Southwater Netball Club looking for members as roadmap to return reaches stage 4

Stage 4a allowed the return of community netball on August 18 with modified training and rules, for groups of up to 30 people per court, subject to netball organisations having the required risk mitigations in place.

And Southwater Netball Club cannot wait to get going. The club have been out of action since lockdown started - but now are getting prepared for competition modified rules on September 26 - Stage 4b of the roadmap.

Stage 5 (full training) and Stage 6 (competition) dates are to be confirmed.

Secretary Sarah Langley said: “We are an all-encompassing Horsham based club of mixed ages and abilities, with approximately 40 members so it's important that we return to court when it is safe for all of our members to do so.

"We offered members the opportunity to train in small groups but players were keen to wait until we could train together again as a club.”

Lockdown has affected sports clubs far and wide in different ways but Southwater have fortunately not suffered financially.

Langley said: “Lockdown hasn't affected the club financially as our training venue cancelled our upcoming bookings and like all other sports centres, closed for the duration of lockdown.

"As a club we asked members to suspend their subs straight away so we haven't lost or gained anything financially during this period. We are now urging our members and the netball family around the country to pledge their support to the sport we all love by affiliating to England Netball for 2020/2021.”

And how did they stay in touch during lockdown? “As a hugely sociable club of women aged 18-50+, we hosted a number of Zoom calls with our members, alongside virtual cocktail evenings, a virtual EGM and collectively participating in England Netball's Virtual Netball Club.”

But if you are interested in joining Southwater you will have to act quickly. Langley said: “We are strongly supporting England Netball's #RiseAgain campaign and are looking for new members to join our friendly and sociable club.

“However we do have limited spaces available so if anyone local is interested in joining our club we would urge them to get in touch as soon as possible, we also have a waiting list for when membership is high in demand.”

Those looking to get back in to netball, or start a new sport can contact the club via our Facebook page or by emailing: [email protected].

They have previously trained at Christ's Hospital (Bluecoats Sports Centre) on Monday evenings but they are currently unsure when indoor training will resume so may look to explore local outdoor training venues.