The project was developed by the Netball Development Officer who worked in partnership with Bedford Borough Council and the Netball CSC and was funded with £300 (which covered the cost of the project’s delivery) by England Netball. (Participants were also asked to pay £1.50 per week.) It was advertised for two weeks in the local paper (funded by Bedford Borough Council) and on the team BEDS&LUTON website and started with an evening of coaching and games.

43 women aged between 17 and 55 years attended the evening. Some had not played netball for a couple of years, others, not for 20 years, and there was a mixture of anxiety and excitement amongst the group, but the event went really well with lots of laughter and quite a bit of competitive spirit when games were played.  

The evening was followed by four coaching sessions with an average of 32 people attending each week. The coaching sessions have now finished but from this initiative a team has been entered into the Bedford and District Netball League, calling themselves 'Priory Storm', as they managed to secure sponsorship form Priory Marina in Bedford.

For the ladies who did not want to commit to playing in a League, three more coaching sessions were arranged, to which teams from the League’s 4th division have also been invited, and are benefiting equally from some extra coaching and friendly practice matches. These sessions will be repeated again in the off season.

The Back to Netball event has been a great success and was enjoyed by all involved. It was great to see the enthusiasm of these ladies and share the fun they had playing netball! team BEDS&LUTON have since been approached by Badminton England, the Bedfordshire Football Association, England Golf and England Hockey who are all keen to run similar initiatives in their sports, and the delivery team at the CSP are excited about moving forward with this area of work.

* The initial session held was 2.5 hours long, this was considered to be too long and following sessions ran for 1.5 hours instead.

* The women who opted to take part in the League following the sessions tended to be in their 20's to 30's, had played netball since school apart from breaks for university, to have children etc and were looking to get back into the sport.

* The more mature women were happier to take part in less regular sessions where they could enjoy the activities without the competition element.

* The mixed abilities of the group worked well to a degree, however as the group seperated more into their different ability levels, the less experienced and less able lost some interest, perhaps through feeling a little embarrassment?

* It was considered that for future events it may be advisable to run 2 sessions; one for people who have only had a short break from the sport (perhaps a few years) and another for those who may not have participated for much longer and who could be classed as novices.