Netball around the world - Update

Preparations for the 2011 World Netball Championships in Singapore are going well, with the organisers reporting “healthy demand” for platinum ticket packages. Costing S$550 each (approx $390 US), 1,100 of the 1,300 packages have already sold, and it is anticipated that the lower value tickets will sell fast when they are released by the tournament co-ordinators in January 2011.

This year’s FairPrice Foundation Singapore Netball Superleague title has been won by the Malaysian Arowanas (pictured), who finished the competition with an undefeated record of 12 wins, after edging past local favourites Mighty Manna 49-44 in the final. Arowanas’ towering 16 year old shooter Norashikin Kamal Zaman was named the player of the tournament.

Singapore’s coach, Kate Carpenter, and the national selectors used the competition to pick a squad of 17 players for the 2011 World Championships, which will now compete in the Australian league, before playing in December’s Nations Cup.

City School Nazimabad defeated Trinity Girls College 17-15 in the final to win the fourth session of the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) Netball Coaching and Tournament Programme at Nazimabad Mini Sports Comple, Pakistan. The event was organised by the Pakistan Netball Federation (PNF) in collaboration with the Australian Sports Commission and the Sindh Netball Association and is the latest in a series of netball festivals designed to increase participation and improve skills levels across the region.

In the UK, reigning champions TeamBath cruised into the Grand Final of the 2010 Co-operative Netball Superleague with a 57-42 thrashing of Surrey Storm, the side which had finished the league section of the competition at the top of the table. A stunning start gave the champions a 19-8 lead at the end of the first quarter, and with England defenders Stacey Francis and Eboni Beckford Chambers in stunning form, Storm could do little to weather the challenge. The Surrey side now needs to defeat former champions Mavericks in the second play offs in order to qualify for the Grand Final.

Wales’s netball international players, past and present, now have their own unique numbers following the introduction of a new recognition system. From the first caps awarded in 1949, every player who has taken the court to represent Wales in an official international has been numbered according to the sequence in which they made their first appearance. With three new players – Stephanie Murphy, Emma Thomas and Sophie Morgan – making their international debuts at the Netball Europe event last weekend, the total number of players to have worn the Wales dress now stands at 189. The next new cap will be number 190. Players already capped will have their number embroidered on their dress for the match or tournament in question.

Grenada’s annual National Netball Tournament opens this weekend with an exhibition match between the island’s U23 side (currently in training for the OECS tournament in June) and a selected senior squad. Across the Caribbean, in Jamaica reigning champions Jamalco line up against Tivoli ‘A’ in the Berger Paints / JNA Superleague this weekend with both sides currently locked at the top of the league table. Waulgrovians currently sit in third place in the competition, but have a game in hand, against Windalco, which will be played later this week.


In the ANZ Championship, reigning champions Melbourne Phoenix suffered their second loss in as many weeks, going down 56-42 to the Sydney Swifts in front of a record crowd of 6,928 at the ACER Arena in Sydney. Vixens were once again without influential centre Natasha Chojklat, sidelined with a calf injury, and have now slipped to third in the table, behind the undefeated Swifts and the Waikato / BOP Magic, who finally overcame the Northern Mystics 49-46 in a thrilling encounter in Hamilton this week.