And the answer is…

It was time for Zurich netball to put their knowledge to the test! In the first social organised by Leah, we took part in the Kennedy’s Pub Quiz Night. From Brit and Mon’s Aussie knowledge to Abby’s insights to Gibraltan Monkey you can safely say we out performed our expectations. Although we did not snatch the winning prize we did win a round of shots for the table with Emily’s excellent guessing skills in a game of heads and tails. Thank you Leah for organising and we look forward to more Pub Quizs in the future. Don’t forget our next social on 16th December, where we will be hitting up the Christmas Market in Zurich. If you’re interested in partaking please get in contact we’d love to have you join in on the fun!

There were no league games this month, but the next league match was just around the corner. On the 3rd of December Zurich sent a team to Geneva, where they took on AGNA (Aubonne Girls Netball Association). More to come on this event in our December post, Hopp Zürich!! Spoilers available on our Instagram.

If your looking to keep up to date with all the news and events at Zurich Netball, give us a follow on our Instagram @zurichnetball or if you’d like to get involved at our next training session send an email to zurichnetball@gmail.com and show up on Tuesdays at 19:00 at ICS International School Zurich – all are welcome.

Welcome to the Matterhorn League!

As the cool autumn breeze begins to blow in, the Netball season in Switzerland officially kicked off! This season Swiss Netball introduced a new league format whereby all the clubs head to one venue and play their matches on the same day.

The Matterhorn League

Last year we were promoted to the Matterhorn League (yay!), so on the 15th October, we headed down to Lausanne for our first match of the season against last years Matterhorn Division winners: GIN (Geneva International Netball).

We played our hearts out, working together and developing our skills thanks to our brilliant coach Annette. The game finished 55-28, so a huge congratulations to GIN and we can’t wait for our rematch! Our next match is on 3rd of December in Geneva, where we will take on AGNA (Aubonne Girls Netball Association) at 11:30am. Thank you to all our supporters and players in the league game, we hope to see you there!

October trainings saw a big focus this month on DEFENCE! An essential part of the game that is not only the responsibility of the defenders but also for those in attack. From tips to intercepts to body positioning!

Our New Committee

We recently welcomed 3 new committee members to the club:

  1. Leah (WA, GA) will be taking over events for the club. In her role she will be organising all events during and outside of training. So get prepared to get your nerd on a pub quizzes and other amazing social activities!
  2. Emily (GD, GK) is taking on social media and content creation responsibilities for the club, working with Chiara! We look forward to the upcoming posts and creativity she can bring to our platforms.
  3. Lauren (GK, GD) is taking on keeping our website up-to-date and sending out our comms to our lovely members!

Let’s get Spooky

It’s safe to say October has been a great hit and finished off with our Halloween themed training… spooky! Congratulations to Abby, the winner of our best dressed competition – you can find their great costumes on our Instagram page. If you’re looking for a bit more of Zurich Netball and keep up to date with all the news and events, give us a follow on our Instagram @zurichnetball or if you’d like to get involved at our next training session send us a message and show up on Tuesdays at 19:00 at ICS International School Zurich – all are welcome.

And Just Like That…

Our trainings for 2021 are over!

2021 has been another challenging year but we finished the year off strongly!

In August, we had our long awaited House Warming Party which saw old and new faces coming together to play netball for the first time in a long time! Since then we have had enjoyed fantastic attendance and welcomed lots of new members to the Zurich Netball Club family!

In November, we focused on match play and defensive and offensive play and finished the month off with a full match! In a hotly contested game, the Pink Panthers just edged out the Smurfettes to win the game. We were also able to have an AGM in person this year in November, after having to have a virtual meeting last year. It was great to be back in The Outback Lodge in Stadelhofen after such a long absence. The new committee for 2022 was announced (details of which you can find here). We also say a big thank you to Lyndsay Lomax and Lorna Rettig, who are taking a well-deserved break from committee duties in 2022 but will still be around to keep our attacking circle strong!

The winners of the annual awards were also announced at the meeting. Congratulations to the following worthy winners in 2021:

Player of the Year – shared between Konio and Emily

Virtual Player of the Year – Abby

Best Newcomer – Pasqualina

Miss Motivator (for keeping us going with fitness sessions during Lockdown) – Lorna and Jess VR

We only had two training sessions in December but because of the fantastic attendance we were also able to get some full match play practice in, which will come in handy for when in January when Zurich Netball will be joining the Swiss Netball Monte Rosa league for the first time. We are already looking forward to more match play against other clubs in Switzerland!

We will be back early next year for more netballing fun. Follow us on Instagram @zurichnetballclub for weekly photos and videos of our training and matches!

In the meantime, thank you for supporting Zurich Netball Club! We wish you a very Merry Christmas wherever you are in the world and wish you a good and safe start into 2022!

Flashback Friday!

Before words like Lockdown, COVID-19 and pandemic became part of our every day language, Zürich Netball Club were featured in the Zürich newspaper Tagblatt as part of their ongoing feature of the different sports clubs in the canton.

The edition came out on the day we were told we wouldn’t be able to use our home court for the foreseeable future for safety reasons. Terrible timing!

If you didn’t manage to get your hands on a copy, below is the featured article. See the English translation below.

Netball? Many Swiss people may never have heard of it. This team sport, which is comparable with basketball, is extremely popular in English speaking circles, like Great Britain and Australia. That’s where the roots of Lorna Rettig (44, right) and Claudia Almer (35, left) lie, who today play for Zurich Netball Club.

“In my home country Scotland netball is the second most popular sport,” says Lorna Rettig. Her fascination for the sport began when she was 7 years-old, so it was all the more sad for the scientist when she moved to Zürich 15 year ago for work reasons and found that no netball clubs existed here.

“On the Internet I found some like-minded expats from Commonwealth countries and together we founded the club 11 years ago.”

Claudia Almer originally comes from Australia, where netball was a large part of her youth. During a world travel, she found a job in IT in Zürich and has lived here ever since. At Zürich Netball, Claudia says she most values all the friendships which she has built up, with around the 40 other club members.

“Although we don’t compete on an international level, as the professionals from Australia and Scotland are too strong, we stay on the ball!”

Well done to Lorna and Claudia for spreading the netball message and to Kim, who was able to arrange the interview with Tagblatt.