As April draws to a close, we reflect on a month that will be one to remember. At the end of March, our Members and Regions saw tournaments cancelled and their netball courts closed for the foreseeable future as the COVID-19 Pandemic spread across the globe. However, this month has seen the #NetballFamily come together to show resilience, strength, empowerment and enthusiasm through various initiatives to keep netballers around the world active and connected, all whilst staying at home and saving lives.
Blogs
To help keep you busy throughout April, we gave you a list of 10 Things to Do whilst there is no normal netball activity. From catching up on past tournaments on our YouTube channel to participating in-home workouts, there is something for everyone.
We also gave tips on how to stay connected during this time with many countries imposing social distancing to help stop the spread of the virus. As netballers, we know the importance of being part of a team and interacting with people regularly.
Read all our latest blogs here.
Quarterly Officiating News
Netball World Officiating News – a quarterly newsletter dedicated to the world of netball officiating – released its latest edition in April which covers the first quarter of 2020.
Catch up on what’s been happening here.
International Day of Sport for Development and Peace
April 6th marked the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace and was celebrated around the globe. We pledged our support on social media and the INF Secretariat took part in the 2020 #WhiteCard campaign via their daily Zoom meeting.
A Message from Our President
“In time this will become a distant memory, and, in the meantime, we are already finding new ways of working and communicating. I have been hugely impressed by the various new netball initiatives that are being promoted online to encourage learning, activity and well-being”. These were the words from our President, Liz Nicholl CBE in her April message to the #NetballFamily.
Read the full message here.
Netball Show Podcast
Our President, Liz Nicholl featured on an episode of The Netball Show podcast to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on the netball community, how INF are planning for the future and what the netball family are doing during this time to keep people active. Listen to the episode here.
A Look Back at History
Throughout April, we focused on the Netball World Youth Cup 2017, with a re-cap blog of the event published on the INF website as well as all matches available on the Netball World Youth Cup YouTube channel. Relive the action from 2017 here.
The 15th April marked 2 years since the Commonwealth Games netball final in 2018. We reflected on the journey which led to England Netball’s victory over Australia and what has been achieved since. The England Netball gold medal team also re-united via Zoom to reflect, reminisce and most importantly celebrate their achievement.
Read our recap here.
Isolation Bingo
Our Isolation Bingo launched towards the end of the month and was shared across INF social media channels. How many can you tick off? Head to our Instagram, screenshot and tag us in your results. We’re yet to see a BINGO!
Members Activities
The month of April has seen a wealth of content across INF social channels shared by our Regions and Members as well as fans, coaches, players and umpires! From TikTok challenges and initiatives to keep you fit and active to training programmes at home and interviews with players, the netball community has truly come together to show support, love and dedication to the sport and others.
We’d like to thank everyone who has taken the time to create content and share it for others around the world to see.
Gilbert Competition
This month, we launched another competition on our social media channels with more Gilbert Netball products up for grabs. We asked users to send in their at-home netball videos and tag INF to be entered into the competition. We’ve seen pets playing netball in the garden, home-made netball courts and someone scoring 2,600 goals in one day. The competition will also be running throughout May so get recording and tagging to be in with the chance to win.
The month of April may have been a different month for International Netball, but it has been a fantastic month with so much happening in the netball community.
We are incredibly proud of our Netball Family and everything that has been done during this difficult time to inspire, empower and motivate.
Most importantly, we thank you for doing your bit and staying home to save lives.
