Pinner's Daniel Grant plans to help England's burgeoning Handball squad bridge the gulf between them and the USA at this weekend's Italian Open.

The five-strong team will jet out to Nizza Monferrato, a town near Milan, tomorrow (Friday) for the championships, where they made their competitive bow last year.

However, having spent 12 months honing their skills and competing in other tournaments on the handball calendar England, says Grant, are ready to step up to the mark laid by the Americans.

Handball - essentially playing squash with your hands - is the USA's native sport, specifically the one-wall version, in which players from around the globe who play different variations of the sport compete on common ground.

"The Italian Open is the most prestigious tournament of the year and the last major before the World Championships next year," said Grant, 23. "Twelve countries will be competing, including the USA, who are the best in the world at handball and they are the level we want to get to."

Grant started playing Rugby Fives, another incarnation of handball, at Merchant Taylors School and University College London before he was picked to represent England's handball team after its inception last year.

Soon after they headed to Italy where their first and second pair finished 16th and 18th respectively out of 21 teams - creditable results, given that it was their first taste of competitive action.

Grant, who runs his own film production company, claims England have made such great strides over the past year that they are now among the top five hand-balling nations in the world, hence the pressure is on to perform well in Italy this weekend.

"Handball has been going on in the world for quite some time but England is starting to take it very seriously now," added Grant, who won his national team's first piece of silverware at the Irish Open. "Normal fives is seen as a very sporting game whereas handball is more unsporting, as players are allowed to obstruct one another or rugby tackle each other out of the way. It is a bit crazy."

England's players are doing this for the love of sport - they are self-funded and pay for everything, from their training sessions to tours, out of their own pockets. They are now seeking financial help ahead of next year's World Championships in Portland, Oregon.

Until then, the England players hope to devise a handball scheme to attract more people to the sport.