Southerners White, one the club’s three netball teams, has just wrapped up their 2010/2011 netball season (the next season starts in September). Competing in Division One alongside Southerners Black, the girls did exceptionally well, getting great results on (and off!) the court, and welcoming new players into the club. Cat Beach has more…
It is my pleasure to report that Southerners White had a fantastic 2010/11 netball season. Like most teams in sporting history we lost, won and drew games along the way, our final position on the goal scoring food chain finding us equally placed on the third rung.
This year our talented team consisted of a combination of mostly returning players with a few random newbies thrown into the mix. Strong bonds were quickly formed between all nine team members both in between netball throws on the court and glasses of wine off court.
It is suffice to say that vigorous encouragement was never lacking during a Southerners White netball game, be it emanating from under a goal post or from the ever supporting sideline. Southerners White’s awesome team spirit was further evidenced by the constant reliability of our team showing up each week. This commitment resulted in our requiring ‘ring ins’ on only a very small number of occasions throughout the season. However, for those players that did graciously step in when required we most definitely say a massive thank you!
It was also fantastic to see our team stepping up this season and all contributing to the sometimes daunting task of umpiring, even if some of us still require a bit more practice! It is also worthy to note that Southerners White is a team who cares about the bigger ‘Southerners sporting picture’, this fact confirmed by our team being duly represented in numbers in the ‘female support team’ present at the recently held Pattaya Ten’s rugby tournament.
In addition to supporting our guys as they attempted to win rugby matches in the intense Pattaya heat, our team also provided the highly sought after skills of Katie, Claire and Jenny to the combined Southerners netball tourney team who toured Ho Chi Minh earlier this year. We will also be continuing in the international tourney spirit with our team being entered in the upcoming Asian Region netball tournament taking place on 21 May 2011 in Bangkok.
Any sporting team will agree that the number of player injuries throughout a season will often make or break a team’s competitive edge. I am therefore very happy to report that we were lucky enough to have experienced a ‘netball injury’ free season; the only team injury, a twisted ankle, being a result of some ‘intense concentration required’ texting while walking home down the dimly-lit pothole obstacle course that is Soi 15. Luckily Laura recovered quickly and has not since become victim to the treachery of uneven ground.
While on the court our team celebrated a number of great successes, off the court we also had reason to celebrate with a number of exciting announcements; the first being Sarah’s retelling of her romantically arranged engagement proposal and then of course Claire’s (hopefully also romantically arranged!) pregnancy. I’m sure you will join us in wishing massive congratulations and all the best to both Sarah and Claire for their upcoming exciting new adventures.
As is the case with any great ensemble of people, our team’s development and success was inspired and moulded by fantastic leadership. Massive kudus, power packed karma and huge thanks must therefore go out to the lovely Jenny Hall who organised us onto the court, provided strategy and encouragement during play on court and always congratulated us or attempted to cheer us up (as appropriate!) following court activity.
I think as a team I can safely say we are all equally disappointed for the netball season to be over but equally agree that it has definitely been a season to remember. So, we say here’s to our having had a fantastic 2010/11 netball season, an upcoming fun and successful tournament followed by a well deserved break, safe in the knowledge that we will be back together on court as an awesome team as soon as next season kicks off.