Leeds City Council, England Netball, and West Yorkshire County Netball Association have launched FastNet!

The event is going to be included as part of a netball funday being held at Armley Leisure Center. It will be taking place on Sunday 5th September. There will be a game in the afternoon for players, coaches and officials to watch, but the morning will the important bit dedicating to developing the netballers of the future. The organisers say that FastNet is designed to attract a whole new and hopefully talented group of players to the wonderful sport of netball. It designed to build on the wonderful success of Back to Netball programmes that have been a pivotal part of introducing more than 100 women back to netball.

U11s can play for free on the day, but over 16s are invited to come along and for a £10 fee, they can stay for the whole day and watch the new FastNet style game as well as join in the Back to Netball games.

Anyone who wants further information should contact the Leeds Sport Development Unit.

Athletes need to be a minimum of 16yrs old on the day and free to attend a training session on 5th September if they are successful.

If you are interested in applying for a place, make sure you get your application in before Monday 30th August!

The Netball Talent League (U19) trials will take place on Saturday 2nd October at the same venue. You must be a minimum of 14 yrs old to attend and free to come along for the 1st training session on Sunday 3rd October of you get picked.

Good luck!

Three lucky girls from Bath will be travelling to Dehli in October to take part in the Commonwealth Games as part of the UK netball squad.

Teambath players Pamela Cookey, Eboni Beckford-Chambers, and Stacey Francis have all been short listed into the final twelve players. The additional honour of the Vice Captain role will also go to Pamela Cookey.

After an impressive bronze medal in 1998 when netball was first introduced to the Commonwealth Games, followed up by another bronze medal in 2006, the UK team will be hoping for an even better result in 2010!

Those of you who have checked here periodically may have noticed a lack of recent postings. Well have no fear, we are now back online and will be regularly posting news snippets as well as useful bits of information relating to the UK and international netball scene.

Make sure you bookmark the site in your browser (if you haven’t already done so!) and check back once or twice per week for new stories and posts. And of course if you have any suggestions about how we can improve the site, drop us a line and let us know!

The results from yesterday’s matches are in. Here you go:

My predictions were as far out as they could be… none out of three correct. Certainly the Mavericks Loughborough will be upset with their losses to - on the face of it - weaker teams. This year’s competition is turning out to be very interesting indeed.

UK Superleague games being played today. Good luck to everyone. Team Bath play Brunel Hurricanes on Monday

Mavericks v Leeds Carnegie may be an interesting game. The Mavericks will be on a high after beating Team Bath, while Leeds Carnegie will be wanting to cement their (very) early lead.

I’m going to put my neck out here and make some predictions:

Mavericks - Leeds Carnegie - Win to Mavericks
Celtic Dragons - Northern Thunder - Win to Celtic Dragons
Loughborough Lightning - Team Northumbria - Win to Loughborough

What do you think? Add your predictions in the comments!

Today we proudly announce the start of our brand-spanking-new section: netball videos.

We hope to provide you with a number of netball videos collected from around the internet for your viewing pleasure.

To start the trend, try this one showing highlights from Team Bath’s exhibition game against the Welsh National side played before the current Netball Superleague season started.

[I’m hoping this works… Fingers crossed!]

With many players from both the Mavericks and Team Bath, this UK Netball Superleague tie was going to tell a story about the strength deep in the squad for both teams. And tell a tale it did: both missed key players, but still managed to put up quite the fight! This was the first game in the season for both teams - let’s hope the Superleague hasn’t peaked too soon!

Bath gave Superleague debuts to Sasha Corbin and Kirsty Delves (who came on in the third quarter). A baptism of fire, perhaps, but certain a great game on which to cut their teeth. The Mavericks were sporting a swanky new kit… would it help them to the win, though?

First Quarter

Starting squads:

The game was played in Hertfordshire in front of a full sell-out crowd; the players on international duty (and those unfortunate enough to be injured) were present to cheer on their teams before heading off to the World Championships in New Zealand.

A scrappy first quarter saw neither team reach their potential, and the 7-7 scoreline belies the number of mistakes made by the teams. Both must have felt fortunate that the other could not capitalise, but the turnovers kept occurring. Both sides put up decent defence, however, and it was in the attackers’ handling that they were left wanting.

Second Quarter

The teams remained the same for the second quarter, Bath’s Fletcher and Beckford-Chambers swapping places was the only alteration.

The Mavericks started this quarter with a renewed sense of urgency; Team Bath only managed 2 goals in the first 10 minutes. The Mavericks maintained a tight hold on Bath and were 9 goals to 4 up in the quarter. Fletcher sustained an injury during the second half and had to be replaced with Natalie Seaton coming on at Centre (meaning Serena Guthrie was moved to WD and Francis moved around to GD).

Third Quarter

The Mavericks, happy with how the match had gone so far, again remained with the same teams, and Bath swapping Monique Wood for Kirsty Delves and playing her at GA, moving Asha Tett to GS.

The half-time talk obviously did some good as Bath surged forward. The match was still end-to-end with absolutely no let-up from either team; Team Bath took the quarter 7-6.

Fourth Quarter

The only change for the final quarter was Lucy Cadge’s entry in place of Ann-Marie Muller for the Mavericks.

Bath continued their attack with the Mavericks managing to sneak a few in. 17 goals were scored in the quarter with Bath taking an impressive 10. This wasn’t enough to make up for the earlier misses, however, and the final score was 29-28 to the Mavericks.

Phew!

Plenty to improve for both teams, and the rematch at Team Bath’s court later in the season will be a spectacle, we’re sure.

In what appears to have been a thriller from start to finish, last night the Mavericks beat Team Bath 29 points to 28 in both teams’ first match of the season. This defeat ends a 24-match unbeaten run for this season’s favourites.

This is a most interesting start to the season for both teams and the Mavericks must be confident of their chances after bringing down the giants. Well done girls!

Match report to follow.

Injured Laura Langman passed her first fitness test today - it’s looking like she might be returning to the Silver Ferns’ squad just in time for the World Championships. Great news for New Zealand, not so great for her opponents! Langman, a vital link player in Centre Court, is confident that she will return to play in the eight-day world championships.

If Laura does not make final fitness tests - and the squad need only be announced on the day of the first match - then there are a number of other world class players ready to take her place, including former vice captain Temepara George. The loss would be a blow for the Silver Ferns, however, as Langman is a 28-test veteran at the top of her game.