On Saturday 8 February over 40 boys and girls came together to enjoy a fun afternoon of handball at Newcastle’s Benfield Centre for Sporting Excellence.
Following on from Newcastle Vikings’ senior men’s and women’s friendly matches against York Hunters and the University of York, the youngsters then took centre stage competing with great spirit in a series of under-16 matches between our Benfield and Temple Park juniors, under-12 games between the Vikings and guests Cragside, and with our under-8 mini-Vikings enjoying games against the Gosforth minis.
In the U16’s the black team won their first match 4-3, before the green team scored 3-9 and 3-4 victories. The top goalscorer was Aaron with seven goals across the three matches for the greens, while Faron also scored five.
Cragside/Vikings won the first U12’s match 3-4, but the Vikings team also came back to take two wins 5-2 and 6-2. George top-scored for the Vikings with five goals, with Brendan netting four.
And in the minis matches Gosforth won the first two games 3-5 and 4-9 before the mini-Vikings earnt themselves a 5-5 draw in the final match of the day. The day’s highest goalscorer was Harry who scored a brilliant 13 goals for the Gosforth team, backed up by four from Emily, while Leo scored six for the mini-Vikings.
Junior players Kaitlin (age 13) and Caitlyn (age 14) particularly enjoyed the team aspect of the games, with lots of running up and down the court passing and dribbling, with everyone able to take lots of different shots as well as having to defend together. For Kaitlin, the best of the day’s matches was their third game “as it was a very close game between us two teams which made it fun and exciting to play“, while Caitlyn said their second match was her highlight commenting “We as a team had lots of scoring chances and I scored goals. We had much better teamwork in that match.”
For seven year old JJ the highlight was “playing lots of matches and being a goalkeeper“, noting that outfield players are not allowed in the goalkeeper’s area unlike in football. “Shooting and scoring was also fun. It was a great day”!
Well done to all the children who took part and thank you to the great turnout of friends and family who came along to support them all.