Newcastle Vikings’ ladies stunned both themselves and Troon-Kelvinside to run out 28-21 winners in Saturday’s Scottish Handball League match, with right-half Oliwia Szymkowiak top-scoring with a fantastic 14 strikes.
The Vikings travelled up to the Oriam Sports Centre in Edinburgh with only six players available for this second league game of the season, so their expectations of winning were not high against a Troon-Kelvinside team that had merged to improve their combined strength for this season.
Szymkowiak opened the scoring with a double, and continued to regularly break through the defensive gaps and take her opportunities from the penalty line to net a further five goals in the first half, interspersed with five strikes from centre Marlen Slinning Goulty and two apiece from captain Sandra Christke-Lamb at left-half and right-winger Andrea King, as the Vikings increasingly dominated to open out a 16-11 half-time lead.
Troon-Kelvinside briefly narrowed Newcastle’s lead to four in the second half, but the Vikings girls’ desire to make up for their opening heavy loss to Edinburgh two weeks ago proved too strong, playing on adrenalin to keep going and extend their advantage, backed up by some good saves from Great Britain international goalkeeper Sophie O’Sullivan between the posts. Goulty added one more to her tally, left-winger Marie Brevet got her name on the scoresheet, and King scored another three, but even though Troon-Kelvinside tried to mark her out of the game it was player-of-the-match Szymkowiak who was just too hot to handle as she fired in another seven goals to take her match tally to 14.
The final whistle, marking a most unexpected 28-21 victory, brought a mix of beaming smiles and stunned disbelief to the faces of the Vikings players. Super proud head coach Goulty praised their 100% teamwork in achieving such a fabulous result, which moved Newcastle up to third in the league table and only just behind Tryst on goal difference who they are set to come up against in their next fixture.
Newcastle Vikings: Sophie O’Sullivan (GK), Marie Brevet (1 goal), Marlen Slinning Goulty (6), Oliwia Szymkowiak (14), Andrea King (5), Sandra Christke-Lamb (2).