This past December and January the Great Britain (GB) Men’s team played 13 matches against club and national teams in 4 different events. The culmination of the tour was an official World Championship qualifying tournament in Finland. GB lost all 13 matches, but showed significant progress through nearly a month of practice and serious competition. GB also did not have their full complement of players for some of the matches and lost their team Captain and Center Back, Ciaran Williams, to injury in the first tournament.

In June, the GB men will have the opportunity to host their first international tournament as they will host Estonia, Cyprus and Bulgaria in the first round of qualification for the 2012 European Championships. The winner of this tournament will advance to the second round of qualification where they will play home and away matches against the top teams in Europe.

The British Federation website has a trove of information on their trip including video interviews with their coach, Dragan Djukic, their performance director, Lorraine Brown and players at the qualifiers in Finland. Additionally, BBC did a video report on the event as well.

Commentary: The bottom line results are fairly stark as GB lost all 13 matches and they clearly have a long way to go towards their goal of being competitive at the 2012 Olympics. The margins of defeat varied from 3 goals against one of the weaker club sides in Norway’s top league to a 25 point drubbing by Bosnia & Herzegovina. Still even in a massive loss like the one against Bosnia there are signs of progress as the margin was a more respectable 17-12 at the halftime break. In their interviews the coach and director, acknowledge the shortcomings and the long road ahead. Compared to the women’s team, the men’s team is currently a notch or two behind in terms of where they stand relative to the rest of Europe. The next big test will be the qualification tournament in June. As host, they should have a good performance. The other sides are all part of Europe’s lowest tier of handball and qualifying will show a marked sign of progress.

British Federation website: http://britishhandball.worldhandball.com/
GB Federation (31 Jan 10): GB to Host Euro 2012 Matches: http://fastbreak-handballnews.blogspot.com/2010/01/gb-to-host-euro-2012-matches.html
Huw Goodwin Blog (26 Jan 10): Lessons learned…: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A62376456
VIDEO: BBC Sport (17 Jan 10) Great Britain handballers edged out by Finland: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/handball/8464341.stm

Match Results:

Limburgse Handbaldagen Tournament (Netherlands): http://www.lhd.nl/
27 Dec: K Sports (KOR/JAP) – GBR 29-20 (17-10)
27 Dec: Vos Invesments Lions (NLD) – GBR 39-23 (17-11) (Currently 4th in Netherlands league (10-2-5))
28 Dec: Põlva Serviti (EST) – GBR 36-26 (17-11) (Currently 1st in top Estonian league)
29 Dec: Haugaland HK (NOR) – GBR 29-26 (Currently in 11th place (2-1-9) in top Norwegian League)

Yellow Cup (Winterthur, Switzerland): http://www.yellow-winterthur.ch/index.php?id=317
2 Jan: Switzerland – GBR 33-18 (12-10)
3 Jan: Tunisia – GBR 42-24 (21-14)
4 Jan: Netherlands – GBR 39-21 (16-10)
VIDEO: Swiss news report on GBR- Switzerland match: British coach, Dragan Djukic, is a former coach of the Swiss National Team: http://videoportal.sf.tv/video?id=0cfa6737-98be-4896-85db-db7fad227b0b

Le Marrane Tournament (France) http://www.lemarrane.fr/calendrier/#boucle
8 Jan: Tunisia – GBR 33 – 23 (16-11)
9 Jan: Qatar – GBR 38-26 (20-10)
10 Jan: Czech Republic 32-22 (17-14)

2011 WC Qualifying Group Play: http://www.eurohandball.com/wch/men/2011/round/3/Qualification+Europe
15 Jan: Romania – GBR 36-27 (23-11)
16 Jan: Bosnia & Herzegovina – GBR 44-19 (17-12)
17 Jan: Finland – GBR 35-21 (17-13)

The British Men played their first competitive matches in several months at the 4 Nations Tournament in Luxembourg. Great Britain came away with a draw and 2 losses in their 3 matches against Luxembourg (32-32), Belgium (23-25) and French club, Mulhouse (26-21).

While it’s good news that Great Britain can now play level against two other sides in Europe’s lower tier, it still shows that they still have a long way to go towards being more competitive against the teams they’ll face in London 2012. Belgium and Luxembourg both participated in Euro 2010 qualification last year and both sides compiled 0-0-8 records losing each of their matches by an average of around 9 goals. The fourth team in the tournament, French club, Mulhouse, is currently in 11th place (out of 14 clubs) with a 2-1-4 record in France’s Division 2.

2012 is now a little over 2 and half years away, but there’s still time for improvement. Many of their players are playing in Europe and the IOC recently came through with $110,000 to support their program and its preparation for WC 2011 qualification matches against Bosnia & Herzegovina, Romania and Finland.

In other British Isles action, Scotland and Ireland participated in the EHF Challenge Cup in Malta. Both sides were soundly defeated by Malta and Finland and Ireland salvaged their trip with a 35-29 victory over Scotland for 3rd Place. Congratulations to Oisin O’Brannigain (Center Back) of Ireland and Scott Frew (Defence) of Scotland who made the all-star team for the tournament. Also, in case you were wondering why Scotland and Great Britain can be playing in a tournament at the same time it’s a little complicated. Depending on the sport, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland compete independently rather than as a combined Great Britain team. And in sports like Handball they do both. For a tutorial on the terminology: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminology_of_the_British_Isles

Luxembourg Handball Federation: 4 Nations Results: http://www.flh.lu/index.php?option=com_flh&search=1&Itemid=81&myview=1&results=1&archived=0&sdate=2009-10-26T00:00:00+01:00#33
Handball Head Coach pleased with the performance of GB Men: http://www.sportfocus.com/webpro/handball/nlstory.cfm?ID=35735&NLID=42045
IOC gives $110K to GB Handball: http://www.sportfocus.com/webpro/handball/nlstory.cfm?ID=35714&NLID=42045
EHF: Challenge Cup Results: http://www.eurohandball.com/trophy/men/2009/round/2/Group+Matches
British Player Huw Goodwin Blog Report: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A59189151

BBC Sport has a 7 minute report on Great Britain’s 24-23 victory over Finland on Saturday. Coupled with their earlier victory in Helsinki, Great Britain has moved onto Group Qualification play. The video contains several minutes of match footage along with post game interviews from a clearly elated British squad. Also, noteworthy is that it appears that a respectable crowd was on hand at the Echo Arena in Liverpool to witness the match. Great Britain will have their hands full taking on France, Austria in Iceland in the next round, but they’ve certainly come a long way in a short amount of time.

BBC Sport: Success for GB women's handball team: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/handball/8277090.stm

Other Reports:
Inside the Games: British Handball enjoys biggest night in its history with victory over Finland: http://insidethegames.biz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7185%3Abritish-handball-enjoys-biggest-night-in-its-history-with-historic-victory&catid=1%3Alatest-news&Itemid=73
British Handball: GB Women beat Finland 24-23: http://britishhandball.worldhandball.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?menuid=1093&itemid=2335

Earlier today the British Handball women defeated Finland 17-14 in Helsinki in the first leg of a two leg series to decide which nation will advance to the next round of qualification for the Women’s Euro 2010 Championships. The second leg will be played this Saturday in the UK with the winner on aggregate goals advancing to group play. Great Britain should feel pretty good about winning a qualification match on foreign soil, but the low scoring match rightly gave head coach, Jesper Holmris, cause for concern. As a physically talented, but inexperienced team it appears they won the match on defense with a strong goalie performance. Perhaps they can hold the more experienced Finns to just 14 goals again, but it’s not something they should count on.

Commentary: I would assess that this match should probably go down as Britain’s first “real” match win. By my definition a “friendly” match win is nice, but since there is nothing really on the line it doesn’t really count for much. In my book, the only matches that really count are matches that directly relate to World Championship or Continental Championship qualification. I could be wrong, but to the best of my knowledge Great Britain has never previously won a match that fits that definition. Sure, Finland is not a European handball power, but I’d wager that the least experienced player on the Finnish squad has probably been playing handball longer than every single British player. On top of that the Brits won on the road. It’s a long road to actually qualifying for the European Championships. The Brits first need to take care of business this week at home, and then they will need to win matches against much tougher European squads (France, Austria and Iceland) this winter. But, the bottom line is they’ve started out on the right foot by getting revenge on a side that easily beat them by 13 a year ago.

British Handball Website: Great Britain beat Finland 17-14 in Helsinki: http://britishhandball.worldhandball.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?menuid=1093&itemid=2333

The BBC recently did a couple of stories on Handball. The first story was aired in Britain and is focused on the British Handball contingent currently playing for the German Bundesliga club, Essen. Note that there is an audio file available for listening towards the end of the page

British Handballers Star in Germany: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8007803.stm

The second story was broadcast on the BBC World Service and is about Handball’s increasing popularity and a decision by the World Service to cover the sport in greater detail. As a frequent listener to the World Service, while living in Europe, I can recall hearing the word Handball only once during 5 years, so this is a welcome development. The BBC World Service is also truly a “World Service” with listeners in practically every corner of the globe

BBC World Service (Over to You) (April 18, 2009):
– BBC Website Stream: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p002rqt5 (Note: The Handball story begins at the 8 minute mark; only available on the BBC website until April 25th)
– Team Handball News Recording: http://teamhandballnews.com/request54.html (Left Click to listen/ Right click to download)

The British Handball program was making great strides in its bid to field a respectable handball side for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Both the Men’s and Women’s teams had identified several quality athletes and established a full time training program in Denmark. Alas, British Handball was not immune to the world-wide financial crisis and accordingly has seen in its budget shrink forcing the eventual closure of it Denmark program.

Faced with the closure, the British Federation, however, was able to arrange for six of their players to join the German Bundesliga Club, TUSEM Essen. Essen has struggled this season and is mired in last place with a 1 win, 1 draw and 16 loss record. Financially, the club has had difficulty meeting payroll and this led to several players departing the club forcing Essen to fill out its roster with players from their second team and junior players. The addition of the British players will help complete their roster and improve training.

At first glance, joining the worst team in a league with little or no chance of avoiding relegation may not seem like a golden opportunity. The league we are talking about, however, is the HBL, the best league in the world. Essen will be playing the likes of Kiel, Hamburg, Flensburg and other squads with rosters littered with the best players in the world. Coach Kristof Szargiej has already commented favorably on the excellent physical condition of the British “foreign legion”. It remains to be seen just how much playing time the British players will receive, but they clearly will have a good chance to line up against the likes of Karabatic and Hens in a few weeks, vice 3 years from now in London.

The 6 British player joining Essen are Ciaran Williams, Chris McDermott, Merlin Braithwaite, Sebastian Prieto, Dan McMillan and Chris Mohr.

Side note: Essen is not the only German side to make a deal with the British Handball Association. Flensburg is also interested in two players for next season. The Women’s side has also moved several players to the Asker Handball club in Norway.

British Federation: British Handball players on the move: http://britishhandball.worldhandball.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?menuid=1093&itemid=2143
Essen club article on British players (German): http://www.tusem-hsb.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=449&Itemid=1

Great Britain defeated Greece 25-23 yesterday to win their first match ever in an official qualifying event for either a European or World Championship. Greece is a second tier country on the global handball stage, but has a legitimate handball heritage and is only 4 years removed from their participation in the 2004 Olympics.

Arguably more surprising than this victory, however, is Great Britain’s respectable matches against the Netherlands, Lithuania and Turkey. The Netherlands, the eventual group winner, is a legitimate first tier nation and while the British lost handedly in the end 37-21, they kept the score to a respectable 6 goals at halftime. Britain followed up that performance with a 23-27 loss to Lithuania and a 22-14 loss to Turkey. Both of those matches, however, saw strong British performances through the first half, with Britain leading Lithuania 12-11 at the half and holding Turkey scoreless for the opening 10 minutes. Turkey is an experienced side on the cusp of breaking into the top tier, having lost to Denmark by one goal earlier this year and having tied France in France as part of European Championship qualification two years ago. http://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.93

But, the news was not all rosy for the Brits, as they were easily beaten by the Czech Republic 34-17 and while morale victories show progress they are also still losses. More troubling still is the potential looming budget axe that could be wielded tomorrow. Faced with cash shortfalls in funding for all of the Olympic sports, UK Sport will soon let British Handball know what level of funding (if any) they will continue to receive.

British Handball Website with articles and pictures from the tournament: http://britishhandball.worldhandball.com/
BBC Sports: GB pleased with handball showing: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympic_games/7757546.stm
European Qualification for World Championship Final Results: http://www.eurohandball.com/wch/women/2009/round/3/Qualification+Europe
London Telegraph: Team GB face cash cuts for London Olympics: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/olympics/london2012/3535719/Team-GB-face-cash-cuts-for-London-Olympics-London-2012.html
Times of London: Britain's grand Olympic plan up in smoke: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/olympics/article5263723.ece

Some more stories on British Handball.

BBC Video: GB Handball Issues Olympic Plea: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympic_games/7685205.stm
– Includes footage of Women’s 4 Nations Tournament and comments from Women’s Team and British Handball Staff

Huw Goodwin Blog on Men’s Oman Trip: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A42583232

British Handball has been making noise of late. Just this past weekend the Women’s team hosted and won a legitimate handball tournament. Latvia, the Faroe Islands, and the Turkish under 21’s may not be world powers, but it’s pretty safe to say that two years ago Great Britain would have lost handedly to each of those teams. In fact, just two years ago they lost to the Faroese by the absurd margin of 54-8! This time around they lost a close match, 16-15, but their other 2 victories gave them the overall first place on goal differential.

Not to be outdone the Men’s side traveled to the Middle East to take on Oman. So far on their trip they’ve split two contests, losing to the Omani 29-23 in the first match, but bouncing back to beat them 28-22 in the 2nd. Again Oman is not a world power, but they have had a National Team for several years and regularly participate in qualifying tournaments. And yes, I would bet the outcome would have been dramatically different a year ago.

None of this could have been accomplished, however, without the influx of cash provided to British Handball as a result of the 2012 Olympics being awarded to London. The British Handball Federation appears to have spent the money wisely identifying talent and then providing them quality training opportunities both in the UK and Denmark. This past weekend’s games were clear evidence of progress. While winning a medal was never a viable possibility, the goal of fielding a competitive team four years from now looks achievable.

With a financial crisis looming world-wide, however, the bad news that UK Sport (Great Britain’s USOC) is short 79 Million Pounds Sterling ($128 Million Dollars) of private financing that was intended to help support all 26 sporting disciplines. With that significant funding shortfall, there is now speculation that Handball, as well as other minor sports, could be on the chopping bloc for dramatically reduced funding. Here’s hoping that UK Sport uses a scalpel instead of a hatchet.

British Handball Blog on Women’s 4 Nations Tournament: http://www.womens-4-nations-handball.blogspot.com/
British Handball Report on games vs. Oman: http://britishhandball.worldhandball.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?menuid=1093&itemid=2066
London Telegraph: “British handball squad making strides in quest for London 2012 Olympic success“: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/handball/3223142/British-handball-squad-making-strides-in-quest-for-London-2012-Olympic-success-Handball.html
BBC: “Cash boost for 2012 Medal Hopes”: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics/london_2012/7651394.stm
Evening Standard: “Handball could get the elbow over £79m shortfall”: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-olympics/article-23575806-details/Handball+could+get+the+elbow+over+79m+shortfall/article.do

Not to be outdone, by the USA media blitz, a couple of stories in the British press have focused on Handball and the British preparations for the 2012 games. The BBC article is particularly interesting in light of the several quotes from players and coaches from established Handball nations concerning the British program.

BBC: Never mind the golds, let’s hear it for handball: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/olympics/2008/08/never_mind_the_golds_lets_hear.html
The Northern Echo(UK): Games offers a helping hand to minority sports: http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/3599285.Games_offers_a_helping_hand_to_minority_sports/

The UK Olympic news website, Inside the Games, www.insidethegames.com recently had a column by David Owen on the development of British Handball in preparation for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. The commentary touches on some of the reasons the sport has never been popular in the UK as well as some of the progress that has been made recently in the sports development there.

Inside the Games Article on Handball: http://www.insidethegames.com/show-news.php?id=2583

The British Handball program has had several interesting articles about their program recently. Links to all the articles are available at the Media Watch link on the England Handball webpage: http://www.sportfocus.com/webpro/handball/infopoint/dyncat.cfm?catid=29523

Also, here’s an MP3 file of BBC Radio 2’s interview with British player Huw Goodwin:
http://teamhandballnews.com/request41.html

Left click to listen; right click to download.