Eight teams from the South Island competed in a tournament at the Edgar Centre on Saturday.
None of it would have been possible a few years ago. Before tournament organiser Pablo Alvarez-Rey moved to New Zealand from Argentina in 2003 there was hardly any organised handball.
Frustrated, and looking for somewhere to play, Alvarez-Rey talked some of his new friends into giving the unusual sport a crack.
From humble beginnings of about 20 originals in Wellington and 20 in Auckland, the sport has expanded and now about 500 people from Auckland to Dunedin play the quirky game.
While it might be a out-of-the-ordinary sport in this country, it is big in parts of Europe, Asia and South America and was first played at the Olympics in 1936.
Exposure to the sport here has tended to be limited to every four years. Recent coverage from the Beijing Olympics had resulted in interest in the sport taking off, Alvarez-Rey said.
"We have received a huge amount of queries over the email since the Olympics," he said.
"Actually the Ashburton club that is playing [in this tournament] started because of the Olympics. A couple of guys got together and said they wanted to play, so the federation supplied the balls and the equipment and six weeks later they are participating in their first tournament."
Even for a novice, handball is remarkably simple to follow. It is like water polo without the water and is not complicated by a long list of rules or dominated by the official's whistle. The game flows quite nicely with plenty of action for the spectators to get enthusiastic about.
After watching for about 30min, games tended to followed the following haphazard pattern of one team dawdling up court with the ball before a sudden and flamboyant explosion of urgency.
Players fire the ball around until someone gets in to the clear. The free player then lunges towards the goal and spears the ball towards the poor old goalie.
The goal keepers, who in words of the tournament organiser Alvarez-Rey "need to be a very special person", seemed to be more of a target than an athlete.
The best handball players can throw the ball at speeds of up to 110kmph and, with players allowed to shoot from just 9m out, the goalie is at long odds of making a stop.
For the record, Canterbury University beat Dunedin Handball Club 18-16 in the men's final and Christchurch Handball Club beat Otago Girls High School 21-16 in the women's event.
Handball: The story and rules
• Developed in northern Europe near the end of the 19th Century.
• First played at Olympics in 1936; regular Olympic sport since 1972.
• 159 countries, 31 million players and officials worldwide.
• Played on a 40m x 20m court.
• Seven players, including a goalkeeper, per side.
• No outfielders allowed in semicircular zone 6m in front of goal.
• Two 30min halves.
• Players may only hold the ball for 3sec and may only take three steps before having to pass, shoot or dribble.
