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.