Household is engrossed, the wife and daughter have been over to Liverpool once and the daughter going again tomorrow. The games are also on sky YouTube. Brilliant to watch.
I’ve watched a few and enjoyed it. Big gulf in class in the early stages but more big clashes with the Aussies and NZ to look forward to. And another of the Neville clan in charge! My daughter is a great player but will never reach the heights. Literally. Genuine question - do men play netball at any organised level and if so why not? Same question re women and basketball.
Women play basketball as far as I'm aware, but I heard once that netball is the only exclusively female sport there is. Why that's the case I don't know. We played mixed netball at primary school, and it was really good fun. The girls were generally way better than us though! As an aside, I've never seen men's synchronised swimming, but that doesn't mean it does not exist, of course.
i believe and could be wrong as i usually am, that netball was fetched in as the ladies form of basketball by the septics
I’ve no idea why netball isn’t included in the Olympics. I don’t think anyone would argue that it’s not a sport. I know we’re not the only place in the world but it is played at every school here, right through high school too so it’s a shame people can’t go on to compete there. It doesn’t need expensive equipment that would prohibit other countries from introducing it either (unlike cycling, sailing etc.)
Having had a quick read of the history of the game, it is recognised by the IOC, but it's not included as it's only played seriously in a few ex-commonwealth countries. Sounds like quite a weak argument to me, especially considering the dominance of just a few nations in basketball, baseball, or even ice hockey.
i guess there's a interesting story line especially with the other thread here about the England cricket team. One of our players Chelsea Pitman has already won a World Cup netball gold for Australia in 2011. The next year she was dropped from the Australian team wasn't even invited to there training camp. She says she became disillusioned with Netball and was having marriage troubles And decided to come and live over here (says it wasn't contrived) played for Manchester Thunder for one year in 2015 became a England player in 2017 ,her dad was born in the U.K. She went back the year after and lives and plays again in Australia with the Adelaide Thunderbirds . So could win a World Cup gold medal for two different country's in the same sport
It's a shame that the related sport Korfball isn't more popular. One of the few primarily mixed-gender sports.
Basketball and ice hockey are world international sports though. Netball however, as pointed out, is really only played in a few commonwealth countries so i guess this is seen as niche. Any how if netball ever does reach the olympiad then perhaps so too should cricket: played by millions but again commonwealthy niche.
Maybe the interest in cricket would increase if it was included in the Olympics. I'm sure that the inclusion of Rugby 7's has done the game's overall popularity the world of good in some of the up and coming nations. Baseball was included as a demonstration sport (I think) in 1992, despite only being played seriously in the USA, Canada, Japan, Korea and Cuba. I'd say that makes it more niche than cricket.
I tried Korfball in Holland, it's played a bit in unis over here - good game but of the two I prefer netball. Neither beat volleyball for me!
Yes i remember the baseball: thankfully just the once. I can understand rugby union though as it has leapt beyond the commonwealth ( japan, france, italy, argentina, georgia etc).
men's synchronised swimming ??? try the 'old men's' swimming session at the Metrodome on a Thursday -
At least we've got the consolation of losing to the eventual winners as NZ beat the Aussies by one goal in today's final. Well done England winning their third consecutive Bronze with a 58-42 win over South Africa.
