Gilbert Netball

This post is actually more of a guest post from my sister, who lives and breathes netball, along with my niece.  Every week sees training sessions and games for them as well as umpiring and coaching.  It is full on and way more competitive (when she is involved) than you might think.  If you watch a good game of netball it can almost be like the rules are being broken – you can’t move with the ball but it is so fast paced that it looks as if that is being done continuously (though it isn’t).

The basic rules of netball are:

• a netball team consists of seven players, each of whom have their own position and can only move in certain areas of the court
• the goal shooter and the goal attack are the only two positions that are able to score and this can only be done from inside the goal semi-circle
• a netball match consists of four quarters that are 15 minutes each
• netball players are not allowed to run when they are in possession of the ball (if they do this is called footwork).

My sister plays for Essex Open Netball Club, as does my niece.  My sister also coaches some of the teams and the club is known to have tough teams to beat.

When Gilbert Netball offered some tickets to a match I knew she would be much better placed than I to attend.  She also had the opportunity to test and review some of their new kit.

Gilbert Netball dates back 160 years in sport initially in rugby and then moving into netball.  You may recognise the name from the kit and balls seen used by the England team who won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games earlier this year.  This is not just a sport played in school and I was interested to read that adult participation was up 16.4% according to Sport England.

The game was last Friday and it was England v Uganda at the Copper Box in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.  The evening started with the opportunity hear some of the players be interviewed discussing the sport they love.  The ladies won the match England 65 – Uganda 53 and they ended up winning the series also.

My sister even managed to meet some of the players and added some posts on her Essex Open netball social media channels.  Interestingly enough one of the players, Olivia Tchine, plays for the same team as my sister and is one of the players on the England Futures Programme, the purpose of which is ‘To maximise players’ preparation & conditioning, developing them towards the Roses camp based programme, through exposure to high level training & international match play experience at identified opportunities.’

Olivia is not the only girl from Essex Open to move further into competitive sport for England with another former player, Christine Ohuruogu, going on to compete in the London Youth Games for both netball and athletics and then as part of Team GB in track and field and earning Olympic, World and Commonwealth champion status.

It didn’t take long for an opportunity to present itself to test the kit out with training on Sunday and a very good review of the kit.  Extremely comfortable, breathable and very importantly leggings that are both squat proof and do not fall down – all the ladies out there will know how important this is when choosing sports kit!  If you want to check it out yourself you can do so here.

The game tickets and kit were gifted, but all opinions are our own.