Voice of Jewish Sport

JUST two months since the end of the Maccabiah Games, two of GB’s stars are making their name on the international sporting stage. Goalkeeper Jake Lewis more than played his part as the U16 side won a first ever gold for GB, and his efforts were rewarded having been signed up by Israeli side Maccabi Haifa. Unbeknown to him, he was being watched by the club’s scouts during the tournament, and within five minutes of winning gold, Haifa’s head scout was in talks with his father to set up a trial with the club. And successful it proved to be as the 16-year-old, who also enjoyed spells at Arsenal and Brentford, has now put pen to paper on a three-year-deal. One to look out for. From football to the oval ball, Aaron Radley made his international debut at the weekend, when he starred for the Czech Republic against Germany in an international friendly. Voted man-of-the-match by his teammates following an encouraging display, the Czechs currently play in the third tier of international rugby. While competing in a potential Seven Nations tournament is still a fair way off, qualifying for the Rugby World Cup is more of a realistic proposition.

THERE was some culture on offer at the weekend when Hapoel Petach Tikva played host to Maccabi Netanya. Hapoel supporters displayed a Beethoven-inspired banner as they used Hebrew letters as musical notes to spell out the sentence “Suddenly we begin to play Beethoven’s Fur Elise.” They then rolled out a further banner with an image of the great musician playing the piano. And for good measure they then managed to get the famous piece of music played over the tannoy. It was though the only thing the home supporters had to cheer about as they lost 3-2.