President's Update - December 2022

Meri Kirihimete, Aotearoa handball whānau

Hard to believe we are nearly at the end of another year – and what an action-packed year it has been for New Zealand Handball!

First up, congratulations to our men’s junior and youth team’s for a fantastic showing at the IHF Trophy Oceania qualifiers held in the Cook Islands at the start of December. While the boys weren’t able to bring home the silverware they had hoped for, they still posted some very creditable results and can hold their heads high with our U18 youth team finishing 2nd, coming agonisingly close to top place with a one goal loss to winners Tahiti, and the U20 juniors finishing 3rd, also coming agonisingly close to finishing one place better with a one goal loss to New Caledonia. Many thanks and congratulations to Cook Islands Handball for hosting the tournament. The result for the U18 Team was good enough to secure them a spot at the 2023 IHF Men’s Youth World Championships to be held in Croatia, so possibly more action in store for them next year.

We wish Tahiti (Youth) and Australia (Juniors) all the best as they go on to represent Oceania at the intercontinental phase of the IHF Trophy next year.

The future of New Zealand Men’s handball is looking bright with the way our boys performed in the Cooks. Now that they have had a taste of success on the international stage, we hope all the members of both squads have a long handball career ahead of them, and will share their experiences to inspire their peers to get amongst it. Eyes now turn to our youth and junior women’s teams to prepare for the equivalent Oceania qualifiers next year, date and venue yet to be confirmed. Look out for more communications and expressions of interests to get involved in that in the New Year.

Sticking with the international theme, the Men’s Handball World Championships will be held in Poland and Sweden in January. While New Zealand didn’t quite make the cut to take part, I will be attending the finals weekend in my capacity as NZHF President to wave the flag for New Zealand Handball, so look out for me in the stands. For those of you having a flutter on that international event, please do so at TAB NZ. There is a surprising level of betting placed on handball games from New Zealand, and an even more surprising proportion of that is placed with overseas betting agencies. While NZHF does not wish to encourage gambling, we do benefit financially from handball revenue generated by TAB NZ, for which we are extremely grateful and is how we get to fund our development grants programme. Any bet placed on handball that is not made through the TAB in New Zealand represents money lost to growing the sport here.

On the subject of our development grant programme, a process plea for those looking for funding from us. We have had a few applications come through of late that relate to expenses that have already been incurred and initiatives implemented. While we encourage initiatives aimed at developing and promoting the sport and its players, and are committed to funding initiatives that meet our fairly wide criteria, we won’t usually fund things retrospectively. So for our Clubs and Regional Associations, if you have an idea for something that will develop handball, and it will cost some cash to make it happen, please talk to us about how we can help before you get too far down the track. That way we can help make sure we can maximise the impact of the funding we provide, and have opportunity  to assist with whatever you have in mind. Contact Willy at treasurer@handball.org.nz if you want further information.

Looking back on the year that has been, it is encouraging to have been able to roll out a relatively full programme in 2022 after a couple of years of frustration, with all the major domestic tournaments ticked off: Queenstown in April, Auckland Open in May, the Wellington League from June to September, Auckland’s youth tournament in August, Club Champs in Wellington in September and Regionals in Christchurch in October, on top of the School leagues in Dunedin and lots of other handball being organised throughout the regions and green shoots developing in Bay of Plenty and Wanaka. And of course, the wildly successful beach programme saw our Men and Women compete on the Gold Coast over ANZAC weekend and the Men go on to the Beach World Champs in Crete and World Games in Alabama with a cheeky round of the European Beach circuit in France in between. We were also able to kick off our inaugural referees training course, giving us something to build on as we look to improve the quality of our play. The year ahead is shaping up to be just as big, with hopefully the days of COVID-19 disruptions consigned to the history books meaning we get a clear run at an uninterrupted programme in 2023.

Talking of planning for the year ahead, we had a well-attended region-wide strategy meet on 11 December, thanks to Billie from Spartanz HC for facilitating that. There are a few initiatives and strategies that will flow from that session aimed at ensuring Handball in New Zealand is able to move forward on an even better organised basis, so thanks to all who took part, both in terms of participation in the session and in anticipation of you helping to follow that through in 2023.

Last, a huge shout out to all our wonderful handball community for all you have done over the year to make handball Aotearoa as good as it has been. The year has not been without its challenges, but we continue to benefit from a fantastic cohort of hard-working volunteers throughout the country. Thanks for all that you do – and for all that you will continue to do!

Safe travels, and best wishes for the holiday season, whatever it may mean for you

David Ireland

President, New Zealand Handball Federation

President's Update - November 2022

Kia ora koutou

 After a jam-packed handball schedule leading up to the Regional Associations stakeholder meeting in October, the past month has seen a bit of the pressure come off from an NZHF Exec perspective. Not that there hasn’t been a swathe of handball-related activities to keep on top of!

 The main initiative we are working on at present is refreshing the NZHF strategic plan to help us prioritise efforts over the next few years, building off the great engagement we had at last month’s Regional Associations meet. The next step is to follow up that session with a regional strategy workshop to help each region plan for the year ahead and minimise any re-invention of wheels. There’s some great stuff going on out there, but it is clear that the future health of New Zealand handball is reliant on a small number of passionate volunteers to keep things moving. Our task is to harness that passion to maximum effect and minimum waste. Keep an eye out for further developments: once things have progressed we will publish an updated strategic plan for all to share.

 Another key initiative we are well advanced with is finalising a schedule of nationally focused handball events for the year ahead. The timing of many of those events is reliant on being able to book venues so some dates are provisional only at this stage. However, we recognise this is a priority concern for everyone. We are committed to early communication of timing for events and visibility of the national programme to help everyone plan the year ahead around the handball opportunities on offer.

 The Beach programme is already largely finalised (See pre season update here), however, the OCHF have decided on the qualifying host and it looks like our national rep squads will be packing their bags to head across the ditch in April to contest the qualifiers that will determine Oceania Handball’s representatives for the World Beach Games in Bali in August. While we are disappointed our own bid to host those qualifiers in Christchurch was not successful, it’s shaping up as another exciting year ahead on the sand.

 What is more exciting right now is the Men’s Youth and Junior Teams IHF Trophy Oceania qualifiers being held in Rarotonga from 5-9 December. The teams may be among the best prepared squads we have ever sent to an Oceania qualifying tournament, but there is going to be some high quality opposition to get past. We wish Thomas, Jack, Hayden and the boys all the very best – time for all your hard mahi over the past year to pay off.

The next cab off the rank is the female youth and junior IHF Trophy qualifiers to be held in 2023 – time for your mahi in preparation for that to start! Keep an eye out for further comms on that front, and please encourage any female teenage handball prospects out there to get in touch with secretary@handball.org.nz or womenshandball@handball.org.nz.

That’s all for now – Regional Association reps, keep an eye out for communications as we look to lock in a strategic planning workshop with you this side of Christmas.

Ngā mihi

David Ireland

President, New Zealand Handball Federation

President's Update - October 2022

Kia ora koutou, New Zealand Handball whānau!

Thanks to all those who tuned in to the AGM on 25 September. Great to have such a good turnout and participation from our voting members.  

Draft minutes have been posted on the website https://handball.org.nz/annual-general-meetings-agm  and will be put to next year’s AGM for formal approval. You can also find the annual report covering the period between AGMs and the financial statements for the latest financial year in the same section of the website. Please get in touch if you have any queries. 

The Key governance development from the AGM was the upgrade to Executive Committee, with Rowan Moloughney elected to join Tim Rayner, Willy Silcock, and Maddie Stephen as the continuing Executive Committee members and me re-elected for a further two year term. We have now had our first post-AGM Executive Committee meeting, where the incumbent Life Members’ appointee on the Exec, Frank Stoltenberg confirmed his availability to continue and he was duly re-appointed by the Life Members as their rep. I am pleased to confirm that our office bearers and portfolio holders for the year ahead are as follows: 

  • President – David

  • Secretary-General – Rowan

  • Treasurer – Willy

  • Complaints & Integrity – David

  • High Performance – Tim

  • Women’s Handball – Maddie

  • Youth Handball – Frank

  • Beach Handball – Willy

  • Tournaments – Rowan

  • Policies & Partnerships – David

  • Media – Jun Tanlayco (outside Exec)

  • Membership – Daniel Triebsch (outside Exec)

  • Referee Development – Antoine Desnos (outside Exec)

While we have identified particular portfolios of interest for each Exec member, please bear in mind that we are primarily an oversight and governance body: the onus continues to be on our Clubs and Regional Associations to make all the good handball stuff happen. A Regional Associations and Club stakeholders’ meeting has been scheduled for 19 October to flesh out how we see the year ahead playing out, with a focus on developing youth and women’s handball and coordinating the schedule. 

The other big event that too place since my last update was the Regional Champs held in Christchurch on October 1 and 2. Hats off to the Canterbury Handball organizing committee who put on a fantastic tournament at Pioneer Stadium, despite some challenges with numbers, with one of the most tightly contested Championships I can recall seeing and some top quality handball on display. Congratulations to the Otago Men for taking out the honours for their first ever win at this event, and to the Canterbury A Women’s team. A big thank you to all those that made the effort to get to this pinnacle event to conclude the indoor season.

The focus now moves to the Men’s Youth and Junior teams set to compete in the IHF Trophy Oceania qualifiers in Rarotonga, with the tournament now confirmed to commence on 3 December. Congratulations to the members of the two squads selected to represent New Zealand at this important event, with the winner of each age division going on to represent Oceania at the Intercontinental Championships next year. We had some great depth in the talent pool competing for spots in the squads. That’s really encouraging for the future, although it meant the selectors had their work cut out and some promising young players missed out on a spot. Hopefully their time will come, and meantime we can be confident we have a couple of very competitive teams to contest the Trophy. To follow the boys campaigns and keep up to date with their prep towards IHF Trophy follow

https://www.facebook.com/nzyouthhandball

We also have the 2022-23 beach handball programme kicking off this month, and it is great to see a beach league starting up in Wellington to take advantage of the new sand court that opened in autumn. It is an exciting summer ahead, with the beach high performance programme cranking up another notch as we eye another Oceania qualifiers at the end of summer with the prize this time being a spot at the World Beach games in Bali next August. Keep an eye out for further updates as we look to host those qualifiers and put on a show for the rest of the handball world to see.

Ngā mihi

David Ireland

President, New Zealand Handball Federation

Beach Handball 2022 Pre Season Update

Kia ora Koutou Katoa e te Whanau Handball,

With the beach season fast looming and the indoor season wrapped up for another year I want to give you a taster of the upcoming Beach Handball season.

The NZHF is extremely proud of the mahi our Beach Handball teams put in last beach season. The women took their first game off Australia and have shown great progression over the last two years. With such a youthful and enthusiastic squad we can’t wait to see them go from strength to strength over the coming years. The men took it a step further and recorded 2 wins over Australia and earnt the right to represent our Oceania at this year’s World Champs in Crete and World Games in Alabama. At both the World Champs and the World Games our men did us proud, recording New Zealand’s first ever wins at a global tournament, including triumphing over the African champions Egypt to put themselves in a position to contest the 13th place play-off match after narrowly missing out on a top 12 finish in a penalty shootout with the United States. While the men weren’t able to repeat the wins at the World Games, they were competitive and received excellent feedback with current World Champs Croatia and perennial favourites Brazil.

It is imperative that we keep driving the momentum and growing the NZ Beach Handball scene. The NZHF Beach Handball stakeholders have met and discussed how to best move forward and we are excited to share what’s in store for the coming season.

Last year our high performance programme was restricted to a selected squad. As the campaign reached a natural end point we want to re-open selection in both high performance squads to ensure that we provide pathways for all beach players to perform at the highest level. The first and second camp will be open selection camps. If you are interested in participating in the high performance programme please fill out the form at these links. EOI Closes this Sunday so get in quick!

Men's Sign Up - https://forms.gle/TapVU54ak3CZW8qZ8

Women's Sign Up - https://forms.gle/v4dVmbwXu2NMYUm37

We believe that the blueprint developed last year was a great building block. The season ahead will be formatted in a similar fashion. While the below images show a couple of indicative timelines for the year, given the current global situation and with Oceania qualifiers still to be decided on (we are currently putting in a proposal to host in little old New Zealand)  we understand that there may still be a need to be agile.

This timeline will help prepare our teams for potential international events later in the season, including the Australian Beach Club Champs as well as Oceania Qualifiers which we are expecting in March. This will provide a pathway into the ANOC Beach World Games in August. While we will be attending these events, we understand the need to provide a high level of competition in our own back yard to keep pushing our players to be better tomorrow. This means that the third year of the North vs. South Championships will be back and better than ever for the coming year. These will be closely linked with High Performance camps and NZ Beach Champs so stay tuned for more information.

On a final note due to this tight timeframe there will need to be a focused effort on regional growth this year to provide high value training and player pathways for all. It’s going to be an exciting year ahead for Beach Handball!

Looking forward to seeing you all out on the sand soon,

Ngā Mihi Nui,

Willy Silcock

NZHF Executive Board Member (Beach Handball Portfolio)

President's Update - September 2022

Kia ora koutou katoa e te whānau Aotearoa Handball!

I am penning this update in the aftermath of an epic National Club Champs hosted by NZHF at the fabulous ASB Sports Centre in Wellington. Fantastic to see so many players from around the country – and further afield – gather together to compete in an event jam-packed with top quality handball. Three years after the last time we were physically able to hold the event, it was massive to have over 160 players take part over the three days. There were some upsets and a number of monumental tight-fought clashes. My pick for the game of the tournament would have to be the Canterbury Quakes v Otago Uni Men’s Quarter-final, going to a 2nd round of penalties after the teams couldn’t be separated after extra time. A shame one of them had to be knocked out, but that’s the way handball goes.

Congratulations to the Canterbury Quakes HC for triumphing over Spartanz HC in the Women’s final, and to the Northern Aguilas HC for their win over Auckland HC in the Men’s final. Both games were hard fought, and it is tremendous to see that the spirit of handball is alive and well at the National Club Champs after the three year gap. Congratulations also to our other award winners from the tournament – the top goal scorers, the MVPs and the tournament teams – but most all, massive thanks to all those who took part or who came along to support and make it a truly memorable event. You can still catch up on all the action on our live YouTube Channel

Massive thanks the Wellington City Council for coming through with a generous grant to support the event, and to our partner the Goethe Institut for supplying Erima balls both to play with and as prizes, along with the uniforms for our official referees.

On that note, congratulations to our 19 ‘official’ referees recognised through the programme Antoine Desnos has been running over the past couple of months. Quality refereeing is a cornerstone of our game’s advancement, and it was great to see that number commit to getting their stripes, and translate their new skills to the whistle on court. Keep up the great work!

We now have the Regional Champs at Pioneer Stadium to look forward to on 1 and 2 October. I understand a couple of regions are struggling to get numbers, so if you are interested in taking part, even to represent another region, please get in touch – we really want this final official event on our 2022 calendar to be a success, and that requires players to get amongst it.

Of course, before then we have the NZHF AGM on Sunday 25 September at 7pm. A Zoom meet will be sent to all the Clubs and their voting reps ahead of the meeting. If you want to participate, please contact your Club for that link. A highlight of that meeting will be the chance for Clubs to vote in our very own photographer to the stars, Leonardo (Jun) Tanlayco as a life member of the New Zealand Handball Federation, recognising around 15 years of dedicated support to publicise our great sport.

That’s it for this month. As always, if you have any ideas about ways we can promote and develop NZ Handball, please get in touch – we’d love to hear from you.

Nga mihi

David Ireland
President, New Zealand Handball Federation

President's Update - August 2022

Kia ora koutou katoa e te whānau Aotearoa Handball!

Down to the business end of the indoor season with a busy few weeks coming up.

First up, after a two year hiatus, it’s all systems go for the NZ Handball Club Champs at Wellington’s fabulous ASB Centre, 9-11 September. We have five teams registered to compete in the Women’s side of the tournament, and seven Men’s teams from around the country. Fingers crossed the pandemic and weather gods don’t disrupt us this time round! For those not playing, the showcase part of the tournament will be taking place on Sunday, with spectator seating being organised from noon and livestreaming of the main court. It should be a great event, so get amongst it if you can.

Massive thanks the Wellington City Council for coming through with a generous grant to support the event.

Next up on the official calendar is the NZHF AGM, being held via Zoom on Sunday 25 September. While this is primarily a forum for our member Clubs, any NZHF stakeholder is welcome to attend. Details will be circulated to Clubs in the first half of September, with openings coming up on the NZHF Executive Committee for anyone interested in contributing to New Zealand Handball at a governance level.

We then have the Regional Champs being held at Pioneer Stadium in Christchurch in the first weekend of October to finish off the season. That will be the chance for the best of the best from each of the major handball regions of New Zealand to test themselves against each other. Again, there’s been a two year pause on that event due to Covid-lockdowns, so there should be plenty of pent-up inter-region rivalry to make it one to remember.

While all this is going on, Antoine Desnos (referees@handball.org.nz) is continuing to run his referees pathway programme for those keen on taking their refereeing to the next level – or just getting more familiar with the intricacies of the rules. And of course, we have our Men’s Junior and Youth squads preparing for the IHF Trophy later in the year.

Looking to the North, a big shout out to Auckland Region Handball for managing to hold an Under 20 tournament at the start of the month. Having finally managed to evade Aunty Covid which caused the cancellation of prior attempts to run Under 20 tournaments over the past year or so, Uncle Fog came to the party to disrupt travel, with the Canterbury team hardest hit at the last minute. Nevertheless, a great tournament was still able to be hosted, with plenty of emerging talent on display. Congratulations to Otago Handball for lifting the Under 20 Trophy for 2022, and special thanks to all the volunteers and the Auckland Region Handball Committee for their commitment to making this important event happen.

And congratulations as well to the Victoria University Handball Club Men’s Team for making it through to the final of the Wellington Men’s league to take on reigning champions the Northern Aguilas on Sunday 28th. It should be a great clash. On the Women’s side of the league, Victoria University Handball Club take on the Spartanz for the title - the Spartanz have had the wood on them this year so far, but have the scarfies been holding something back? Both games (and the Men’s play off for 3rd) will be livestreamed.

As always, if you have any queries about anything mentioned in this update or anything else New Zealand handball-related, please get in touch.

David Ireland
President, New Zealand Handball Federation

President's Update - July 2022

Kia ora koutou katoa e te whānau Aotearoa Handball! 

While the latest weather bombs to hit NZ and our July temperatures may mean none of us are thinking beach at this time (other than somewhere overseas to escape to), beach handball is where this month’s update must start off.

Massive shout out to our Men’s Beach Handball team who have now completed their 5 week European and North American Beach Handball odyssey. Awesome achievement to clock up New Zealand’s first ever senior level handball victory at a major international tournament with a W at the World Championships in Crete, narrowly missing out on a top 12 finish in a penalty shoot-out with the USA, and then backing up their earlier success with another W over the African continental champions to finish a very creditable 14th. The World Games in Alabama was a more exclusive 8 team event where we weren’t able to get over the line with another victory, albeit still finishing 7th after Denmark weren’t able to make it over. In Alabama we arguably put in some of the most head-turning performances ever by a NZ handball team competing overseas, with a highlight of the trip being coming within a whisker of taking beach handball’s traditional powerhouse Brazil to penalties. Heady stuff.

Congratulations to our history-making team, proving that Kiwis can in fact fly and take it to the best. Welcome back to the New Zealand winter, boys!

The Men’s team’s participation in July’s World Games concluded our highly successful 2021-22 Beach campaign, which included our Women’s Team pushing Australia hard in the Oceania qualifiers over ANZAC Weekend. Seems a long time ago... Eyes now turn to the 2022-23 campaign, with qualifying for the World Beach Games in Bali later next year the key objective. Both national rep squads will be opened up for selection over summer, with another action-packed beach handball programme planned. If you are interested in getting amongst it, contact NZHF Beach Handball beach@handball.org.nz to register your interest. 

The next major event on the NZ Handball calendar is the Under 20 Open in Auckland. Great to see that tournament get off the ground to back up the success of Auckland’s Men’s and Women’s Open in May. Best wishes to Pepe and the Auckland Handball organising committee, and fingers crossed you don’t get hit with any COVID disruptions this time round. Any boys who were under 20 at the start of this year who have not yet been snaffled into a team for the tournament, please get in touch with Pepe at  Auckland Handball info@aucklandhandball.com, as he may be able to find a spot in one of the teams to take you – the more the merrier. This will be the first selection event ahead of the IHF Oceania Trophy tournament in the Cook Islands scheduled for the end of November. Coaches and a management team have been appointed for that campaign and we look forward to seeing the future of our Men’s  game develop over the next few months. If you are a male born in 2002 or younger and want to get involved, please reach out to Tim at high-performance@handball.org.nz.

And we haven’t forgotten about the girls! While we couldn’t get the numbers to run a female section of the Auckland Under 20 Open, your chance at IHF Trophy qualification is expected to come in 2023.  We are currently working on a strategy to increase participation of girls playing across the country, and provide support to those keen to develop their skills in coaching and management to ensure the future of our women’s game is secure. Please reach out to Womens NZHF womenshandball@handball.org.nz if you are interested in being a part of that.

 Following the Auckland Under 20 Open we have the National Club Champs being held at Wellington’s fabulous ASB Centre 8-11 September. At this stage we have yet to make a call as to whether we will need to use the afternoon of Thursday 8th to fit some opening games into the schedule. All depends on the number of teams who register, with the possibility of an exhibition game against an Australian selection late afternoon on the Thursday to kick off the tournament still on the cards. For our developing Clubs – thinking BoP, Queenstown, Wanaka, Southland – you are welcome to combine resources to make up a Barbarians team or two. Clubs/combinations can register by emailing me at president@handball.org.nz, with a registration fee of $400 per team payable no later than 7 September. Registrations close 15 August. 

Further details regarding the Regional Champs to be held at Christchurch’s Pioneer Stadium in the 1st weekend of October will follow closer to the time. Regional Associations should be thinking about their selections for that event now, to ensure they are able to follow a proper process. Contact Tim at high-performance@handball.org.nz if you want a hand with that.

 As notified in last month’s update, the NZHF AGM is going to be run virtually from 7pm on Sunday 25 September. The key advance task for Clubs is to think about anyone they would like to put forward for election to the three spots on the NZHF Exec that will come available at the AGM. Nominations for election to the Executive Committee must be received by NZ Handball (secretary@handball.org.nz) before 10 September. Get in touch if you would like further details.

 Amongst all that, we had our Referees pathway programme kick off on 17 July, with the 2nd  session scheduled for 24 July. Co-ordinated by Antoine Desnos, this programme sets participants on the path to become a qualified referee, potentially opening the door to blow your whistle at overseas events (or at least, get paid for doing so at the NZ Club Champs!) with your very own official referee shirt thrown in, thanks to the generous support of the Goethe Institut. Contact referees@handball.org.nz for further details.

 Last, a plea on behalf of our developing clubs. To get handball up and running effectively outside the main centres, we need the numbers to make it happen. Please reach out to anyone you know in the BoP, Queenstown Lakes District or Southland, regions, in particular, who you think might be interested in getting into our great sport and encourage them to get in touch. And of course, there are always openings and a warm welcome for newcomers at all of our established clubs around the country!

 

David Ireland
President, New Zealand Handball Federation

President's Update - June 2022

Kia ora koutou katoa e te whānau Aotearoa Handball

Middle of the year already, so time for some admin!

First up, National Club Champs. These are being held at Wellington’s fabulous ASB Centre 8-11 September. Yes, that’s right, we are scheduled to start on the Thursday and go through to Sunday afternoon. Our thinking is that in the ideal world you need at least four days to run an event of the highest quality and manage player welfare. We also figured a four day event would make it a more enticing proposition for Clubs from outside Aotearoa. Unfortunately we do not live in an ideal world, and some of our stakeholders have expressed concern about needing to take an extra day’s leave to attend.

To cater for everyone, here's how it will work. Any Clubs based outside Wellington will NOT be scheduled to play a game on the Thursday UNLESS they request that. Please just plan on needing to be ready to jump into action from 9am on the Friday. Wellington-based Clubs – please plan on the possibility of needing to fit in a game on the Thursday afternoon. If we can get a Club or two from Australia arriving for the Thursday and their players are up for it, we may even try to run a Trans-Tasman selection clash to close out the day. All depends on the number of teams who register to take part, so the sooner we can hear from Clubs the better so we can firm up the schedule – let me know at president@handball.org.nz. Registrations close 15 August.

Big shout out to Wellington City Council for providing us with a sizeable wedge of cash to support the Club Champs happen in Welly. Thanks to that funding, we are able to keep team registration fees down at $400 each, with NZHF funding any remaining shortfall. COVID-19 has caused the event to be cancelled for the past two years: third times a charm.

In the shorter term we have the Auckland Under 20 Open coming up. Latest intel we have is that there were insufficient female teams to make a women’s draw a goer, but the youth men are all go. Really looking forward to seeing the next generation of New Zealand handball show their stuff, with an eye on selection for the Oceania IHF Trophy qualifiers at the end of the year.

Looking further ahead, we have the Regional Champs at Christchurch’s Pioneer Stadium at the start of October to round out adult indoor handball for the year.

In between Club and Regional Champs we have everyone’s annual highlight – the NZHF AGM. We are going to run it virtually again this year, pencilled in for 7pm on Sunday 25 September. I hope you are all as excited about it as I am. There will be three spots on the NZHF Exec up for grabs, so get in touch if you think you have something to contribute to the running of our great game, and are prepared to do a bit of heavy lifting. More details to follow.

Final piece of admin – player registration,. The new system is all up and running, so every player taking part in a competitive handball game should now be registered with us. If in doubt, liaise with your Club or contact membership@handball.org.nz.

Last – the Beach Handball Champs in Crete kick off on 21 June. You can access livestreams of all games on the NZHF Supporters Group Facebook page. All the best to Tim, Jimmy and the rest of the Kiwi team carrying the hopes of the nation on their shoulders. We’ll report on how they got on there and on the European Beach circuit and at the World Games in Alabama that follow in next month’s update.

David Ireland
President, New Zealand Handball Federation

President's Update - May 2022

Greetings NZ Handballers

What a historic month April was for NZ handball! Not only did we consummate our partnership agreement with the Goethe-Institut that will set NZ handball up for years to come, after a three year hiatus we finally got to take on the Aussies in their own back yard (or should that read sandpit?!). Congratulations to our Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball squads for their outstanding performance in the Australian Beach Handball Champs on the Gold Coast over ANZAC Weekend. Taking Australia to a third deciding game for both genders taking part was a massive achievement for us on its own. However, the men were able to put the icing on their cake to triumph in their game 3 penalty shoot out.

This is the first time a New Zealand handball team has come out on top in an adult Oceania qualifier to attend a World Champs as of right. Our best Aotearoa handball wishes go out to Tim, Jimmy and the team as they head to Crete where they have drawn reigning world champs Brazil in pool play, and then go on to the World Games in Alabama in July. The team has already enjoyed great support from the NZ Handball community, so big thanks to all  those who have contributed in some way to date. Go to https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/nz-mens-beach-handball-world-champs-and-games if you would like to contribute or contact beach@handball.org.nz for further info.

Closer to home, we are looking forward to the Auckland Open on May 20-21. Auckland Handball always put on a great event, and after so many lockdown disappointments over the past year it will be tremendous to see our handball community gather together on the Shore once more.

And the international opportunities aren’t all about Beach. The Oceania Continent Handball Federation has just announced that the Australian Club Open from 30 June-3 July on Australia’s Gold Coast will double as the Oceania qualifiers for Super Globe in Saudi Arabia in October. Any Clubs itching for some international action are encouraged to get amongst it.

Looking further ahead, we have the Auckland Youth Open (for those Under 20 at the start of 2022) in the 1st weekend of August. NZHF will contribute $1500 towards the travel costs of each of the 1st 8 teams from out of the Auckland region to register to take part, so get in quick if you want to access that funding.

The Auckland Youth Open will most likely be the last opportunity for eligible players to show their stuff in competition before we need to confirm selections for the Oceania Junior and Youth Men’s IHF Trophy qualifiers. These are  provisionally set down for end of November/1st week in December in the Cook Islands. It’s a fantastic opportunity for our future stars to taste international competition with all its pomp and ceremony, and I expect competition for places to be fierce.

For our Junior and Youth Women, your turn should come next year, to fit with the IHF intercontinental championships schedule. It might seem like a long way off, but the Auckland Youth Open is a great opportunity to get started on the pathway.

Last, on the admin front we now have our new player registration system up and running. All players should have heard about that from your Club by now - if you haven’t, please contact your Club’s NZHF contact to make sure you are registered by 31 May. Any queries, contact Daniel at membership@handball.org.nz.

Take care out there - and don’t forget to track the fortunes of our Men’s Beach Handball Team as they take on the world!

David Ireland
President, New Zealand Handball Federation