Newcastle Vikings Handball Club’s ladies travelled to Dublin for the group stage of the Celtic Cup tournament over the weekend of 20-21 October, but narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Final 4.
Having finished last season in 3rd place in the Scottish league, the Vikings ladies had qualified for the annual Celtic Cup competition which features the top three men’s and women’s teams from the previous season’s Scottish and Irish handball leagues. This season however, with several teams struggling for players due to injuries and other unavailabilities, Newcastle’s ladies have combined with Troon Handball Club, plus a few players from Glasgow and York Handball Clubs too, so are competing as ‘Troon Vikings’.
Their first match at Dublin’s National Basketball Arena on the Saturday saw them taking on last season’s Irish league champions Astra. The Troon Vikings team held their own during the first quarter of the game, with only 1 or 2 goals in it, but the home side gradually pulled away for an 8-14 half-time lead. Astra continued to extend their advantage further in the second half of a tough opening game for the tourists with a series of fast-break attacks to run out clear 14-32 winners.
Nadine Waehning top-scored for Troon Vikings with 5 goals, with captain Sandra Christke-Lamb netting 4, Andrea Raspolic 3, and one each for Andrea Gunner and Caroline Bergum, while Andrea King put in a player-of-the-match goalkeeping display.
Sunday’s second match against last season’s Irish league runners-up Dublin City was a much more competitive affair with the Troon Vikings girls putting in a much improved team performance as they began to gel together better. Troon Vikings took an early lead and went into the half-time break with a 7-8 advantage in a tight low-scoring match. They soon extended their lead to 3 goals, but Dublin City pulled back to level at 10-10 before edging ahead in the last quarter. Troon Vikings fought hard but couldn’t quite pull it back, 17-14 to the Dubliners at the final whistle.
Andrea Raspolic lead the Troon Vikings goalscoring with 6 back court strikes, Andrea Gunner adding a treble, captain Sandra Christke-Lamb and Nadine Waehning scoring braces and one from Christie McDonald, while Andrea King pulled off a couple of great penalty saves in another solid game between the posts.
The narrow defeat meant that Troon Vikings finished in 5th place out of the six women’s teams behind Dublin City, so just missed out on qualifying for the Celtic Cup semi-finals and finals weekend in Edinburgh next February.
Credit too for sterling performances in both matches from Eilidh McDonald, as well as Clare Duddy on her handball debut games. And not forgetting big thanks to our injured player-coach Marlen Slinning Goulty.
Thanks finally to Olympic Handball Ireland for hosting in partnership with the Scottish Handball Association, we thoroughly enjoyed the friendly weekend despite our results.
