Kenya Handball Federation (KHF) men’s national league champions National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) on Sunday beat leaders Strathmore University Handball Club 28-17 to send a strong message to all teams hoping to challenge for their title this season.

Before Sunday’s top-of-the league match, NCPB had only lost once to General Service Unit (GSU), in 13 matches they had played to sit second on 24 points while Strathmore had not tested any defeat since the league started and were riding on a 28 points lead from 14 straight league victories but the crucial victory means that Cereals are back and ready to defend their title.

“The win against Strathmore is very crucial to our title defence. GSU took us back to the drawing board and this win, especially with such a good margin, proves that we have worked and corrected on our previous weak points.

Strathmore is a solid team and hence we knew we had to be more clinical in our shots, defence, and goalkeeping, all of which I can rate and give my team an A performance from the match,” NCPB Men’s team captain Timothy Kirimi told People Sport.

Despite the defeat, Strathmore are still at the helm of the league with 28 points from 15 matches while NCPB are second with 26 points from 13 wins, one defeat, and a game at hand, and Kirimi is upbeat about winning their remaining four matches to retain their title.

“Our focus now is on the remaining matches which we plan to handle and take the wins one at a time.

This win puts our worthy competitors in the remaining matches on notice of what’s coming for them,” said Kirimi.

Debutant GSU got a twin victory over at the weekend against Vickers (15-0) and TUK (33-18) to maintain their third position tying on points with NCPB while former champions Ulinzi Men are third in the league with 24 points after gunning down Rangers men 43-28 on Saturday.