2019 Netball World Cup
July 2019
So the 12th July 2019 was a very significant date for the City of Liverpool and Netball fans around the world. It was the date the Netball World Cup started in our home city! 16 countries from around the world have spent 10 days battling it out to break records, achieve personal bests and take home the gold. This was a special event for Empire Netball Club, not just because we are all Netball obsessed, but because 10 very lucky members of our Junior Squad were selected to be Field of Play Assistants, or "FOPA" as they were often called.
During the world cup, our girls in blue would be found court side and behind the scenes, assisting these incredible athletes with whatever they needed to facilitate their game. If the world cup all happened too quickly for you, take the time to look back on some games and you will see our girls making their debut on the big screen - mostly on court ... wiping up sweat or running after a netball that went astray. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity for our girls and we were so lucky to share this experience with them. Imogen, Charlotte, Lauren, Sophie, Leah, Damii, Cara, Hannah, Emilee and Eleanor, we hope you loved it as much as we did!
Jenny was also a "Pivoteer" during the NWC and was normally spotted outside the M&S Bank Arena in her fluorescent pink top signing people up to play netball or teaching people how to shoot. If she wasn't doing this then just look for the nearest Netball Celeb and she probably wasn't too far behind them!
If you take a look at our gallery you will see some fantastic photos from the last 10 days taken by our Netball Families, we cannot begin to express how thankful we were to have this even in our city and that any given minute we would turn a corner and up pops Karla Pretorius, South African Goal Defence & Player of the Tournament or Irene Van Dyk, New Zealand shooting legend!
Although the coveted Gold Medal was not to be for England, the Roses took home a Bronze Medal and put on a display of some fantastic netball which we are certain will have inspired generations of netball players around the UK and beyond. We were also elated to see New Zealand put on a master class of netball to take home the Gold and beat Australia 52-51 in one of the most intense games of netball to date. They rose to victory after a massive 16 years (or 4 World Cups) without a gold medal.
We all deserve a little break after 10 days of chaos, exhilarating sportsmanship and many hours in the arena - but once that is over we will be back to it ourselves.
New Teams. New Divisions. New Kit. Same amazing people.
See you in September,
Lots of Love
Empire NC
xx
