Netball is a ball sport played between two teams of seven players. The sport shares many similarities with basketball, having been derived from early versions of women's basketball. It developed as a distinct sport in the 1890s in England, from where it spread to other countries. Netball is popular in Commonwealth nations and is predominantly played by women.

This sport is administered globally by the International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA), and is reportedly played by over 20 million people in more than 70 countries.

How the Game is Played:

Each team must attempt to score goals by throwing the ball through the nets at the end of the opponent's side of the court. The team which has scored the most goals by the end of the game wins.

The court is divided into thirds. Each player has a responsibility on court, and they must remain in their own third of the court, according to which position they play. See here for Playing positions.

Netball players must be skilled in both attack and defense in order to be an efficient player, as the game moves quickly. Ideally, netball is played on a sprung wooden floor, but is often played on grass or concrete.

There are four fifteen minute quarters. There are intervals of 3 minutes between quarters one and two, three and four, with a 5 minutes break between two and three. At the end of the intervals, the teams change ends.

For international tournaments, such as the Netball World Cup, where teams may play two matches in one day, the time is reduced to two twenty minute halves.

National and regional differences may apply. Matches for different age groups also have different length of playing times. For school competitions, ten minutes quarters are common, as well as fifteen or twenty minute halves. Junior players will often play five minute quarters.

Netball Locally

In South Africa the national netball team is called "the national netball team of South Africa" coached by Carin Strauss, they are currently ranked 6^th in the world rankings. Their governing body is Netball South Africa.

Locally, Netball is a very popular sport and teams can be found playing on Saturday mornings at local sport clubs. Most teams within the Western Cape register with the Western Province Netball Union, which co-ordinates the league matches.

There are also social clubs who endeavor to assist in community upliftment projects and offer the sport as a means to interact and meet new people and to create awareness of the sport but also aims to increase the fitness levels amongst youngsters. In Goodwood, The Wild Cats has done just that and has been in existence for almost a year and accept all interested individuals. If you in their area and would like to know more about the Wild Cats, contact Sam on 083 291 7700 for more information.

Action Netball is also on the increase and is played throughout the world, locally the Action Arena in Montague is home to Action Netball and Ronel can be contacted on (021) 552- 3165 or netball@montaguearena.co.za.

Netball is a great way to keep fit and out of trouble, so if you are just sitting at home and would like to play netball, contact the persons above, perhaps they can put you in-touch with other local teams within your area.

Sources:

• wikipedia
• netball-sa
• mitre/south-africa-netball
• montague-arena
• boland-netball

Page Created on 17 September 2010
By: Thurlo Cicero