Unless anyone knows of an older club photo of a British handball team photograph then this photo of Crawford Sports HC is the oldest one, albeit of a team that played the 11 a-side version of the game.
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| Crawford Sports HC |
Sunday 23 September 2012
The Hull Handball League (Part 4): Possibly the oldest club photo
As previously reported in Part 2 Crawford Sports were the Hull handball league champions in 1961. This photograph taken from the Hull Daily Mail shows the Crawford team lined up as follows: back row Roy Marshall, George Gardiner, Ray Riley, George Nesfield, Ray Sissons and Barry Fuller; front row Syd Cowan, Col Raper, George Pougher, Ronnie Bray and Terry O'Neill. The team took the name of the club sponsor Crawford Sports which was a sports shop based in East Hull.
Unless anyone knows of an older club photo of a British handball team photograph then this photo of Crawford Sports HC is the oldest one, albeit of a team that played the 11 a-side version of the game.
Unless anyone knows of an older club photo of a British handball team photograph then this photo of Crawford Sports HC is the oldest one, albeit of a team that played the 11 a-side version of the game.
Tuesday 4 September 2012
Coventry Handball Club
Coventry Handball Club is shaping up to be one of the 'Legacies of the Olympics' and Thursday is going to be the first occasion on which the club meets to train. It was reported on the BBC earlier today that this was Coventry's first ever club but records show that a club going by the name of Coventry made a brief appearance in organised leagues around 30 years ago.
The main source of information comes from the Midland Handball Association's handbook published in 1982. It lists the member clubs as Leicester Computers, Coventry, Leicester '73, Milton Keynes 1980, Olympia (Cannock), Salford and John Quinn Sheffield. Each club has details of officials, colours, match times and a brief history.
The entry for Coventry shows that the club had previously been known as Nuneaton Tech and Recreation Nuneation and that prominent club members were Frank Dillon, Mick Darlison and Chris Leadbetter. It records the home base as Coventry SC in Fairfax Street and club colours as white shirts, blue shorts (first choice), orange shirts, blue shorts (second choice).
The history section explains that the club could trace its roots to Nuneaton Tech, a club which had been founder members of the English National League and places its establishment as 1975 at the latest. In 1977 a 'B' team (Nuneaton Newdegate) was formed to play in the lower league. The team eventually broke away from Tech after sports centres were opened at Etone and Jubilee and the club was renamed Recreation Nuneaton. In 1980 Recreation won the English Second Division but they were apparently denied promotion due to reorganization of the leagues meaning that all teams had to go through regional qualifying. The final National League table for 1980/81 shows that the team finished sixth out of seven in a league which was won convincingly by Brentwood '72.
The Midland's Handbook then explains that the club moved to Coventry following a friendly against a Scottish team called Linwood and that the club started 1981/82 very well but that due to rule infringements had points deducted. They also went out of the British Cup in the first round losing 26-24 to Great Dane London. The Midland Directory was introduced for the 1982/83 season and finishes the piece on Coventry by saying that the club resigned its place in the National League position in 1982 to join the Midland League. This is verified by BHA publications which show Coventry in mid-table after six games of the '81/82 season but as not being in the league on publication of the final table.
The 1982/83 season proved to be the last for the club and shows that there may have still bee problems as records from the season show that Coventry were in the Midland League but the final standing only show four teams (Milton Keynes 1980, Olympia, Salford and John Quinn Sheffield). Despite this, the records show that Coventry were involved in an exciting cup tie in the first round of the British Cup. Playing Kirkby Select, a National League team, Coventry tied the game 20-20. Following extra time the game was still level at 22-22. It took a further period of extra-time for Kirkby to defeat Coventry 24-23.
1983 proved to be Coventry's final year. It is recorded in the November 1983 edition of the BHA publication 'Word is...' that the club came about from the 'considerable work done by Frank Dillion' and that following Frank's move to Saudi Arabia the club had folded.
So, 30 years after the former club embarked on its last season, the new club is about to embark on the first of what will hopefully be many.
Good luck Coventry Handball Club! Click to find out more about the new club.
The main source of information comes from the Midland Handball Association's handbook published in 1982. It lists the member clubs as Leicester Computers, Coventry, Leicester '73, Milton Keynes 1980, Olympia (Cannock), Salford and John Quinn Sheffield. Each club has details of officials, colours, match times and a brief history.
The entry for Coventry shows that the club had previously been known as Nuneaton Tech and Recreation Nuneation and that prominent club members were Frank Dillon, Mick Darlison and Chris Leadbetter. It records the home base as Coventry SC in Fairfax Street and club colours as white shirts, blue shorts (first choice), orange shirts, blue shorts (second choice).
The history section explains that the club could trace its roots to Nuneaton Tech, a club which had been founder members of the English National League and places its establishment as 1975 at the latest. In 1977 a 'B' team (Nuneaton Newdegate) was formed to play in the lower league. The team eventually broke away from Tech after sports centres were opened at Etone and Jubilee and the club was renamed Recreation Nuneaton. In 1980 Recreation won the English Second Division but they were apparently denied promotion due to reorganization of the leagues meaning that all teams had to go through regional qualifying. The final National League table for 1980/81 shows that the team finished sixth out of seven in a league which was won convincingly by Brentwood '72.
The Midland's Handbook then explains that the club moved to Coventry following a friendly against a Scottish team called Linwood and that the club started 1981/82 very well but that due to rule infringements had points deducted. They also went out of the British Cup in the first round losing 26-24 to Great Dane London. The Midland Directory was introduced for the 1982/83 season and finishes the piece on Coventry by saying that the club resigned its place in the National League position in 1982 to join the Midland League. This is verified by BHA publications which show Coventry in mid-table after six games of the '81/82 season but as not being in the league on publication of the final table.
The 1982/83 season proved to be the last for the club and shows that there may have still bee problems as records from the season show that Coventry were in the Midland League but the final standing only show four teams (Milton Keynes 1980, Olympia, Salford and John Quinn Sheffield). Despite this, the records show that Coventry were involved in an exciting cup tie in the first round of the British Cup. Playing Kirkby Select, a National League team, Coventry tied the game 20-20. Following extra time the game was still level at 22-22. It took a further period of extra-time for Kirkby to defeat Coventry 24-23.
1983 proved to be Coventry's final year. It is recorded in the November 1983 edition of the BHA publication 'Word is...' that the club came about from the 'considerable work done by Frank Dillion' and that following Frank's move to Saudi Arabia the club had folded.
So, 30 years after the former club embarked on its last season, the new club is about to embark on the first of what will hopefully be many.
Good luck Coventry Handball Club! Click to find out more about the new club.
Friday 31 August 2012
The Hull Handball League (Part 3) The first ever GB team
Hull was not only the location of the first handball league in Britain; it was also where the first ever Great Britain representative team played. The status of this representation is not clear; on the one hand there was no official Handball Association but on the other hand the Hull league was recognized by the IHF. It is reported by the Hull Daily Mail that Great Britain played Holland on Sunday 28 June 1959 at the Costello Stadium in West Hull.
Syd Cowan, who played in the game, explained that the Dutch were much better but that the score was kept down by the brilliant goalkeeping of Billy Bly. Cowan said "I played in this game and have one of the commemorative plaques. The Dutch players handled the ball and moved it quicker than us and ran into open spaces. When they shot at goal they took the ball on the move and leaped and hurled the ball down from about nine feet high - no wonder Billy looked a bit downcast towards the end".
One of the officials on the day, Ron Lister, explained that a further international took place, this time against Germany in 1960 and Cowan adds that the team also traveled to Germany to play a team from Freiburg. The team which played Freiburg are lined up in the poor quality photograph below which, was published in the Hull Daily Mail. The photograph, dated August 1960, is almost certainly the oldest in existence of a handball team in Britain.
A page from the programme of the international in 1959 (shown below) confirms that the game played in Hull 50 years ago was in fact the 11-a-side version of handball. There is not much footage of this version of handball but this short clip shows a game between East Germany and Austria from the same period.
Syd Cowan, who played in the game, explained that the Dutch were much better but that the score was kept down by the brilliant goalkeeping of Billy Bly. Cowan said "I played in this game and have one of the commemorative plaques. The Dutch players handled the ball and moved it quicker than us and ran into open spaces. When they shot at goal they took the ball on the move and leaped and hurled the ball down from about nine feet high - no wonder Billy looked a bit downcast towards the end".
One of the officials on the day, Ron Lister, explained that a further international took place, this time against Germany in 1960 and Cowan adds that the team also traveled to Germany to play a team from Freiburg. The team which played Freiburg are lined up in the poor quality photograph below which, was published in the Hull Daily Mail. The photograph, dated August 1960, is almost certainly the oldest in existence of a handball team in Britain.
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| A page from the 1959 Great Britain - Holland programme |
Tuesday 28 August 2012
The Hull Handball League 1958-62 (part 2)
In an article published in the Hull Daily Mail on 31 March 2003 a former player, Syd Cowan reflected on the years that Hull had had its own handball league, made a point of the variety of sports represented. Syd himself was a Rugby League player but he also referred to rugby union players, the boxer Wally Mays and the netball player Pat Hamblyn. However, he explained that handball attracted "many local and professional footballers" because it was ideal for maintaining fitness over the summer months. Two names of footballers he mention are the Hull City players Frank Harrison and goalkeeper Billy Bly.
Handball in Hull lasted for just four years. It is clear that it was introduced in 1958 by Dr Seewald while Syd reports that the Division One Shield was last contested in 1962 after which "sadly the game petered out." There is no mention of any silverware in 1958 which is not surprising given the fact that it had only just been introduced however in 1959 a tournament was organised with a team by the name of Asbestos winning the trophy. In 1961 the full league was organised and the Shield winners were Crawfords Sports. The second and final year of the league saw Hull Boys Club win the Shield.
Thursday 23 August 2012
The Hull Handball League 1958-62 (part 1)
The British Handball Association was founded in Liverpool in 1967, however, a decade before this records show that a handball league had been recognised by the IHF in Britain. A small history lesson published in Handball News around 1980 (see below) shows an extract from the IHF handbook page 123 of September 1960 listing the existence of a handball league being played in Hull in 1960. The contact is Dr L M Seewald who had introduced handball to Hull during 1958, Dr Seewald was also the author of the 24 page book 'Continental Handball: Official international rules' which was also published in 1958.
Extract from the International Handball Federation handbook September 1960 which appeared in Handball News from around 1980.
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Wednesday 15 August 2012
Tom Smith former Brentwood keeper interviewed last year
An article published last year in the Brentwood Gazette in which Brentwood '72 goalkeeper of the 1970s and 1980s Tom Smith talks about his time playing and coaching. Here is the Link
Tuesday 14 August 2012
Governing body hits on Wikipedia
How do you measure the level of interested generated by different sports during the Olympics? I'm sure MORI or IPOS are being commissioned to carry out surveys to measure people's attitudes but a crude insight into the level of interested is whether people can be bothered to find out a bit more and maybe investigate the governing bodies of sports. One method by which people do this is to search Wikipedia. Fortunately, data is available for the number of hits a Wikipedia page receives each day and this has today been analysed to compare the 30 day period since 15 July. It should first be noted that a few governing bodies still do not have Wikipedia pages e.g. Weightlifting and others have governing bodies which do not exist at a British level e.g. Badminton and Football.
So which British governing body has received the most hits in the past 30 days? With 11,897 hits cycling wins hands down, although it needs to be remembered that some of the hits will have resulted from the exceptional performance of British cyclists during the Tour de France. So we move on the the silver medal and ... Yes! The page British Handball Association with 3,453 views beats UK Athletics (3,153), British Swimming (2269) and British rowing (2173).
A little like the claims that Scotland and Yorkshire make about where they would come in the medal table, England Handball would have been fourth with 2459. Finally, Scottish Handball (568) had more views than the British governing body pages for five other Olympic sports.
So which British governing body has received the most hits in the past 30 days? With 11,897 hits cycling wins hands down, although it needs to be remembered that some of the hits will have resulted from the exceptional performance of British cyclists during the Tour de France. So we move on the the silver medal and ... Yes! The page British Handball Association with 3,453 views beats UK Athletics (3,153), British Swimming (2269) and British rowing (2173).
A little like the claims that Scotland and Yorkshire make about where they would come in the medal table, England Handball would have been fourth with 2459. Finally, Scottish Handball (568) had more views than the British governing body pages for five other Olympic sports.
England - Scotland Internationals Required Urgently!
So what about the legacy? During the course of the Olympics new teams and interest started to appear almost every day - 'Anyone interested in starting a team in Sunderland?', 'We've just started a team in Aberystwyth.' and Telford Handball Club has appeared on Facebook to give just three examples. This is a good start, however as Daly Thompson pointed out, if sports don't act immediately then all the free publicity will be for nothing.
So here are a few points:
It's good news that a teams such as Liverpool and Rutland are involved in the Join in UK initiative https://www.joininuk.org/ but why isn't handball listed on the drop down menu of sports to choose from? 'I want to try handball ... oh it's not on the menu.' Yes, it's about trying local sport but maybe some people would be willing to travel to Liverpool or Rutland to give it a go if they knew the session was on. With no handball on the menu they can't.
Wikipedia is mocked by many but it's where many people go to get their information and then follow links. There has been a massive surge in hits on handball related pages including that for the BHA and EHA. It is quite normal nowadays that organisation manage their Wikipedia pages, so that links work and information is accurate and useful. The EHA link was broken on Wikipedia until a few days ago when I noticed this and fixed it.
Finally, we need a follow up event that will serve as a bridge to raise interest again before the new handball season starts and before the Olympics are forgotten about. If it is not planned then how about an England Scotland International day featuring the male and female teams? Or how about something similar to the Rugby League where the Great Britain teams would take on the best of the English and Scottish Leagues? Better still let's have both of these events. The public would see their Olympic handball heroes in action while they can still remember the names.
Given the way that the BBC is currently raving about handball they will surely put the licence fee money where their mouths are!
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