Eagles flying high as they look to the future

The handball season has ended; however, the Ruislip Eagles continue enjoying the sport by attending summer events. On June 26 the ladies team attended a tournament in Brighton where they played against some of the best teams in the S8 league and some of the teams from the South West Regional Development League. The girls came back home with a third place trophy. Next month both, the ladies and the men will be playing a beach handball tournament in Barking and in August they will be attending the British Beach Handball Championship in Dorset. During the weekend of the June 18 and 19, both boys and girls U16 participated of the London Youth Games representing the borough of Ealing (during the past couple of years the Ruislip Eagles have established a partnership with Ealing Handball Club in order to develop the younger categories: U16 and U18). The boys, coached by Ruislip’s Danny Deissler and Marc Fayemi, were undefeated on the day and came back with a Gold Medal, while the girl’s team finished on a creditable fifth place.  It was the culmination of a year that saw the Ealing U18 men’s team finish equal fifth in the 16-team National U18 League, a significant achievement against more experienced opponents. During the season the U16 boys played three friendly tournaments held at the Copperbox in October 2015, April and May 2016, where the boys won each of them with a faultless record. Both teams, boys and girls, participated of the U16 County Championships, organised by the England Handball Association (EHA).  Mel Chowns coached the girls U16 team who achieved the 3^rd place in the National County finals, whereas the boys fell just short in the national final, losing to Greater Manchester in extra-time. In one year the club has gone from having one boys team, to having two girls and two boys in U18 and U16 age categories, increasingly Ealing’s older players have been joining the Ruislip Eagles teams in training, which of course is the whole point of this partnership – Nurturing the future Eagles generation.