Kia ora koutou, New Zealand Handball Whanau!
Here we are, end of March, and handball for the first quarter of the year has largely been all about beach.
Congratulations to the Men’s and Women’s North Island teams for taking out the annual North-South beach handball clash on the sand at Pioneer Stadium and Sumner Beach in Christchurch. Originally scheduled for a contest over three legs, Aunty COVID put paid to the 2nd and 3rd legs, so with the North triumphing in the first outing, they get to lock up the silverware (or should that be Kauri-ware?!) until next summer. Shout out to Willy Silcock for making this summer’s handball camps happen in trying circumstances at a new venue for us.
Next summer should see the opening of the new beach courts at Hataitai in Wellington, providing a bit of venue variety, which will add another dimension to what is already a quality programme. With Auckland convening weekly beach handball sessions as well this summer and strong support from Otago, I can’t wait to see what summer 2022-23 has in store for beach handball.
Even with the end of summer, the 2022 beach programme is still going. We have teams lined up to take part in the Aussie Beach champs at the end of April, with the prospect of New Zealand going head to head with Australia in both the men’s and women’s divisions in a winner-take-all Oceania Qualifying tournament. The prize? The Beach Handball World Champs in Crete at the end of June. Both of our squads are looking strong, and they will have everything to play for on the sand at Coolongatta in a month’s time. NZHF wishes all those taking part all the very best as we finally get some international competition into the programme after a two year hiatus.
Sadly, the competition we weren’t able to make happen was the Junior Cup scheduled for Easter. With COVID concerns and the absence of a Wellington Schools league suppressing numbers, we weren’t confident we could pull off a quality experience for the next generation so our youth players will have a bit longer to wait for their next opportunity.
What is definitely going ahead, however, is everyone’s favourite event, the annual pre-season Queenstown Tournament on 9-10 April. We are delighted to have the Holiday Inn Express & Suites get in behind us with a great deal on accommodation for those traveling for the event, and huge thanks to Queenstown Lakes District Council for providing the venue for no charge. We know COVID concerns still present a hurdle to overcome, but we look forward to seeing a good turnout in the heart of the South. And don’t forget, the Auckland Open Championships is now less than two months away, by which time travel and attendance restrictions will have hopefully had their day.
On the admin front, we have reached out to all the Clubs to let them know about the restructure of national subs commitments for the year ahead. We are moving to a teams-based fee structure, which will result in a reduction in subs required from most clubs, regardless of player numbers and participation in national events. Hopefully that will make planning and admin easier for all concerned. What should also make things easier this year is new sets of portable playing lines we have provided Auckland and Otago. Shout out to handball stalwart Claire Guest for her sewing efforts in helping to make that happen.
We are also looking to implement a new approach to maintaining a national player membership register, so look out for further comms on that. We still have our ambitious target of 5,000 players involved in New Zealand handball by 2025, and without a reliable membership database we won’t be able to monitor how we are tracking – so your cooperation with making that register work will be most appreciated.
On the international front, there are a couple of rule changes from IHF coming into effect from the start of July. Look out for a briefing on those closer to the time, along with some added focus on supporting our referees. We have also been approached on behalf of IHF to see if there is interest in establishing wheelchair handball in New Zealand. If anyone is aware of any potential interest in that variant to our great game, or wants to know more, please get in touch.
Stay safe out there,
David Ireland
President, New Zealand Handball Federation