On Sunday, 11th December, Brentwood Handball Club travelled back up the M1 to Cranfield University to play the Warwick University Handball team.

This was the two teams first meeting of the season as Brentwood did not have enough players for the opening game of the season. This was definitely not the case for this match with Brentwood fielding 11 players – their largest squad of the season.

The team included Danny Sedano and Philippe Kouessan-Ettori making their first appearances this season. They were joined by Rob Grant, George Thorpe, Chris Baker, Dave Rimell, Ian Weir, Terry Ward, Sean Briscomb, Boris Pini and goalkeeper Mark Cory.

Like previous matches this season Brentwood started the game strongly with Rob scoring the first goal, the team going 3-1 up and still leading 3-2 after 10 minutes.

However, a combination of Brentwood losing focus, some good play by Warwick and some decisions by the referees reducing Brentwood to just 5 court players, saw Warwick edge back into the game and take a 8-3 lead after 20 minutes. A further 5 goals by Warwick with only 3 in reply from Brentwood saw Warwick lead 13-6 at half time.

A half-time team talk by coach Hans-Jörg Küller Rabaça saw Brentwood regain their focus scoring 4 goals in the first 10 minutes of the second half. However, the experience of Warwick saw them score 5 goals in reply to stretch their lead to 18-10. A further 5 goals by Warwick in the middle of the second half with only 2 in reply by Brentwood saw Warwick stretch their lead to 11 goals, leading 23-12 after 50 minutes.

Brentwood though, saved their best performance of the season for the last 10 minutes of the match scoring 9 goals to Warwick’s 4 goals making the final score Warwick 27 – Brentwood 21.

Top scorer in the match for Brentwood was Chris Baker with 8 goals, followed by Philippe and Rob with 5 goals each and 3 late goals by George adding to Brentwood’s total of 21 goals. There was also once again great saves by Mark Cory in goal plus good blocking in defence and some successful fast breaks.

Despite the loss this was a great performance by Brentwood who, at one stage, were 12 goals behind but reduced this at the end of the game to just 6 goals, and winning the second half by 15 goals to 14. Had it not been for the loss of concentration in the first half it could have been Brentwood’s day.

Coach Hans-Jörg was very pleased with the way the team responded in the second half saying “The team showed great determination and displayed the commitment and motivation that we are training for and is needed to win matches. The great team effort produced immediate results”.

This game was the 3rd game in Boris' 'The Everyman Olympian' handball challenge which you can read more about at: http://everymanolympian.blogspot.com/2011/11/handball-challenge-match-one-cranfield.html
Next game for Brentwood is on Saturday, 14th January 2012, once again away at the Cranfield University sports hall this time vs Cranfield University handball team.

On Saturday, 26th November, Brentwood Handball Club travelled up the M1 to Cranfield University to play the Essex Blades University Handball team.


The Brentwood squad welcomed 3 new players to the team Ian Weir, Terry Ward and Duncan Whitfield. They were joined by the experienced Rob Grant playing his first match of the season, Sean Briscomb, George Thorpe and Boris Pini. In goal for Brentwood was Mark Cory who was still recovering from the ankle injury sustained in the last league game.


Brentwood started the game strongly with Rob scoring the opening goal followed by Ian scoring his first goal for the team to give Brentwood a 2-1 lead. The Essex Blades then scored 5 goals without reply to lead 6-2 after 10 minutes. Further goals from Rob and Ian and debut goals from Duncan saw Brentwood increase their score to 6 goals at the end of the first half. However, the Essex Blades, all but one of whom were foreign players who had played previously, used their experience to score 14 further goals to give them a 20-6 half time lead.


Once again, like in the last match, Brentwood started the 2nd half strongly scoring 5 goals in the first 10 minutes with George getting on the score sheet and Ian, Rob and Duncan adding to their earlier goals. However, the Blades scored 10 goals in this time to increase their lead to 30-11 after 40 minutes. As the game neared it's end the Essex Blades scored a further 12 goals with just one in reply from Brentwood making the final score 42-12 to the Essex Blades who remain unbeaten in the Development League South this season.


Despite the loss, coach Hans-Jörg said their were many positives in the game - goalkeeper Mark Cory, despite not being fully recovered from injury, made some great saves and Terry, Duncan and Ian playing extremely well in their first competitive game with Ian and Duncan scoring 7 of the 12 goals between them, making them joint 'Man of the Match' for this game.


This game was also the 2nd game in Boris 'The Everyman Olympian' handball challenge which you can read more about at:
http://everymanolympian.blogspot.com/2011/11/handball-challenge-match-one-cranfield.html


Next game for Brentwood is on Sunday, 11th December, away at the Cranfield University sports hall vs Warwick University Handball Club. For this match Brentwood are hoping to have most of the squad available and will be looking to pick up their first win of the season.

On Sunday, 6th November, Brentwood Handball Club made the relatively short trip up the A12 to the University of Essex at Colchester for their first match of the 2011/2012 Development League season.

The team started strongly with good defence from the whole team and goals from Chris Baker restricting their opposition, Cranfield University, to a 5:3 lead after the first 20 minutes.Brentwood then suffered a set back with Mark Cory twisting his ankle which would keep him out of the rest of the game. This left the Brentwood team with no subs available for the remainder of the game and Cranfield, with their large squad of 13 players, were able to bring fresh players on at regular intervals and scored a further 9 goals in quick succession before half time against a tiring Brentwood team.

After a half time team talk from coach Hans-Jörg Küller Rabaça, Brentwood started the 2nd half strongly with goals from Sean Briscomb, George Thorpe, and another goal from Chris reducing the Cranfield lead. Despite having no subs available for the 2nd half and several 2 minute suspensions reducing the team to 5 court players, great defence work from the Brentwood team, including the experience of Dave Rimell and Phil Duffield, allowed Cranfield to score only 8 goals in the 2nd half, leaving the final score at 22:7 to Cranfield.

Considering Brentwood only had 7 players for most of the game and that this was our first game of the season, this was a great result and a good platform to build on for the rest of the season when the team will have a larger squad and experienced players back. This game saw an impressive debut for Boris who has joined Brentwood Handball Club as part of his Everyman Olympian challenge (you can follow him at http://everymanolympian.blogspot.com).

Man of the match though for Brentwood had to be goalkeeper David Hendrick, who made numerous great saves and was continuous in his encouragement and advice for the players on the court.

Courtesy of Tom Smith we can provide you with some excellent action shots of the match.Brentwood's next game is on Saturday, 26th November, against University of Essex away at the Cranfield University Sports Hall.