The
2018 British University Handball Championship Finals took place last month at
the Medway Park sports facility in Gillingham in south-east England - the
highlight at the end of a season which saw well over 50 university handball
teams from Wales, England, Scotland and Ireland take part.
QUALIFICATION FOR FINALS
62
universities across England and Wales registered at the end of September 2017
to take part in their respective regional leagues, with games throwing-off from
October and taking place over four dedicated weekends of handball.
At
the end of the season the top-placed teams from England and Wales qualified
through to Medway, joining Scottish teams University of Strathclyde, University
of Dundee and the University of St Andrews, along with the qualifiers from
Ireland, University College Dublin.
FINALS WEEKEND
Unlike
2017, where five competitions featuring 74 teams were split across one weekend,
the 2018 edition was split across two weekends. The first weekend featured the
University Cup Finals – for those teams who had finished in the top two places
of their respective regional leagues while the second weekend featured the
lower-ranked teams in the men’s and women’s regional leagues in the University
Plate Finals.
And
the 2018 Championships did not disappoint, as they provided their usual mix of
highs and lows with shortened games lasting of 20 minutes each (10 minutes each
half).
Men’s Championships
Cup
Four
Preliminary Groups were played in a round-robin format, with the winners from
each group going straight into the semi-finals. Cranfield University overcame
Durham University – who had been taken to extra time by Loughborough in their
semi-final – in a very tight final to become champions.
Plate
17
teams competed in the Plate competition with the group winners and runners-up
going straight through to the semi-finals and it was Leeds Beckett University
who took the honours, repeating their exact same result from 2017 after
defeating Welsh team Bangor University in the final following their semi-final
victory against hosts, University of Kent.
Women’s Championships
Cup
Defending
2017 champions Bournemouth University were not able to attend the 2018 edition,
which saw the winners and runners-up from the two Preliminary Groups qualify
through to the last four. Eventually, Loughborough University were crowned
champions, beating University of Nottingham in the final. Nottingham had beaten
eventual bronze medallists University of Kent in the semi-finals 8:5.
Plate
From
the 10 teams in the competition, the group winners and runners-up went straight
through to the semi-finals with Loughborough University’s second team taking
the Plate home after beating Imperial College – University of London in the
final.
The
championships were organised by the England Handball Association (EHA) and
their National Competitions and Events Manager John Pearce was full of praise
for those involved with the organisation and is already looking forward to the
2019 edition.
“Since
taking over the running of the competition last year, the EHA are still
evolving it to find the best possible format for the universities,” said the
former Great Britain player who played in the London 2012 Olympic Games.
“For
this season there have been some significant changes and we will take this into
consideration for next season, 2018/19,” he continued. “This will hopefully
allow us to settle on a final format which fits into the university calendar,
providing sufficient and suitable competition. Once again, there have been some
high levels of play and, more notably, a number of universities entering more
teams than ever before.
“As
always, we would like to say a massive ‘thank-you and well done’ to the Medway
Council volunteers and all those at Medway who hosted the championships again
as they really stepped up to the plate and did a brilliant set up. The
volunteers are second to none and I can only thank them.”
ENGLAND AND WALES UNIVERSITY
TEAMS
Women:
North (6 teams) - Leeds Beckett University, Liverpool John Moores University,
University of Bangor, University of Lancaster, University of Manchester,
University of Liverpool
Women:
South (12 teams – two groups) - Imperial College – University of London,
University of Bath (two teams), University of Oxford, University of Cambridge
(two teams), UCL – University of London, University of Kent (two teams),
University of Middlesex, University of Chichester (two teams)
Women:
Midlands (9 teams – two groups) - University of Nottingham (two teams),
Nottingham Trent University, University of Worcester, University of Birmingham
(two teams), Loughborough University (two teams), University of Warwick
Men:
North (9 teams – two groups) - Leeds Beckett University, Liverpool John Moores
University (two teams), University of Bangor (two teams), University of
Manchester, University of Lancaster, Durham University, University of Liverpool
Men:
South (15 teams – three groups) - University of Cambridge (two teams),
University of Oxford, Imperial College – University of London, University of
Middlesex, Cranfield University, University of Kent (two teams), UCL –
University of London, Kings College – University of London, Brighton
University, Chichester University (two teams), University of Bath (two teams)
Men:
Midlands (11 teams – two groups) - Loughborough University (two teams),
University of Nottingham (two teams), University of Birmingham (three teams),
University of Warwick (two teams), University of Worcester, Nottingham Trent
University