Men’s Basketball: King of the Netball Courts

Men’s Basketball stole all the glory at the 2013 Interclub Netball Tournament, beating netball alumni girls 6-3 in the final. Determined to deflate their boosted egos (2nd at basketball in BUCS Premier South and UCL Interclub Netball champions?!), the UCLU Netball 1st team decide to show them who the real Queen of the Courts are in the Ultimate Netball Showdown.

To get in the zone, the men decided to slip into curves-hugging, thigh-bearing netball dresses, and the ladies changed into oversized basketball jerseys (oversized sportswear is the new fad, right?)

Ref Katie Sykes reports that the men made sure to clarify rules about footwork, contact and offside before the game. They were taking it very seriously. After all, UCLU Netball 1s are in BUCS 1A and won’t be an easy team to take on.

Less than one minute in, the netballers show us how it’s done, slotting in the first goal of the game.

Basketball men had trouble maintaining their distance from the netballers on a number of occasions.

So used to the movement in Basketball, the men were constantly being called up with footwork. With every whistle blown, the basketballers reacted with dismay and were indignant that their little hop on the spot wasn’t footwork.

At the end of the first quarter, the men managed to pull their score up to 7-4 over the netballers.

The second quarter saw the men up their game to lead 14-9, challenging the girls with their height, speed and strength. A lot of balls were going over the girls’ heads, but the basketballers forgot on several occasions about the ‘no passing over a third’ rule.

Despite being half their height, goal attack and 1s captain Hannah Button still got plenty of goals in.

The third quarter saw a change in basketball players, causing much frustration on the sideline from the men. Their goal shooter was clearly not used to the backboard-less basket, and was missing many shots by a large margin.

Even if they missed a shot, the men always managed to get the rebound. Netball goal keep didn’t give up once.

Standing on the sideline, I heard the basketball men’s coach of the day shout in exasperation, “just throw it to him!” – basketball tactics as the goal difference becomes slimmer.

Tension seemed to be escalating on the men’s side as their King of the Netball Courts title continued to be threatened. Their centre player came up to ref Katie to clarify the rules once more, moaning that “everyone gives me shit!” for stepping into the centre circle before all his players are onside.

Netballers upping their defence against the over-the-head passes.

At full time, the basketballers had managed to maintain their lead, winning 28-23 against the netballers. The tiny goal difference really shows just how intense the game was. The netballers clearly knew the game better and demonstrated some excellent skill around the men’s massive height advantage.

It was a great game to watch, and all spectator proceedings went to the Alzheimer’s Society. Let’s hope the netballers steal back their rightful title next year!