Handball is enjoying an upsurge of interest, it is claimed. especially among young people, with more than 20,000 young people now playing the sport in England through school activity.

The England Handball Cup finals were streamed live on the BBC Sport website, BBC Sport app and on connected televisions earlier this year, helping attract more new players to the sport.

England Handball is turning to the latest technology to help and support clubs to manage this growth, with Spond becoming the national governing body’s official technology partner for its clubs nationwide.

Spond, which is free to use, provides a centralised, simple-to-use system and mobile app that typically saves grassroots coaches more than two hours in administration time every week. 

Its safe environment also means organisers comply with data protection regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation.

Using Spond, coaches can invite members to practices, games and other team activities, and it is said to be easy to keep track of who is coming and who is not. 

Guardians can reply on behalf of their child, though if a child does say they are attending a game then a guardian gets an instant notification to check it.

Users can share information, files and photos, chat in group conversations or over private messages, and use the platform across its mobile apps or in a web browser.

Spond can also be used to help improve the financials of a team by making it easier to collect subs, so a coach knows who has paid to play and who has not.

"We massively value the inspirational work of our clubs in local communities and want to make their lives as easy as possible, at a time when we’re seeing a surge in interest in the sport," Stacey Andrews, national partnerships manager at England Handball, said.

"Spond is such an intuitive app that we feel it will really help the network of handball clubs manage teams effectively as the sport continues to grow.

"It will also help ensure coaches and administrators stay on the right side of data protection laws."

Per-Otto Wold, chief executive and founder of Spond, added: "England Handball has gone from strength-to-strength in recent years and we’re thrilled to be partnering to support further growth of the sport. 

"One of the potential pitfalls of a fast-growing sport is that grassroots coaches and administrators get overwhelmed - our app and platform will help ensure this isn’t the case for England Handball."

Lucy Sanyal of Poole Phoenix Handball Club is among those already using the app.

"The app has transformed the process of organising teams, making it incredibly simple, quick and easy to know when, where and who is playing," she said.

"We couldn’t be happier using Spond, it’s made a huge difference, with over a 100 members benefiting so far, from organising matches and training, to scheduling social occasions and events."