England Netball’s response to Sally Peck's Article in the Daily Telegraph
England Netball’s response to Sally Peck
The netball world was collectively outraged last week by Sally Peck’s article [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/mother-tongue/10851468/Obesity-crisis-H... on the Telegraph website. The title, which states that “netball is making your daughter fat” is irresponsible and untrue.
England Netball has 90,150 affiliated members, 37,860 of those are school children. That is a huge number of girls who not only play netball at school, but also enjoy it so much that they have joined a club – far from hating the sport as Peck claimed.
Netball is the fastest-growing female sport in the country, with a vibrant, active and intelligent membership base – our continual growth proves how much enjoyment women across the country get from playing netball.
We would have to agree with the point that Peck was attempting to make – P.E in schools does need modernising and girls should be offered more variety than just the traditional sports. But to frame her point in a poorly researched attack on netball only serves undermine Peck’s argument.
We are particularly proud of our Back to Netball scheme. We have had 12,208 Back to Netball participants in the past year, and the scheme won the National Lottery Best Sports Project Award in 2012. The fact that so many women played netball at school has given them something incredibly positive to bond over.
England Netball recently won the prestigious BT Sports Industry Award for National Governing Body of the Year, something that Peck has failed to acknowledge despite the fact that the award itself was actually sponsored by The Telegraph. This oversight is indicative of the inadequate research throughout the article. I implore Peck to come to a training session or game in future, as seeing a game live may help to enlighten her on the true nature of the sport.
We are currently third in the world in the IFNA world rankings – there are not that many sports that we, as a nation, can claim to be brilliant at – but netball is one of them. We are proud that we have an all-female squad who are consistently winning trophies for our country and feel that Sally Peck should recognise this.
We are thrilled that everyone has rallied behind us in response to Sally Peck, and the support on social media has been truly fantastic. It is now time to look ahead to the Commonwealth Games where we will show the world once again that netball is incredibly dynamic, athletic and a thrilling spectator sport.
Show your support for netball and get involved in the Big ZEO Summer Of Netball – there’s something for everyone, no matter how you want to play! Make sure you read your next Netball magazine for all the details.
Paul Clark, England Netball CEO