Welcome to the Pacific Northwest Handball Association Web Site. What's Going On: The next tournament on the PNW schedule is the Red Death in Missoula on January 27-29. Rumor has it that "Red" will be making a cameo appearance on the court. Missoula tournaments have always had the "play til you drop" mentality and I'm sure this episode will be no different. Entry deadline is Noon Tuesday, January 24. Both the John Graham Tournament and the Oregon State Doubles will break the ice on the west side of the mountains on February 10-12. Rob Durbin will be hosting the Oregon State Doubles in Corvallis with an assist from Josh Reese and others. All the non-Oregonians in the crowd should be heading for Canada that weekend to get some of that salmon dinner Saturday night in Burnaby. Due to interest by some of the pro's in participating in this year's Eugene Weekender Tournament, a new division has been added. The "Pro/Open Handicap Doubles" will be a "fun" event with NW open players entering individually. The tournament director will then pair up teams to create a balanced field. So far, pros Luis Moreno, Armando Ortiz, Chip Morales and Aaron Garner have indicated an interest in participating. Oh, and if you provide the airfare for one of the pros he will be your partner for the event. Sounds interesting. The 2012 Washington State Handball Championships is scheduled to be played at the Bellingham Athletic Club ( 4191 Meridian St ) on March 30-April 1, 2012. Tournament organizers are saying that drop downs will be utilized (Open/A, etc.). The entry form is not yet available. Donn Carswell, ex-proprietor of the Kauai AC is trying to work out a deal that would retain one or two of the courts for the locals and small 'boutique' tournaments. Theoretically, a doubles tournament with 20 entries (40 players) could be run on two courts over the space of three days. While a far cry from the 100+ players that have attended the Kauai Open in the past, it still leaves the door open for limited tournaments in the future. We should know within the next 2-3 months if this might work out. The Ball: The first balls from Batch #4 of the 21 ball will be arriving via air freight the third week in January. This allotment of 45 cases will be shipped out to tournaments that are coming up in the next few weeks. The remainder of the batch is scheduled to arrive in Tucson near the first of February. At that point case sales should resume. The cost for a USHA member will be $297 per case of 60 balls with shipping included. It sounds like the breakage issue from batch #1 of the 21 balls has been fixed. And provided that balls from Batch #4 weigh in at or above the 60.1 grams of Batch #3 the focus can be on modifications that will improve the playability issues. The biggest long term advantage of the 21 ball is the responsiveness of the manufacturer (MacSports in Dublin) in working with USHA to develop the "perfect" ball for the perfect game. Through the past couple months, Ektelon ball sales have continued to ramp up, and the longer it takes USHA to develop a good ball the bigger the market share that will be lost to Ektelon. World Championships-Dublin, Ireland October 11-21, 2012: The image above is an artist's conception of the Citywest arena in Dublin showing the configuration of the courts for the World Championships. Accommodations at the Worlds: Finding a room for your stay at the World Championships in Dublin can be very easy. The obvious first choice is the host Citywest Hotel. If you enter the Promo Code "WHC12" in the "Go Now" block near the left margin you will be rewarded with a tournament rate of 95 euros/night for a single room. For two persons sharing, the rate is 120 euros and for three persons it is 145 euros. These rates do include breakfast. Contact information are included below. If you have a car (not really essential if you stay at Citywest) you can range a little further afield. The Maldron Citywest Hotel is approximately three miles and five minutes away from the courts. Rates at the Maldron are lower than at comparable hotels primarily because the location isn't close to many urban amenities. Room reservations for a four night minimum are 44.25 euros/night for two adults (breakfast NOT included). For those of us more interested in subsidizing Dublin's Temple Bar entertainment venues, there is a "guest house" (no breakfast, just a room) located within a 5-10 minute walk of the courts. The Forge has eighteen rooms "ensuite" rooms at the rate of 45 euros/night. They also have additional lodging choices a little further from the courts. Talk to Florence (owner) or her daughter-in-law Linda for more information. These are just three choices for accommodations in the area surrounding Citywest. If you have frequent flyer miles check out how many miles it costs to purchase a night's stay. American Airlines has an especially good rate for rooms in the area (7,100 miles/night). By going through the Delta Airlines web site you can get rooms at the Maldron Hotel for $49/night. The rates changes daily, so check back often. The Celtic Tiger has slowed down a lot in the last couple years, so there are bargains to be had. Citywest Hotel: Phone: 011-353-1-401-0500 Web Site: http://www.citywesthotel.com/ Email: info@citywesthotel.com Citywest Maldron Hotel: Phone: 011-353-1-461-9900 Website: www.maldronhotels.com Email: info.citywest@maldronhotels.com The Forge: Phone: 011-353-1-458-9226 Website: http://www.theforge.ie/ Email: info@theforge.ie The high cost of cell phone calls in Ireland is well known. Depending on carrier, rates of $.60/minute (and higher) are not unusual. If you take your own quad band phone to Ireland you will most likely be hit with roaming fees. But there are ways to reduce that cost. A company called Tesco (011-353-89-420-0000 - here's a link to their site ) has several options: You can take an unlocked quad band phone and purchase an Irish sim card and airtime minutes when you arrive in Ireland. The cost of the sim card is two euros. If you buy 10 euros of air time, the sim card is free. Calls within Ireland are billed at .20 cents per minute. To call back to the US from Ireland on a Tesco phone the charge is $.02/minute (yes, that's 2 cents/minute!). Their least expensive "pay as you go" phone is 14.99 euros and, when combined with ten euros of calling time, can provide most of us with enough cell minutes to get us through the trip. It's easy to see why Tesco phones are sold all over Ireland. The World Championships in Dublin open for business on October 11, 2012. That's only nine months from today. It promises to be an unforgettable experience for everyone that makes the trip. Hope to see you there. Joe Cox - Editor Nick Mosely - Webmaster Pacific Northwest Handball Association.     All rights reserved Hosted by DML Consulting