Tag Archives: netball

Flashback Friday!

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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.

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Coronavirus Update

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As you will already be aware the Coronavirus pandemic is having huge consequences around the world and Zurich Netball Club is no exception to this.

The Club Calendar has now been updated to show that all club trainings until 19th April have been cancelled, as advised by the Swiss government. We hope that we will be back to training as soon as possible after this date but we will have to see how the situation is nearer the time. Of course, we will let you know when the information is available.

It does mean that we have also cancelled the ‘Bring a Bloke’ night and the ‘Easter Extravaganza’ and socials that were planned for the beginning of April. It is super disappointing but it’s far better that everyone stays healthy and safe.

The Committee have also made the decision to cancel their next meeting on the 2nd April. But the minutes for the last meeting on 5th March are now available to view in the Calendar so you can find out what the Committee have been discussing.

As the world is slowly grinding to a halt, we will still be posting photos and videos on social media (because we have already taken enough to last us for the next 3 seasons) and we will be soon start publishing the Player Profiles for 2020 so you can get to know your teammates better!

Also to help you stay fit for netball, a ‘Netball at Home’ email will be sent out to all email subscribers each Wednesday so that you can get your netball fix. No excuse!

In the meantime, we wish all our members, alumni and followers around the world the best of health. Stay Safe and Stay Positive!

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March Madness

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Can anyone believe that it’s already March? We are glad it’s here because March is going to be a super exciting month for everyone at Zurich Netball Club. There is so much planned for this month that you will have to forgive us for getting giddy with excitement.

We kicked off March at our first training session working on dynamic movements off the ball to help create space and options for passing followed by some intense competitive match play.

All fully-paid up members at the session also received a super cute ZNC badges at training. Only available to current members and returning members at training, make sure you come to training and pay your subs to get your hands on one. Not available in the shops!

IMG_9214Next week on 11th March we will be hosting a Bring A Bloke night. As the participation of men in netball is at an all time high, we are doing our bit to encourage the men of Zurich to get involved as well. Members are invited to bring the man in their life or a friend or colleague so they can discover for themselves why we are so crazy about netball. Absolutely no experience is necessary as full training and rule explanations will be given!

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Member at training proudly showing their cute and exclusive Zurich Netball Badges

For the rest of the month we will being continuing our preparation for the Peppermill tournament which is organised by Swiss Netball and will take place in Geneva. We now have a confirmed squad for the tournament but members are still able to join via the Doodle to join the waiting list in case of injuries to members of the current squad.

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Feeling the burn with core strength exercises at the end of training

Swiss Netball have confirmed they will not cancel the tournament because of coronavirus unless told to by the cantonal authorities in Geneva. We are keeping everything crossed that the tournament goes ahead. 2020 is the first time we have entered the tournament and we are keen to take part in it again.

Watch out later in the month for the long-awaited return of the Player Profiles. How well do you know your teammates? Find out more on the Player Profile section of the website later this month.

See you all at training next week!

 

Fasnacht-themed Training

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With celebrations for Fasnacht fast approaching, it was time to kick off training in February with a Fasnacht-theme. All members were asked to come in their best carnival costumes, or something bright and colourful, to scare away winter. Because, let’s face it, we all want it to be summer so we can play on the outside courts!

It was a great turnout and everyone put in a great effort into their outfits. It isn’t every Wednesday that we can say we had a zebra, clown, frog, penguin and a hula girl turn up for training. It was tricky for some to train in their costumes but we still managed to get through some tough ball skills and a mini tournament.

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Colourful for Carnival!

In 2020 we are re-introducing a monthly social after training. It seemed a shame to keep our excellent costumes a secret so we decided to share them with the clientele at the Outback pub. There’s nothing unusual about being dressed as a frog in the pub on a Wednesday, right?

It was also a cause for celebration for Kim, Lakshmi, Lorna and Lyndsay who had full attendance at training in January and were the winners of our Jump Into January competition. Well done Ladies!

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Members (and Julie’s coat) enjoying a well-earned post-training drink

The committee also had a meeting for the second time in 2020 on Thursday evening when items on the agenda included tournaments, coaching and where on earth the first aid kit has disappeared to?!?

The committee will next meet on March 5th. If you have any items that you would like to be discussed please let us know by email or just grab one of us at training. The agenda and minutes will be uploaded to Club Calendar when they are available.

If you would like to find out more about the committee, please click here.

Advance notice: there will be no training on 19th February due to school holidays.

Another busy week

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It’s been another busy week for everyone at Zurich Netball Club.

On Monday the newly-elected committee met for the first time in 2020 to start planning for the season. Different topics were discussed including: tournaments to enter, social events for the year and (everyone’s favourite part of being a member of a sports club) the possibility of new kit.

Claudia, Lorna, Jess, Lyndsay, Emma and the other Jess (!) are very excited about the plans for the season and helping all members enjoy their netball as much as possible. If you’re not sure who we are or what we do, you can read more on The Committee page.

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Going for goal!

As discussed at the AGM in December, we are now using the Club Calendar on the website as the go-to place for all things Zurich Netball. It has been updated with training dates for the whole year. Monthly socials after training are back on the agenda, which will be combined with a special themed training night. The first one will take place on 5th February, when we will be celebrating Fasnacht – start planning your costumes now!

On Wednesday night we were training as usual and, after a warm-up and a few drills, we had a mini-tournament with three teams battling it out to win a delicious, Swiss chocolate bar. Lots of new members have joined us in January, some of which are completely new to netball, so it was great to see everyone getting stuck in, learning something new and enjoying playing matches.

It was also a great opportunity to practice umpiring and scoring which are important parts of the game.

The joint winners of the round robin tournament were the Blue and Green team who both won two games each. In a cruel twist of fate (and because we hadn’t planned on there being a tie for overall first place), the Yellow team were awarded Swiss chocolate for their efforts!

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The traditional post-training selfie!

We still have one more training session left in January and quite a few people are still on course for full attendance for the month, meaning they will enjoy a drink on the club at the next social event. Hope to see you all next week at training!

First training of the new decade

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On Wednesday Zurich Netball Club were back to training for the first time in 2020. We had a fantastic turnout for the first session back. It would be great to think that everyone was super keen because they had playing netball over the festive period but some (myself included) were glad to be doing something active after indulging too much over Christmas!

After warming up we focused on ball skills in pairs to get us used to catching and throwing again. The drills were a combination of lobs and chest passes as well as mini-competitions to see which pair were the fastest without dropping the ball.

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Practicing ball skills

Then we split into two teams for match practice. We mixed it up a bit by selecting a bib at random so lots of us were playing positions that were new to us. This meant we had to use our brains and we learnt something about other positions on the court.

To finish we managed the dreaded cool down/core training which was difficult after such a long absence. Hopefully this part of training will get easier in the coming weeks.

It was so nice to see everyone after the winter break and some new faces to the club came to training as well. New members are always welcome to join. If you would like to come along and try netball for the first time or even get back into a sport that you used play, please get in touch with the committee at zurichnetball@gmail.com or send us a message on Facebook.

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Our first post-training selfie of 2020!

Zurich Netball Club runs the Sola Stafette 2012

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Despite rain, wind and a lot of mud, the 14 members of the Zurich Netball Club Sola team completed on Saturday 4th May, the Sola 2012 relay race around the hills and streets of Zurich.

The 2012 Sola race saw almost 900 teams of 14 runners (nearly 13,000 runners took part), running 116.57 km in one day, with an early 7:30 start. This was the first time we entered a team from Zurich Netball Club into the Sola Race, and it won’t be the last! The length of the legs vary from 4km to 14km each, as do the profiles, with up to 420m climbs in some legs.

It was a great day, and great training for upcoming netball events! We’re already looking forward to next year’s event!

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Spring News from Zurich Netball

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What a start to the year! Congratulations once again to the lads and ladies of Matterhorn, winners of Switzerland’s first ever netball league! There was some fantastic netball being played, and it was great to see such a great turn out, such enthusiasm, and some competitive spirit!

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But, Zurich Netball keeps on going! Here’s a preview of what’s to come in the next few months…

Now- May 12th:  Preparation for the Swiss Tournament in Lausanne on May 12th.

If you want to get involved, then contact us!  (If you want to get involved, but can’t play on May 12th, or don’t want to come to the tournament, get in touch anyway; you’re more than welcome to join in the training sessions!)

May 5th: Zurich Netball Club has entered a team into the Sola Lauf in Zurich, so feel free to come along and support us on the day, or at the finish line at the Sola Dorfli!

May onwards: We’re collecting your feedback on the Lion’s League before we decide on the format of the next club competition, but watch this space for announcements and news! Whatever the outcome, it’s sure to include a lot of netball, fun and a beer or two as well if you fancy!

 

Want to know about umpiring?

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Thanks to Victor from Netball Sweden (yes, they play netball in Sweden too!), for sharing his excelling umpiring blog! Ever wondered about the three second rule? Want to know how to play the centre pass correctly? Want to check up on the latest rule changes?

Then click here to go to the site!

Zurich Netball League website update

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Visit the new Zurich Netball League page on our website to view information about Switzerland’s first netball league; including match schedules, team lists (to come before Christmas), results of each match and other general information about the league. You will be able to leave comments about the matches once the league gets going, and we’ll try to get a few action shots too! Watch this space!

Click here to go directly to the Zurich Netball League page.