Hi All,

First of all something really important
CLIFDEN Matches!!!

We are supposed to go to Clifden on the 1st of December 2007. Clifden is behind Galway in Conemara. It is planned that we take a bus (private one) from Dublin city centre at around 7.30 to go to Clifden and play our matches at 1 p.m. and 2.30 approximately.

Then we all go back to Galway, stop there for a pint and dinner and then the bus will take us back to Dublin (we will be back around 11 p.m. I think). Please let me know by THURSDAY, 15th November 2007 if you will be able to go and play against Clifden. Depending on how many players we have we also might be able to take some supporters :o)

Short summary of this weekend:

DCU Girls vs. Terenure: 11:36
A match to forget. Without goalkeeper Terenure realised immediately that they would have an easy match and just shot & scored from every angle. Debbie did her best in goal and had a few great saves that steered us away from a complete desaster. The girls still have a lot of weaknesses in attack, the defense now works a lot better and prevented the result from looking even worse. All we need is everybody at the matches & at training, we have a lot of work to do.

DCU Guys vs. Kildare: 30:28
Another good match of the guys. Not perfect (yet) but certainly again nice to watch. After being 2 goals behind at half time, our guys picked themselves up and went 6 goals ahead in only 10 minutes just to narrow that gap down again to just 2 goals at the end. Some really good moves in attack and a quite solid defence, but it's the lat 10 minutes of a match that seem to cause them a lot of trouble. So, it's not only the girls that need some more training! :o)

Training for all this week Wednesday from 6-8 and on Thursday 5-6.

Next matches:

Girls: Match free weekend next weekend
Sunday, 25th November 2007: We are scheduled to play UCD but 3 girls are not there already so I asked them if we can re-schedule. Will keep  you posted.

Guys:
Sunday, 18th November 2007: You are playing against DIT, I have asked them for confirmation of time & Venue and will let you know once this has been finalised.
Sunday, 25th November: UCD:DCU in UCD time to be confirmed.

See you all Wednesday
Melanie

 Hi All,

As promised here an update on meeting times and venues:

 Sunday, 11th November 2007 @ 3.00 p.m. in Maynooth Meeting in DCU at 12.30 p.m., meeting in the City Centre on O'Connell Bridge at the no. 4 Bus Stop (everyone should know where that is :o) at 1.10 p.m. We will take the following train:

Pearse    1330  (Ianik)
Tara Station    13:32  (we others)
Dublin Connolly  1337 
Coolmine   1355    (Kristin :o))
Clonsilla   1357 
Maynooth   1412 

From the train station in Maynooth it will be a 20 minute walk to the sports complex of the university.

Overview map: http://www.nuim.ie/location/maps/
large_maynooth_map.jpg    (this map can be enlarged)

From the station we have to go to from the South to the North Campus.
Campus maps:
http://www.nuim.ie/location/maps/parking.shtml

Ok, guess that's it. Any questions, contact either Ahmed, Mehdi or me.

See you all on Sunday!
Mel

Hi All,

Girls match (ladies first :o))

Sunday, 11th November 2007 @ 10.30 in Tallaght Community School Sports Complex, Balrothery, Tallaght, Dublin 24. The city centre girls meet at 08:30 at Trinity College, please don't be late!!! If we don't get that bus we will be late for the match so we can't wait! 

Kristin will go by car from Blanchardstown, if anyone from that area would like to join her please email her.

Anyone else who need directions, give me a call or send me a mail!

 Hi all,

well, first of all: CONGRATULATIONS to the guys!

 DCU beat St. Pats (last years league winners) 33:32! What a match, high emotions and high blood pressure everywhere during a very exciting, sometimes very rough and quite aggressive match!

fter being 3 goals up at some stage we suddenly found ourselves 1 goal down, just 2 minutes before the final whistle. We scored the equalizer and then things just went mad. Pats tried to score their goal but our defense was just perfect and then Mehdi caught the Pats's shot. One long pass to Augustin, who was at the right spot at the right time, and 2 seconds before the match was over he scored the all-deciding goal. 

Something you would normally only see in slow motion at the end of some Hollywood movie, but that was Collinstown, Dublin on a dreary Sunday afternoon :o). Hollywood could not have done a better job - and so - after the ref blew the final whistle there was big cheers and smiles on the DCU side! Well done guys and congratulations for your first 3 points - and surely not the last ones!

Both teams will be able to get some points next weekend, our matches are as follows:

Girls: Sunday, 11th November (hope I got it right this time!) @10.30 in Tallaght against Terenure. Please girls, it's very important that you let me know who will be there as soon as possible as we are already missing Natalie and Annelie!!! So please get back to me quickly if you will be able to play! Thanks.

Guys: Sunday, 11th November @ 3 p.m. in Maynooth. Directions to follow. You will play against Kildare. You will meet up quite early as you will have to take the dart from the city centre. But, as said, more info will follow.

Another thing, the money!
On the application form that you filled in a few weeks ago, it said, that
senior players must pay 40 euro player's fees to play for DCU. This fee needs to be paid by all people who are NOT students in DCU. So please, everybody needs to bring the fee to the next training or match and Ahmed or I will collect it! Please do not forget that and many thanks in advance for this!

Some various stuff

Mobile numbers:
Some people did not fill in their mobile numbers on the registration form but in case someone is late and misses a bus (which of course would never happen to anyone of us :o)) or someone needs to call either Ahmed, Christian or me, it's important that we have the numbers. I am at the moment missing the numbers of: Baptiste, Jeremy, Jose Carlos and Kris, so when you have sent me your numbers I will have an updated list and will send that round. Many thanks!

Club night out:
DCU will have a club night out before Christmas, probably on the 12th December, instead of training as the season will be over on the 9th and we all deserve a beer or 2 then! As soon as the planning committee will have more info we will update you! :)

Have a good week and see you all on Wednesday in training!
Cheers
Mel

Hey guys

Some people have been asking questions so here are some answers!

Here are some info for the season:

League :

- Mens league starts 6th November with matches most weekends after that until May... I got a provisional timetable I think we play Dagda first - I'll send it on when it's finalised!

- Ladies league starts probably the 6th November as well. One of the teams isn't sure of participation so they havent got a finalised schedule yet although I know we play in DCU on the 13th Nov and in Meath the 19th...

- Ladies I'm hoping to get a practice match before the tournament starts...

I'll tell you later!

Training :

- I'm waiting for confirmation of another training time... I should get it in a couple of days then I can split up the guys and girls... For next week tho it will be mixed again Wed 6-8 and Thursday 5-6 for everyone because i dont have coaches see below!

- Coaches: I'm the men's coach this year (with some help of course). The ladies coaches are Ianik and I (with help from Nicole). However next week Ianik and I are at the the Euro Tournament so wont be there so its going to be Nicole and hopefully Jeremy (please?!)

Nights out! :

- I reckon we could do with a club night out - get to know each other socially!

How about after the matches on the 6th we'll (boys and girls) go the nearest pub??

- any suggestions for a christmas party?

Equipment :

- We'll be buying new balls and glue in the next two weeks (when we get paid ;o)

- Last year we bought in cheap handball shoes for a lot of people (you cant get them in ireland... If enough people want we'll buy some again check out:

http://www.barnettsports.com/

We get them for E29 if we buy in bulk - theyre not the best shoes in the world but theyre really good for the price!

Website :

- Ianik put a lot of work into the website this year (thanks Ianik!) so we better use it... All of the match info will be going up there from now on so i can send less huge mails! Also the forums need to be used for complaints, comments or just saying hi!

http://www.dcuhandball.org

Dont forget to come cheer the Irish team on in Challenge trophy next week

- There are 3 DCU students, 1 ex-DCU student, and 1 non-student DCU player playing. Also the managment is all from DCU! I havent got any free tickets yet so i cant give them out! If I have them later I'll tell you!

http://www.challengetrophy.olympichandball.org/

Hopefully this clears things up for everyone...

As usual any questions commments complaints e-mail me! And/or stick it up on the website..

See ya soon