Group: Southampton University Handball Team

As someone from Britain you may not have heard about Handball as it is a sport that is hugely popular in Europe, but much less so than in the UK. An exciting, fast-paced game involving two teams of seven players who pass, throw, catch and dribble a small ball with their hands while trying to score goals. No wonder it is becoming more popular and Universities such as Southampton are setting up clubs in order to practise and compete.
Southampton University Handball Club was founded in November 1998 by one enthusiastic postgraduate, Christian Maul, and another over-enthusiastic one, Yann Astier. Being European PhD students and having played the game back at home, Christian and Yann were keen on introducing the relatively unknown sport (in Britain) to the University. Considering the lack of appropriate handball equipment of any sort, e.g. balls, resin, and most importantly goals! It was initially doubted that things would take off easily, but a number of people actually did show interest straight away and thus a club with proper members was born! Furthermore, a similar handball club had formed in Sussex University earlier in the year, and occasional trips to Brighton were organized where there was a better court and proper goals. The Club also affiliated itself to the sport’s governing body, the British Handball Association (BHA, formed of its affiliate members: the England Handball Association (EHA) and Handball Scotland), and started to assume coaching responsibilities for the team. During early '99 the Club competed in the Southern Division of the BHA League, achieving modest results but competing nonetheless.
As a result of this the clubs succeed in obtaining Colours status only a few months after it had been put together. Handball was hardly in the University sport spotlight in 98/99, DSR did take am interest in the work done by the founding members and by June an application had been passed to buy new full-sized handball goals (which is no small feat when you’re dealing with a sport unknown in this country!). Training sessions were shifted entirely to the Sports Hall.
This is, I am sure, just one success story for Handball as a sport in the UK. However, more exciting is the fact that the 2012 Olympics will. Hopefully, feature a British team! Tall women (at least 5ft 11in) and men (6ft 3in) were invited to put themselves forward to see if they could be turned into Olympic handballers in time for 2012.
Thousands responded and so who knows, we could finally have a British team to cheer for in this invigorating sport.
As someone who has never really clicked with team sports, other than team medleys in the swimming pool, I was shocked at the enthusiasm of the team and how much I enjoyed getting to grips with this unique sport. I won’t lie, I ached in muscles I never knew I had after the first training, but I am glad I stuck with it. I truly recommend you getting involved in your local team, and if you don’t have one, set up your own!

http://www.soton.ac.uk/~handball/

Anjelica Finnegan

Group set up by Ace