02 team thrashed their younger clubmates 18-3 and the Vikings 14-5.
However, the Vikings team scored a much-welcomed 7-3 victory over Tryst 04 in the return round of matches, Alexandra Inta netting her second hat-trick of the day with Ana Botezatu and Tahura Uddin each scoring twice. Tryst 02 then rounded off an unbeaten competition with another double win in defeating Tryst 04 11-5 and the Vikings 12-3.
With 3 points for a win, 2 for a draw and 1 for a loss, Tryst 02 won the tournament on 12 points and a +39 goal difference, with Newcastle Vikings’ juniors taking second place on 6 points and -16 goal difference, just ahead of Tryst 04 also on 6 points but an inferior -23 goal difference.
Newcastle Vikings: Bryony Coldwell (GK), Alexandra Inta (6 goals), Ester Moffitt, Alice Atkinson (1), Zoe Barber (5), Ana Botezatu (5), Tahura Uddin (2), Benjy Millward (2), Dannielle Tennet, Joseph Moffitt.