The faces of young girls lit up the Bundaberg Superpark court as they prepared to play in the first day of competition in Bundaberg Netball’s Spring Cup.
The 10-week Spring Cup competition will run to 12 December with 53 registered Bundaberg netball teams playing into the Saturday evenings.
For The Waves Starfish Centre Tayla Dick, and her mum Hayley Thorne, returning to the court was a sigh of relief, as they both missed the much-loved competition.
After netball was halted earlier this year due to COVID-19 Hayley said Tayla’s competitive streak could not be satisfied despite trying other team sports including rugby league.
“We are so glad to be back,” Hayley said.
“Tayla is a horse rider but loves her team sports so she was really disappointed when the season was put on hold after only two games this year.
“Netball is a great sport for girls, and she was just so excited to get back into the game today.”
The Year 3 St Patrick’s student and her teammates went up against The Waves Mermaids in the opening round of Bundaberg Netball’s Spring Cup.
Volunteers make Spring Cup possible
Bundaberg Netball Association president Anthony Lewis said 53 teams from the five clubs would take part in Bundaberg Netball’s Spring Cup 10-week competition, and although the season had been dramatically shortened, they were all relieved arrangements were made to get them back in the game.
“Netball in Bundaberg just keeps growing, this season we had the highest number of registrations,” Anthony said.
“We knew we had to run a competition, because we had to cancel our season because of COVID-19 due to the size of our competition, as we couldn’t make it fit with the guidelines.”
He said Bundaberg Netball’s Spring Cup would not be possible without the support and hard work from the dedicated volunteers, who worked tirelessly even through the quiet time.
“The dedication from the volunteers is enormous; at the end of each round we have 15 minutes where we have to sanitise post pads, balls, grandstand seating, toilet and the lot,” Anthony said.
“We can’t do that with just the normal number of volunteers, so we definitely didn’t go back to competition lightly.”
Anthony said players as young as five, from the Net Set Go program, right up to seniors were competing in Bundaberg Netball’s Spring Cup, in a modified format to make it possible for even the younger players to win the competition.
“It’s all a bit of fun, in the twilight with the last round taking place at 7.30pm of a night,” he said.
“Because we will be playing into December and in the heat, so we pushed the games back to as late as possible. These courts are fantastic to play on of an evening to.
“It’s just really fantastic to be back playing netball!”
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