A walk to remember – Evolution of Astra

A walk to remember – Evolution of Astra

Astra Handball Club was established in 2007 by a group of UCD Alumni and former members of the UCD Olympic Handball Club.

The objective was to give the opportunity to former UCD players to keep playing handball after finishing college along to promote and develop Olympic Handball in the local schools and community.

The name “Astra” was chosen as a memento of the connection with UCD as well, and the reason why is on the old crest of UCD.

On the banner on top there are the words AD ASTRA, which is Latin for ‘TO THE STARS’.  This is what UCD aims for their students and what Astra HC desires for their players; to realise their full potential and never stop improving.

The club encourages and support any member attending coaching, refereeing or sport related courses. An investment in people, for the future of the club and of the sport.

The Astra logo was designed in such a way that the capital letter would both represent a star (astra = star in Latin), and a stylized handball player with a ball.

The Graffiti style was chosen to be more child friendly given the club aim to bring new young players into the sport. Our players come from a wide national and socioeconomic background. We aim and succeeded in bridging these cultural gaps and thus creating a successful team.

The colours of the club are blue and green, which are the Dún Laoghaire – Rathdown County colours as well to signify where it’s based and operates.

Shortly after the foundation of the club, in October 2009 the women’s team travelled all the way to Prilep, North Macedonia to play in the EHF Challenge Cup, 1^st time ever in Irish Handball’s history.

There were multiple reasons for the trip: firstly, the team was still very young and relatively inexperienced; secondly, women handball took another dip in Ireland that season and the competition consisted of only a few women’s teams. (2 teams needed to merge together in order to survive, this is how Astra’s women team was born) and to keep the interest and motivation going in the team, we needed to have a relatively big goal at the end of the season to work towards. This was the Cup in Macedonia. We knew even at the start that we have a very slim chance to get through, but the experience alone would worth it.  In the group phase we faced with a Ukrainian, a Macedonian and a Greek team. The Greek team forfeit their match, so we ended up with a real chance to finish on 2^nd place in the group and go through the next phase. However, the pressure proved itself too high and we couldn’t step over our shadows. But we came home with ample amount of good memories and a better than ever team spirit.

The next season wasn’t easier even one bit. We lost many good players – and the previous dip deepened to be a valley, leaving most teams incomplete; some of them not being able to field a team even for matches. The future didn’t seem too bright; just like another few occasions in the last 10 years, but we overcame all of them and kept on going.

In the meantime, the lads’ section was still going strong and steady with the regular 6-7 teams competing against each other in the League and in the newly established Irish Cup as well. The first year being 2012 for the Cup, the reigning champion got ahead of all, and became the first winner.

Things were going great for the 2012/13 season. Both the ladies’ and the gents’ team were operating in high gear, and as it was expected both teams ended up being in the final for the Champions’ title of the Irish League.

Both teams faced with Dublin International in the finals, who were the reigning champions from previous years. The handful of supporters could have enjoyed quality handball at this occasion for sure. The guys won their match after extra time in a very high-speed battle, and the ladies won their first title as well since Astra’s foundation. 2013 double champions.

For the first win of the Irish Cup we needed to wait until the very next year, 2014, but this time the ladies were ruling the Irish Handball scene. They won both the League title and the Cup. Probably this was the first one of the most rewarding seasons in the history of the club; and this didn’t get repeated until the season of 2017/2018. And this is an on-going championship since then. Kudos to all the other teams, as in every year it is harder and harder to keep this statistic going.

And of course, as we are all social animals, we always tried to have fun as well as to play hard on the court. We had many successful and fun-filled summer and Christmas parties over the years. Thanks to everyone who had the courage to organize an event for us! Below are a few pics just to illustrate that we are not just a team, but also good friends when at the end of the day.