Emily Hart Charity Netball Tournament for Acorns Children’s Hospice

Harton Technical College, South Shields, Saturday, May 31, 2014

George Nicholson

Kerry obviously approves of 'marking' Ben Ford.The 4th Annual Charity Netball Tournament for ACORNS took place at a new venue in South Shields. Unfortunately Farringdon School in Sunderland who have allowed us to use their facilities F.O.C. for the last 3 years informed us just 4 days before the Tournament that they intended to carry out re-surfacing work ! This obviously left us with a major problem. Thankfully however, Gemma Sandberg of BACK2NETBALL came up trumps and found us superior facilities at Harton Technical College in South Shields http://www.wellnesssportscentre.co.uk/ and for a very reasonable charge of £60.

The day was sunny & hot, and there were several cases of sunburn reported afterwards on Facebook ! Approx 200 Netballers turned out to play, umpire, & Time Keep. There were 19 Teams , and these were split up into 3 different groups. 8 were in the serious Lady Netballer teams, 7 in the BACK2NETBALL Ladies Teams – This group included a Team from Shadforth Village calling themselves the SPARKLES, and they were pitted against the ‘ever-present’ Hannah Bayman, gallantly turning out a week before her big wedding. Her team called themselves GALS. The BBC were unable to raise a full Team, so the usual ‘Netball TrashTalk’ on Twitter was absent for once.

The remaining 4 Teams were in the most important ‘Mixed for Fun’ group. Originally intended to be 4 running teams, in the end comprised of 1 Team from Sunderland parkrun , and 2 from Elvet Striders (Purple Haze and Ultra Violets ) with Wearside Wildcats putting in a fun side to make up the numbers. Because Wearside Wildcats were our hosts the 3 Running Teams graciously allowed the Wildcats to progress through the Tournament undefeated and pick up a Trophy. The fact that they were highly skilled and very experienced Netballers was pure co-incidence and I’m sure never influenced any of the scorelines 😉

I had invites to play in 5 different Teams, however skilfully managed to avoid playing any games at all, thus ensuring I wouldn’t be a liability on Court to any of them.

Sadly there 2 unfortunate injuries. Michelle Mustard of Sunderland parkrun with a broken finger and Jane Skelton (Wife of Strider Tim ) of Shadforth Sparkles with a fractured ankle. Tough Sport is Netball, but thankfully this Tournament was just for fun J

Nice day for a bit of netball.

The plus side outweighed the minuses however, and acknowledgements go to :-

  • Kim Phillips Fox, Paul & Michelle Mustard for some excellent action photographs.
  • Wearside Wildcats Netball Club for hosting the event.
  • Gemma Sandberg and Charlotte Waites for doing the majority of the organising.
  • My Wife Anne, and Angela Proctor for doing a fine job with the Tuck shop again.
  • Sam Nightingale ( former Sunderland parkrun Event Director & Wearside Wildcat Netballer ) who originally set up this wonderful Tournament concept, who travelled up from Manchester and played in many Matches for several different teams.
  • Special thanks to Elvet Striders for their participation and generous support yet again.
  • ALL the teams who took part and had lots of fun and laughs which made this yet another special occasion.

£720 raised on the day. This means over £3,000 raised in these Tournaments since 2011 for Acorns Childrens Hospice – Wonderful. Once again many many thanks from Anne and I.

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