Hi Nelson Netball Community,

Yesterday we received advice from Netball New Zealand that they are immediately postponing all netball activity until at least Saturday 2 May 2020.

For the safety of our members, volunteers, and staff, all Nelson Netball Centre activity that is scheduled to take place in March and April is cancelled, including:

• Twilight Netball
• Walking Netball
• Holiday programme (21/22/23 April)
• The opening of the 2020 season
• Player development programmes
• Geraldine Hodgson Tournament
• U14, U15 & U16 Representative Team trials
• Challenge games

In addition, umpires, officials, players and committee meetings are discouraged unless essential. Conduct meetings online wherever practicable. If meetings are required, please follow current Ministry of Health recommendations around safe practises: Ministry of Health Link

Clubs and schools

If teams wish to prepare for the season or for a competition after 2 May, Netball NZ is advising that you should only start training from four weeks prior to the competition, or from the 4th of April for the netball season. This guidance may change in the coming weeks.

Fluid situation

This is a difficult time for all and the most important thing we can do to care for each other is to follow the Ministry of Health guidelines and be flexible and aware of the changing situation. We know the netball whānau are terrific at supporting each other. Nelson Netball Centre, through Netball NZ, are liaising with government officials and monitoring developments. The situation remains extremely fluid and we are in an environment that may require fast changes. We will continue to provide updates to you by email and Facebook and post them on our website when there is news to share.

What’s next

We appreciate some members have paid funds in advance. The Nelson Netball Board meets next week and will work through a process for these payments. We will notify everyone about the process by email and contact groups directly about next steps.

The dates set by NNZ for the start of the netball season affect the start of the Premier season. The Board will also discuss how to deal with this issue and report back. For now, where possible, please continue to register your teams into Sporty as normal.

What to do if you have questions

Netball New Zealand are taking the lead on netball in all communities across New Zealand. As they are the lead with media and announcements, you may not hear about news from us first and we may not have answers to some of your queries.

For this reason, it would be best if you refrained from contacting Nelson Netball staff at this time so that they can handle the work that needs to be done to meet the current requirements, including the process for overpayments. We will share all of the information we have as soon as we know it, including decisions made by the Nelson Netball Board (that will be based on NNZ recommendations).

We appreciate your understanding and we look forward to seeing you back on court as soon as it is safe to do so.

Gary Cox

Nelson Netball Board Chair