Category: sport

THIRD WALKING NETBALL FESTIVAL

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On Saturday 1st April the Walking Netball group played in their third netball festival. This was held at Chichester University again in the sports dome, such a fantastic facility. This time there were 14 teams entered, this is the most ever for a walking netball tournament which shows the strength of interest in the sport.

We played seven games in total winning 2, drawing 1 and losing 4. On the day our shooting was rather inconsistent, which was a shame as our overall play has improved tremendously in terms of accurate and consistent passing. Our confidence has also grown and we were not so panicked in our first game as last time. We are beginning to react more quickly to situations and control the game more successfully.

In between games I had offered to do some umpiring so was running from umpiring to playing on a couple of occasions. The team/squad consisted of 9 players: Sue, Sarah, Jo, Jackie, Barbara, Mary, Dinah, Jen (our new president and her first tournament) and myself. Also accompanying us were Jan and Elaine who came along to support and be on standby, but ended up being our scorers, team organisers and giving us feedback; they provided much needed help and support. Thank you both.

At the end of the tournament one player from each team was awarded a medal for playing “in the spirit of walking netball”. This went to Barbara.

 I have to say the games were really fast and the standard was extremely high so we have much to be proud of. Thank you so much to all those who played. Everyone had moments of brilliance on court. Thanks again to Elaine and Jan for their much needed support.

Ann McLean

Walking Netball Host

Christmassy Walking Netball!

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The walking netball group had our final session before Christmas on 14th December. The session was fun with Christmas hats in abundance and they were actually needed as the sports hall was really cold! However, this did not ‘freeze’ our spirits.

The game was fast and fun and every time a goal was scored the shooter had to change with another player in her team. This meant that everyone played a variety of positions. We all enjoyed the frenzy of changing position and the shooting was really impressive as everyone played shooter at least twice. 

If anyone would like to join us in the New Year and be part of this amazing group please contact us.

We resume again on the 11th January.

Merry Christmas to all in the Bognor Regis Walking Netball Group.🎄

Ann McLean

Netball Host

Christmas Netball Festival

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On Sunday 4th December the Walking Netball group took part in a Christmas Netball Festival held at Chichester University. The response to the call of ‘who would like to play?’ was brilliant and we had eleven players on the day, ready to show their skills. We had 9 in our playing squad and had chosen a team name of The Bognor Baubles. Our 2 extra players were, in the end, used by another team as they were short of a player and therefore everyone got a good amount of netball.

We played 4 games overall and embraced the Christmas theme and the ‘let’s have a good time’ ethos. Of the 4 games we won one, but I sincerely felt we were on a par with every team we played. Nerves did get to us in the first game, but after that our improvement was immense.

At the end of each game we had to elect a player from the opposition who ‘embraced the spirit of the day’ and at the end of the morning each team was awarded a medal for their player who embodied that. Jan was our winner! Well done Jan, but the whole team was fantastic.

The team was: Sheila, Jan, Jo, Jack, Jackie, Barbara (our captain), Flo, Sarah and Elaine. Dinah and Mary played for the other team. Players to mention were Sarah who just got better and better throughout the tournament and displayed some fantastic defending skills, Sheila who enjoyed a great game at Wing Attack position, Barbara who was such an encouraging captain, and Jo who worked so hard in every position she played.

Thank you all for playing and making it such an enjoyable Sunday morning.

Ann McLean

Netball host

Walking Netball Festival 13th July 2022

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Eight players set off to Worthing for our very first walking netball festival on a very hot day!

It was classed as a fun event based around the countries of the Commonwealth Games. We were lucky enough to be England and dressed in red and white. Tutus were the order of the day plus face painting, red flags in tape on our shirts and some natty headbands. I have to say we looked pretty amazing.

The day was organised with fun in mind and we played three games and took part in the shooting and passing activities which gave us some new activities to take back to the group.

Although the game scores were not recorded you couldn’t stop teams from knowing whether they won or lost. Our first game was against ‘Malawi’, and although the organisers had said we should take it easy and slow the games down, this was not the case as everyone was competitive. They were a very good team and we were understandably nervous and only lost by the narrowest of margins. Our second game was against ‘New Zealand’ and we were starting to be more confident and managed to win by the narrowest of margins! Our third and final game was against ‘Scotland’ and it was this game where we came into our own displaying some great passing and shooting. In between the games we had fun activities. We became very adept at the passing activities but not so good on the shooting activities.

All in all we had an amazing day and Jan especially made one new friend! One of our players of the day has to go to Elaine who proved to be so good at shooting on the day. Having said that all the players played their hearts out and we worked so well together. The team was: Sheila, Dinah, Sue, Elaine, Jan, Jack, Mary and myself. We are certainly up for the next one! Thanks to everyone for a memorable day.

Ann McLean

Walking Netball Host

Jolly Christmas Netball!

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On the 15th December the walking netball group had their final session before the Christmas break. Tinsel and Santa hats were the order of the day and we all had an enjoyable session to finish the year (and what a year!).

The group is going from strength to strength with numbers slowly creeping up. The overall standard of play has greatly improved and players have a greater understanding of the rules. The shooting has been really impressive and everyone has been successful in scoring goals. The joy on their face when a goal is scored is amazing!

The game is always good natured and fun and I’ve immensely enjoyed the group who are full of energy and humour. Thank you all for making it all happen. We look forward to the new year with enthusiasm. Special thanks go to Sue G who does all the boring stuff like collecting money and booking the venue, and also to Manuela who religiously washes the bibs each week and brings to extra balls to the sessions. Thank you so much.

If anyone would like to join us we start again on the 12th January 2022, 6-7pm at Arena Centre, Westloats Lane PO21 5JD, so come along!


Ann McLean. (Walking Netball Host)

Hotham Park Wildforest Golf WI Tournament:

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It may not be on par with the Open but Gina, Karen and Sue met for a round of  adventure golf in Hotham Park.

Competition was fierce but good natured with Karen being the eventual winner by 2 strokes and Gina and Sue enjoying joint second place.

Congratulations to Karen but also to Gina on her hole in one. This would have normally been celebrated with a round of drinks at the 19th hole but we made do with tea and coffee at the café.

Sue Harris

Walking Netball Group – Second Challenge

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The Walking Netball Ladies have now completed their second 26 challenge.

We decided to ‘run’ a marathon – 26 miles. No, we didn’t do this individually but did it collectively. Fifteen of us took up the challenge of walking, jogging or running (or a combination of all three) 1.8 miles each, recording our times and then all these times were added together to see how fast we could complete a marathon.

The weather has been glorious and most plotted a route and set out.

Barbara started us off by sending in a time the day after the challenge was launched. She managed to walk her distance on a treadmill and gave us a benchmark of 33 minutes. Some did it with a dog for company, Mandy with her horse and Gemma made us laugh by doing her distance on the beach in flip flops with two young children. Times were all very close to the 30 minute mark until Jack emailed her amazing time, for 1.9 miles, of 17.53 minutes. Not only that but a fantastic photo followed. She is our very own superwoman. 

Everyone enjoyed the challenge, some even did it several times to improve their own score. Manuela managed to shave nearly 7 minutes off her first time. This was fantastic and shows how competitive the ladies are.

The overall time for our collective 26 miles was 8 hours 35.33 minutes. 

Thanks go to everyone who took part and we will be donating extra items for the Bognor food bank.

Thanks again to Dinah for organising the photos, they show us passing on a wooden spoon but nobody ended up with it!

Here’s to the next one! 

Ann McLean

Photos: Dinah Barrand

WI Walking Netball Group – 26 Challenge

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“Any ideas?”

It started with an email from Dinah asking if we could do something as a walking netball group in relation to the 26 challenge.

The London Marathon had been cancelled due to the virus and therefore the challenge was to raise money for charities in a creative way and have fun doing it.

I came up with the idea of a shooting challenge for our lovely netball group and Annie, our Team Manager, launched it in her inimitable way.

The aim was to score as many goals as possible in 26 minutes from a distance of 2.6 metres. The really creative part was the goal!  Most followed a prototype of a bucket secured to a step ladder. Some had buckets which were suspended on walls or chicken runs, others had targets at ground level. Sarah’s husband even made a goal and attached it to a wall. It didn’t matter what height it was. The ‘missile’ could be any ball or rolled up socks or tea towel. It didn’t matter.

What mattered was how many you could shoot.  Of course, being of a competitive nature, the ladies rose to the challenge magnificently.

I thought I had better try this out before Sunday (Marathon day) and see if I could actually do it myself.  Bucket was securely wedged on top of the step ladder and time began.  Well, I was pretty smug with myself and scored 50 goals and set this as the target to beat! Little did I know how the ladies would respond. Scores started coming in …

  • a score of 27 with “my bucket was moving a lot!”
  • 24 goals with “after 15 minutes my bucket snapped!”
  • Then Maggie comes in with 83 goals
  • Sarah’s next “I’ve just scored 134 goals” this was amazing
  • 100 balls in the bucket by Celia
  • “I hit the target 154 times but no chickens were harmed” this from Manuela
  • Annie secured 93 goals and did lots of retrieving

It didn’t matter what the score was we all enjoyed the banter of trying to beat each other.  Some of the comments were just brilliant and I’m sure everyone had a smile on their face.  Here is a selection:

  • The tee shirt made all the difference.
  • My husband made me a ladder goal post, only disadvantage the ring was a triangle!
  • I did a tremendous amount of retrieving the ball and bending.
  • Sarah, did your ball have elastic on it?
  • I would like to think the ball was too light and the bucket the wrong size.
  •  My husband was pleased when I stopped as he was my ball boy.
  • I found it quite aerobic!
  •  My accurate aim kept hitting the handle and so the ball went flying into the bushes.

The most important aspect of the day was to raise money for Sage House. I believe we raised approximately £350. Well done everyone, it was an amazing effort and such good fun. I’m sure you’ll agree the photos are brilliant and shooting techniques were pretty good too.

My thanks go to Dinah who collated the photos, to Annie who made it happen, and to everyone who took part

Ann McLean

WI Walking Netball Coach

To see our girls in action click here

 

 

 

 

 

Walking Netball

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Bognor Regis WI netball team continues to thrive, playing every Wednesday 6-7pm at the Arena sports hall. We’re really lucky to have the lovely Ann coaching, and attempting to teach us skills, tactics and rules.

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Sarah has embroidered team polo shirts for us all.

You’re welcome to pop along anytime – Annie Smith is our organiser.

Dinah Barrand