The Oxfordshire Netball Blog

The Oxfordshire Association of Young People are running an Emergency First Aid course at Wolvercote Young Peoples Club on the 20^th March from 9.30am-4.30pm.  £35 per person.  Email ondbsecretary@gmail.com for contact details.

Just wanted to celebrate – Oxfordshire clubs are banding together to raise funds for their netball centre.  Planning permission has been granted for 6 outdoor, floodlit netball courts at Court Place Farm, alongside Oxford City Football Club.

Oxfordshire clubs were challenged to raise the £36,000 we still need towards the project and i’m very very excited that we have surpassed the £15,000 mark!  Well done to John Radcliffe, Abingdon Centre, Kidlington, Oxford Science Park, Vale, Witney, Abingdon Ladies, Sutton Courtenay Swans, Abbey, Trinity, Eynsham, SES Tornadoes, Watlington Ladies & Arrows Netball Clubs, for your contributions!  In particular, Abingdon Centre, Oxford Science Park & Kidlington have all rasied over £2k each for the cause!  Well done to all those who have already got involved (including all the friends and family that are getting involved in the fundraising!)  We need to continue to work hard to reach the £36K target – and it’s vital that all the Oxfordshire Clubs get involved! 

Can’t wait to know which night i am playing netball every week, to get to meet up with those playing netball more regularly, to get many many more umpires mentoured through the system, and to provide coaching for back to netball, juniors, and to develop disabiltiy netball in our region – these are very exciting times!

Weston Park Blades Netball Club are inviting junior clubs to their Summer Tournament  in Southampton Sports Centre on Sunday 20th June 2010 – contact westonparkfixtures@hotmail.com for more information, or to enter a team.

Oxfordshire Sports Partnership are running the above course on 10th March 2010, and there are places still avaliable.

“ Develop your own coaching knowledge and skills to coach disabled players through inclusive and separate coaching sessions. Discover new ways to adapt equipment and identify appropriate safety and medical considerations to meet your players’ needs” 

By the end of the workshop you will be able to :-

• explain when integration and segregation might be most appropriate
• identify appropriate safety and medical considerations
• review and extend your knowledge of how to adapt your coaching to the specific needs of disabled performers
• design and monitor a programme for a disabled player taking part in their sport
• direct players to appropriate structures for competitions and further coaching

Visit www.oxfordshiresport.org to book your place!

Trinity NC are organising this year’s Versatility Tourament – it’s on the 12th June 2010, starting at 10am at St Helen’s and St Katherine’s school.  Entry is £30 fees, plus £30 refundable deposit.  Refreshments will be avaliable.  Entries by Friday 30th April 2010.

Australia have won the current Test Series 2-1 .  After their initial defeat to England in the first test, Australia fought back in the 2nd test in Nottingham, with a 53-48 win.  This left the decider, played tonight at the O2 in London.  Looks like it was a tough match, with a scoreline of 45-43, to Australia.  Well worth a watch tomorrow on on Sky Sports 3 at 7pm!

After 29 years, England has beaten Australia in the first match of the current Test Series.  The match was on Friday night at 7pm, and was shown on Sky Sports 4 yesterday afternoon.

See.englandnetball.co.uk for a full match review – but it must have been a fanatstic atmosphere in Liverpool for this match, ending 41-40 to England.

The heat is on for the next match of the Series, today in Nottingham at 4.30pm, and then the final match of the series at the 02 Arena, London, on Tuesday 23rd at 7pm.  Go on England!

If you can’t be there, then catch these matches on Sky Sports – 2nd Test is on on Monday 22nd – Sky Sports 1, 7pm.  The 3rd Test will be on Weds 24th, Sky Sports 3 at 7pm.

To keep up with the Sky Sports Coverage of Netball, go to www.skysports.com, click on ‘more sports’, ‘netball’, and then scroll down to the ‘coverage’ link.

Oxfordshire is in the very exclusive position where all the clubs playing in the Junior League have CAPS (Clubmark) bronze or above (or they do still as far as I know).  This is an amazing achievement, but there has now been some changes to the Clubmark criteria, and there is some additional paperwork required to keep up to date with Clubmark.  All Clubmark clubs should have been sent a letter explaining this, but if like me, this has gone missing somewhere in piles of paperwork, you can ask South Region for a support pack and the form to fill in for re-registration  www.netballsouth.co.uk, south@netballstaff.co.uk.

For other junior clubs which are just getting going, i’d recommend the process of applying for ‘clubmark’ as it’s a way of getting all the paperwork and plans in place for your junior section.  There are plenty of people happy to support you with this – do ask Gilly gbettis@buckssport.org, or Oxfordshire Sports Partnership www.oxfordshiresport.org to find out more.

Clubs with Clubmark are now able to apply for the Sainsburys Active Kids Scheme, you can use the vouchers to get equipment, resources or motivational experiences!  See  http://www.clubmark.org.uk/newswelcome-to-active-kids

Great news, dates have just been announced for two more Level 1 courses in our area, wouldn’t it be great if we can fill the Thame course entirely with people from Oxfordshire!  There are plenty of ways we can help you to idenfity funding, so if you’re interested in Coaching, don’t let this opportunity go by!

Dates: 24th & 25th April, 23rd May. Venue: Lord Williams Lower School Site Toweresey Road Thanme Oxon OX9 3NW Closing date for applications 26th March 2010

Dates: 11th & 12th September, 10th October Venue: Sir William Ramsay School Rose Avenue Hazelmere High Wycombe Bucks HP15 7UB Closing date for applications 13th August 2010

The course is 9-6pm on all 3 days. Cost £170 For booking form visit www.englandnetball.co.uk Or contact Emma Walker 01462 442344 ext 122

If you want to get ‘Back to Netball’, 10 sessions are being held at Henley Leisure Centre on Sundays, 7-8pm, starting on 31st January, cost is £3. For more information email Hendrietta Thorn, hendriette.thorn@southoxon.gov.uk