On Wednesday 23^rd November the first ever sporting event to take place in the brand new Handball Arena on the Olympic Park will begin as part of “London Prepares series.”  London Prepares is the official London 2012 sports testing programme and the  “London Handball Cup” is being organised to test key aspects of operations from competition equipment and scoreboards, to workforce and officiating, in preparation  for the Olympic Games.

Great Britain will be pitted against a world class line-up as part of the team’s preparations for the Olympic Games.  Angola, Austria, China, Great Britain, Poland and Slovakia will compete in the London Handball Cup ahead of the Olympic Games qualifying tournaments.

Nationwide, Handball has become one of the fastest growing sports in schools thanks to the new opportunities created as part of the sports participation legacy from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and the support given to it through the Change4Life Sports Club programme which is administered by the Youth Sport Trust.

In London Handball is developing well  thanks to support from Pro-active London Sports Partnerships and London borough sports development teams.

To celebrate the “London Handball Cup” and to help make Handball accessible to all school children, young people and adults in London the LHA are offering an “Introduction to Handball course” which can be tailored in delivery for players, teachers and coach’s.

The course is being offered at a cost of £25 per course for a limited period.  To book your course and try out this Olympic sport in your school, club or leisure setting please complete and send the booking form at the bottom of the Programmes page of this website.

To find out more about the London Handball Cup and how the Great Britain women’s team progress please visit http://www.londonpreparesseries.com/handball/index.html

Entries to the England Handball Association (EHA) National Schools Cup competitions are now open.  EHA organise National cup competitions for U13 and U15 girls and boys school teams with teams competing on a local basis first.

The National Finals of this year’s competition will take place on 23rd June 2012 at the new Olympic Handball Training venue in Barking, Essex. South of England Finals will take place on 16^th March 2012.

Last year Handball teams from London schools enjoyed unprecedented success in the U13 National Schools Championships.

Harris Boy’s Academy, East Dulwich and Woolwich Polytechnic School, Greenwich played each other in the national finals and extra time had to be played in the final match between the London teams to find the winners.

In the end Harris Academy won 9-7 and the team was congratulated by Mike Briers Chairman of England Handball Association on their outstanding achievement and also for the style in which they played.

To enter this year’s competition please email your entry form to Aranka Bekker Aranka.Bekker@englandhandball.com by 15^th December 2011. The cost is £10 per school and entry forms can be found on the England Handball Association website by clicking here.

London G.D. have become the first men’s British Handball team to win through the first round of the European Handball Federations (EHF) Challenge Cup and qualify for round three and the knock-out stages of the competition.

London G.D. faced competition in the form of London rivals Ruislip Eagles H.C., Maltese team Aloysians ProMinent and Irish team Dublin International in the round robin tournament held in Malta.  London G.D. were pushed hardest by Ruislip Eagles eventually winning 30-29 before recording wins against Aloysians ProMinent 29-24 and Dublin International 31-26.

The team has been training hard over the summer months and new players have integrated well with an already strong line-up. Coach Phillipe Seray was pleased with the effort of his team. “I am very happy with the team work and professional attitude of our players. Bearing in mind that these are the first competition matches of the season, we have done extremely well.”

London G.D. will now travel to play Greek side A.C. Doukas Athens in late November. A.C. Doukas Athens are a professional team and will be extremely difficult opponents in the two matches that form the next round of the competition.

Coach Phillippe Seray said “Even if we did very well this weekend, there is still room for improvement. We have to keep focusing and train very hard over the next two months and do the best we possibly can when it comes down to it.”

Handball was part of the ‘John Lewis Partnership and Gold Challenge’ event in Cavendish Square London on Saturday 9th July.  The event was an opportunity for Olympic Sports, John Lewis and Gold Challenge to engage passing families in their activities.

Sally Gunnell OBE ambassador of the John Lewis “Partners in Sport programme” took the “Handball Challenge” at the event and soon showed the skills that made her the greatest female athlete this country has ever produced as the only woman in history to have ever concurrently held all four major championship – Olympic, World, Commonwealth and European gold medals and the World record.

Every corner of Cavendish Square behind the John Lewis shop was taken up by activities and the day was a great success for all involved with many children and adults taking part in the Handball challenge, learning passing, shooting and how to play games.

Thanks to Sally and Chris Park, England Handball’s West London Development Officer for delivering a great “Handball Challenge.”

GREENWICH boys and Bexley girls were crowned the winners of the popular handball tournament at the Balfour Beatty London Youth Games staged at Crystal Palace recently.

Competing in handball at the London Youth Games for the first time, Greenwich beat 2010 winners Sutton 6-2 in the boys’ final.

Meanwhile Bexley, who were also playing in their first handball competition at the Games, claimed the girls’ title with a 2-0 victory over
Barking and Dagenham.

After topping Group 2 in the boys’ event with four wins out of four, Greenwich skipped past Redbridge 4-3 in the semis before
claiming the gold.

Paul Walsh, Greenwich boys’ team manager, said: “I feel ecstatic; it’s an absolutely brilliant feeling. The lads came here and
they’ve barely played a handball match before but they just got better and better.

“I have to credit the organisers, really well run and it’s been a great day for our boys. You can see that everyone is very sporting after the
games; everyone is shaking hands with the other teams, officials and all that’s great for the sport, and it’s great for our lads.”

Bexley topped the girls’ group with three wins from three before defeating Barking and Dagenham, who they beat 5-0 in the group stages, in the final. They ended the tournament without conceding a single goal.

Louise Presney, Bexley girls’ team manager, said: “After the first couple of games we did see ourselves going through to the final, but this is our first tournament.

“We have not played here before and we weren’t quite sure what it was going to be like until we got here, so it has surpassed our expectations.

“What we have brought here are a load of footballers and netball players and that combination has worked. But it’s a surprise for the girls to win because it was the first competition for them and some were not sure about playing.”

In the third-fourth place playoffs, Tower Hamlets girls won 2-1 against Camden while
Haringey boys’ edged past Redbridge 4-3 to take bronze.