Ashfield boys represent England at handball

Brandon Gregory, Joel Harrison and Dan White, who are all 16, got their first taste of handball during PE lessons at Ashfield School in Kirkby.

They joined the Nottingham club and made such good progress that all were picked for the 16-strong England Lions U16s’ squad. Brandon and Joel, who are both from Kirkby, competed at the Viborg Generations Cup in Denmark, while Dan was chosen to play at the Paris World Games in France.

All three of them gained valuable experience against teams from Finland, Norway, Switzerland and Estonia, as well as the host nations of Denmark and France.

Because the boys were selected from different parts of the country, they had little time to gel. But this did not deter them and they showed true English lionhearts to put everything into their 40-minute matches.

All of their opponents were tough, but the Lions battled hard in all eight matches, showing improvements in speed, passing, accuracy and strength.

Brandon, Joel and Dan now move up to the England U19s’ team and will train up to three nights a week, with matches at weekends.