Yesterday, Sunday the 11th June, was the long awaited start of the 2017 Wellington League. The Vikings Handball Club did some great work in recruiting new players and therefore could enter two men teams and one women team into the competition. The men have decided to use the large squad to split up evenly in strength and call one team Vikings Norse and the other team the Vikings Danes. You could argue, one team is more younger and athletic, while the other team is more experienced and crafty – we will see how the season goes and judge later.
The women team started off with a bit of shock, as our only goalie for the season decided to quit Handball just a day before the league started. Thanks to Bridget and Michaela for stepping up and volunteering to help out in goal.
The first opponent we face this year, was the Vic Uni team, who had also a lot of new faces. The game started well for the Vikings though Vic Uni maintained a small lead (halftime 9:10). The second half then saw the Vikings struglling to score while Vic Uni managed to keep the scoreboard ticking over on their side. At the end the Vikings women lost 14:22. Surely the goal difference feels larger than the actual difference of both teams was, but congratlations to the Vic Uni Girls overall they had more firepower and deseredly won.
Vikings HC – Bridget; Maddy 7, Marie 6, Laura 1, Michaela, Julia, Paris, Taye, Hannah K
Vic Uni HC – Sam 12, Meli 2, Kelsey 2, Astrid 2, Hanne 1, Chrissy 1, Kathleen 1
As first men game of the season, the new Vikings “Norse” team faced the Northern Aguilas. Let’s sum it up with, it was a start. The Vikings Norse team consists of the more older and craftier players of the Vikings Handball Club added with some new fresh blood. Unfortunately that also meant that there were some unnecessary tournovers that gave Northern way too often chances for easy fastbreak goals and after all you could say, that was the difference. The game ended 24:35 (HT 11:16) and there is lots of room for improvement.
Vikings HC Norse – Cassius; Daniel 7, Michael 5, PJ 5, Pierre 3, Nico 2, Sam 1, Rakesh 1
Northern Aguilas HC – Tim B; Nick 9, Aaron 8, James 6, Jono 4, Tim R 3, Max 3, Cam 2, Matt
The second men game was the game between the Vikings Danes and the Spartanz. On paper the game looked like an even match that will potentiall showcase a close end, but the Vikings Danes played unselfish team handball and with those young legs, they run knots into the Spartanz team. The Spartanz team fought back but after all was clearly unable to match the Vikings Danes team. The final result was 32:22 (HT 15:8).
Vikings HC Danes – Loann; Luke 9, Paul 7, Jack 4, Angus H 4, Harry 4, Riley 3, Josh 1
Spartanz HC – Thomas, Rhys; Nick 7, Alan 4, Shyam 3, Scott 2, Mariusz 2, Willy 1, Aran 1, Fred 1, Sam 1, Max, Tom T
The other results were:
Women – Hutt Valley Hunters HC vs Spartanz HC 23:15
Men – Vic Uni HC Wolves vs Vic Uni HC Turtles 7:32
(Note: Vic Uni HC Royals – men – had a bye)