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
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.