Welcome to the Pacific Northwest Handball Association Web Site. Web site cover page: as of 2/15/2012: The WPH Race4Eight Stop #6 is kicking off this morning (2/17) at 9 AM PST. You can catch all the action live at: www.race4eight.com. There is a fee for this service. To see an on-demand clip of the 2011 Simple Green US Open of Handball Men’s final between Robbie McCarthy and Charley Shanks click here. What’s Going On: The 32nd edition of the John Graham “Firefighter” Tournament happened this past weekend (Feb 10-12) at Rev’s in Burnaby, BC. Despite the light turnout of 39 players all the divisions were competitive. The best match of the event was the 2 ½ hour Open Doubles final between Mark Stewart/ Monte Watson and the father/son team of Jarret and Bill Gray. Jarret pulled out of the Open Singles on Saturday due to an injury (?) before he and his Dad battled to an 11-10 tie breaker loss Sunday afternoon. What a match! Complete results as well as photos will be found on our “Tournaments” page. The Valentine’s Day tournament in Kalispell will use the USHA “21” ball. The case of Red Aces they thought they had was actually half a case, so a case of 21’s is on its’ way to Dave Stone and Paul Wachholz. Dave reported yesterday that the temp in Kalispell was 33 degrees and “BALMY”! Matt Steele/Aaron Garner topped the Open Division in the Oregon State Doubles Tournament held this past weekend in Corvallis. And it looks like bragging rights goes to Eugene over Salem in the 65+ Doubles Division with a tie breaker win by Phil Horton and Don Connors over Jerry Berger and Walt Sinclair. I’m sure this issue will be discussed on the court between the same teams at Northwest tournaments in the coming months. Make sure to get your entry in for the Eugene Weekender Tournament, coming up on Feb 24-26. It sounds like several pros have entered and should provide lots of viewing entertainment. Sean will be using the Ektelon ball for the tournament. The “Discussion” tab is open for the use and enjoyment of handball players. If you’re looking for a partner to help you in a doubles event, put up a post. If you’re trying to find out who’s playing 3-wall in Kent on a given Saturday, put up a post. If you’re tired of playing with balls that are out-of-round, break during their first game, or whatever, put up a post. No passwords are required, but postings will be screened prior to posting. The Player Roster now has over 110 entries and is growing every week. Make sure to enter your own contact information of the page and encourage other handball players to do the same. The Worlds in Ireland: Well, the Worlds official web site (http://worldhandball2012.com/) Is still not ready for action. Hopefully in the next few weeks everything will be in working order. A fun site to look at (http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=117195378241665109781.0004653ba5129db771c06&hl=en&ie=UTF8&z=7) was created by David Smith, temporary ex-pat teaching physics at the University of Washington. The site shows Irish handball courts on an interactive map. Great for planning your tour around Ireland prior to the Worlds in Dublin. Rumor has it that there will be a shirt exchange at the Worlds run by the same Northwest guy who ran the shirt exchange at the Worlds in Portland. So make sure you bring some good shirts to the Dublin to trade for a shirt from Ireland, or Mexico, or Spain, or Italy. Try to bring new shirts if possible, but there will be a box for clean used shirts as well. Put one in, take one out. No charge. The Ball: The ball situation has just become a little clearer (or cloudier, depending on your perspective). USHA is expecting 100+ cases of batch #4 of the 21 ball. This is the batch that is within 1 gram of the USHA standard of 61 grams. Evidently they feel the performance of the ball is acceptable enough to order (and sell) in quantity. The Ektelon ball is another matter. Despite long range contracts and offers to purchase a significant quantity of balls in advance, the factory has become non-responsive regarding when the next batch of Ektelon balls will be available. At this point, it’s “wait and see”. The large number of Ektelon balls sold in the last couple months seems to indicate there are a significant number of players that prefer to play with a “heavier/harder” ball similar to the Red Ace. It may just boil down to who can get their ball in front of the players in sufficient quantities first. Please e-mail with questions, comments and information that should be included on this site. Joe Pacific Northwest Handball Association.     All rights reserved Hosted by DML Consulting