As part of this years Féile an Phobail in Belfast, a unique Handball event has been ongoing for the last 6 weeks, bringing new players to the game from a wide range of other sports, culminating with a great tournament on Sunday in Gort na Mona HC.
Antrim Handballer Mark Rainey was the key driver of this concept.
"The idea was to get more people involved in playing handball as a hobby, as opposed to it always being taken seriously, like 5 aside football with your mates. It's more for the fun. I thought it would also be great publicity for the sport, to have so many people with other sporting backgrounds, or other interests try something new and have a go at competing in handball."
"The idea was approved by Feile an Phobail pretty quickly so we got up and running right away. I put out a few feelers on social media and got an overwhelming response which I thought was great!"
32 spots were to be filled, 20 of which were signed up on the first day of release. All players received numerous practice sessions, which varied from 1:1 sessions to large groups of the players coming together, getting to know the game of handball.
"What was great, was players then began to organise training sessions amongst themselves. It was a great feeling seeing people getting excited to play the sport we love."
What started off as light hearted competition though soon turned into something a bit more serious, as the day before the competition 24 of the players were up looking to get a game in to sharpen their tools before the big day on the Sunday!
On the day, we had 16 pairs of players, who would compete in 20 minute games, with whoever was leading at the end of 20 mins being victorious. We played with an amended rule set, allowing the ball bounce twice to make it more interesting, which turned out great, as rallies then got longer, more intense and the competition was wide open for the taking by any team.
It was also decided to get as much out of the day as possible, so after the round of 16, the 8 teams who were beaten, weren't out, they just formed another competition, which was known as the B competition. The other 8 teams who won their first game battled it out for the A title.
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Results:
Our winners in the end were Sam Carson and Colette Deery, beating Conor Smyth and Nigel O'Donoghue 13-12, getting their 13th point with only seconds left on the clock to win 13-12 in a nail biter!
Cage Warriors World Lightweight champion Joe McColgan and Dylan Etienne took the B title, after playing 3 tough games, beating Kevin Trainor and Niamh McCloskey in the final! We also had 3 time Olympian Paddy Barnes, and Commonwealth Gold Medalist Paddy Gallagher come and play which was great to see them try something new. Barnes actually made it to the semi final along side Brona Reilly, sister of former World Handball Champion Aisling Reilly.
To give the players a feel of how handball can be played at an elite level, we also arranged for some elite players to come along and give an exhibition before our 2 finals. Owen McKenna and Seán clarke, both players competing against one another for the no.1 spot in Davitts GAC, and we had Aisling Reilly and Megan McCann of Armagh also play and show how the game should be played!
It was a huge success with many of the players already enquiring about future competitions and possibly getting into the courts in their own time to play games against one another for a bit of fun.
It really does show the suitability of handball as a recreational game for everyone!
