The Hucclecote squad who finished ninth at last year’s under-16 nationals
Sue Wainwright, left, and Gilly Salter
A llifetime ifetime d devoted evoted tto on netball etball When Sue Wainwright established Hucclecote Netball Club 40 -odd years ago she could never have dreamed how big they would become. Fast forward from those days in the l a te 1 9 7 0 s w h e n t h e s o p h i s t i c a te d ladies of the day were wearing leisure suits, jump suits and the like, and the club are the biggest netball concern in the south west and have a team competing on the national stage. “Yes, it is incredible,” said Sue, now 64 and one of the founder members all those years ago. So how did it all start? “There was a group of us – all exHucclecote School pupils,” explained Sue. “We used to watch Hucclecote play rugby on Saturday afternoons – my husband Tony founded Hucclecote Rugby Club. “We were getting fed up being rugby widows so we said, ‘Why don’t we form our own netball club?’” It was to be one of the best things they ever did and although Sue is the o n l y f o u n d e r m e m b e r s t i l l i n v o l ve d with the club, they can all look back with pride at what they started four decades ago. Sue, of course, does the work of several people with her jobs these days including chair, coach, team m a n a g e r a n d “ a ny t h i n g e l s e t h at needs doing”. “ T h e c l u b a re ve r y c l o s e to m y heart ,” she said. “It was my idea so the club are very important to me. In
those days I was a sports teacher at Churchdown School and I’m so pleased we managed to get the club off the ground.” Initially the club were very much a local side. “We just had the one team to start with,” recalls Sue. “We used to train and play at what was then Brockworth School. We were unrecognisable then compared to where we are today but each year we grew and grew and within five or six years we had four teams competing in the Gloucestershire League.”
SSpreading preading tthe he n netball etball w word ord tto oa anyone nyone w who ho w would ould llisten isten That was pretty impressive, of course, but that was just the start. By now Gilly Salter had come on board and in Gilly, Sue found a soulmate who was just as committed as herself to spreading the netball word to anyone who would listen. “ T h e b i g g est c h a n g e at t h e c l u b occurred when we started running j u n i o r wo r k s h o p s i n t h e s c h o o l h o l i d a y s , ” s a i d S u e . “ T h e y w e re netball camps for 11 to 16 years olds and it was a joint venture by myself and Gilly in the late 80s and early 90s.” T h e yo u n g s te r s l o ve d i t a n d o f course it wasn’t just them who benefited because Hucclecote Netball Club were suddenly the place to be for anyone wanting to play the sport. “We then catered for the primary
a g e g r o u p a t t h e wo r k s h o p s , ” s a i d Sue. “What that did was ensure the club had a steady stream of young players joining the club, providing our future seniors.” So successful are the club that they now have in excess of 200 members and are running teams at pretty much every level. “We’ve got a team in the national premier league, two teams in the regional leagues and three teams in the Gloucestershire League,” said Sue. “Then we’ve got two teams at under16s, 14s, 13s, 12s and 11s.” It’s no wonder Sue says the club are t h e “ b i g g est a n d b est ” i n t h e s o u t h west. It’s no idle boast either because last year the club won the National Club of the Year award at the Goalden Globes Awards organised by England Netball. “It was for everything we do, not just our performances on the court ,” said Sue. “It was for our youth development , our coaching, the way we behave on court. And what made it even more special was that it was presented to us by Tracey Neville, who used to play for us many years ago.” The future looks bright for the club too. “We’ve won the national under19s and we usually get to the national finals with under-16s,” said Sue. “And we’ve finished in the top 10 in recent years.” Full story online.
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