Cambridge University Handball Club (CUHB) aims to promote handball as a university sport, providing its members with regular training, fixtures, social events, and entry into competitions and tournaments at a regional and national level.
The club was founded, at the beginning of Michaelmas 2013, by a group of undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Cambridge. The founding members are Chris Bentz (Darwin), Ignacio Vázquez García (Christ’s), Kolja Ortmann (Girton), Matt Reizenstein (Caius) and Sophus zu Ermgassen (Fitzwilliam). Agnes Föglein, who recently completed her PhD and is currently a postdoctoral scholar at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, has been also been involved in establishing the club from the start.
In the first year of existence, our achievements have surpassed all expectations when the club was founded. We have established strong links with a number of local handball clubs, including the Cambridge City Club, Peterborough Handball Club, as well as other university clubs from Imperial College London and University College London. We have competed in the first-ever Handball Varsity against Oxford, with our Men’s Blues being narrowly defeated and the Women’s Blues winning the title. The Men’s Blues also participated in the University Championships run by the Association of British University Handball Clubs (ABUHC), equivalent to BUCS. The team excelled in the Regional stage, winning their group and all their matches, thus qualifying as a top seed in the London Regional round at the beginning of March. In the National finals, the Men’s Blues then came fifth in the country in their debut at the University Championships, losing to the eventual winners Oxford in what proved to be by far their closest match in the tournament. Had the draw been kinder, they would have had a clear chance of finishing as the second best team in the country in their debut season.
In the second year of existence, CUHB managed to even outshine its achievements of the previous year. Although both the Men’s Blues and the Women’s Blues started poorly by losing their respective Varsity matches against Oxford their performance at the University Championships more than made up for it. The first ever Cambridge Women’s Handball Team to enter the University Championships won the third place in the plate finals in the national round. The Men’s team topped it all by winning the University Championship smashing Oxford along the way, 13-6 in the quarter-finals
The Club will continue growing from strength to strength, increasing our presence in the UK university handball scene. Handball Varsity now is a traditional event in the sporting calendar. Even though handball is not currently in the BUCS competition calendar, ABUHC will eventually join BUCS and we are planning to join one of their regional leagues in the coming future.