netball

Etymology

between Orkney and Shetland.]] From net + ball.

noun

1. (uncountable) A (usually women's) team sport derived from basketball, with seven players on each side who attempt to score goals by passing a ball and throwing it into the opponent's goal, which is a raised hoop with a net at one end of the playing area. Unlike basketball, a player in possession of the ball cannot move until the ball is passed to another player.
   Some excellent photographs are taken of … members of the athletic club, "net-ball," "foot-ball," etc., … 15 January 1913, “Personal and Official”, in C. W. Hastings, editor, The Gas Engineer’s Magazine and Gas Industries, volume XXIX, number 441, London: J. G. Hammond & Co., →OCLC, page 13, column 2
   The next events were ones in which selected members of squads participated while the other members watched and cheered. These were net ball, hockey, tennis, and swimming, and followed in the order given. 1928 February, “News Notes. A Successful College Play Day.”, in James Huff McCurdy, editor, American Physical Education Review, volume XXXIII, number 2 (number 234 overall), Springfield, Mass.: American Physical Education Association, →OCLC, page 124, column 2
   In addition to the above prominent clubs, there are a number of cricket, tennis, net-ball, and football clubs in the Colony. 1946–1947, “[Windward Islands.] St. Lucia.”, in The West Indies Year Book:[…], London: Thomas Skinner & Co., →OCLC, page 389, column 2
   Outcome goals are related directly to end results – e.g. a netball player wants to score more goals / Performance goals are measured against past performance, e.g. a netball player wants to score more goals than in the previous match. 1999, Michael Hill, “Training Methods”, in PE for You: Teacher Resource Pack, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire: Stanley Thornes Publishers, part 3 (Health, Safety and Training), page 83, column 2
   [W]hen I asked each person to nominate the best thing about netball, the overwhelming response was the friendships they had made. Netball friendships have carried people through form slumps, heartbreaking losses and personal tragedies, and it is these friendships that make the wins and the highs so much sweeter. 2005, Liz Ellis, “A Few Words from Liz”, in Netball Heroes, Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, page 1
   Another key skill in netball is the art of dodging; a quick, decisive change of direction to out-manoeuvre or wrong-foot a defender and be free to receive a pass or create a space to move into. 2010, Anna Sheryn, Chris Sheryn, “Movement and Footwork”, in 101 Youth Netball Drills: Age 12 to 16, 2nd edition, London: A & C Black, published 2012, page 35
   It may be that this situation arose because of differential investment or more competent coaching in girls' as opposed to boys' sports in that school, but it is even more likely that it arose because of the composition, coaching, commitment, and so on of all other net ball teams in their league on the one hand, and all other soccer teams in their league on the other. 2012, Roger Gomm, “Qualitative Causal Analysis and the Fallacies of Composition and Division: The Example of Ethnic Inequalities in Educational Achievement”, in Barry Cooper, Judith Glaesser, Roger Gomm, Martyn Hammersley, Challenging the Qualitative–Quantitative Divide: Explorations in Case-focused Causal Analysis, London, New York, N.Y.: Continuum International Publishing Group, part I (Problems with Quantitative and Qualitative Research), page 119
   [A]round half the boys were of the view that roles in netball were suitable for both genders while one-third of boys indicated that all roles in netball were for girls only, with the exception of the warm-up coach. Girls were mostly of the view that only the equipment manager was more suitable for boys in netball. 2012, Gary D. Kinchin, “Learning Sport Education through Reflective Inquiry: Four Case Studies”, in Peter Hastie, editor, Sport Education: International Perspectives (Routledge Studies in Physical Education and Youth Sport), Abingdon, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, page 171
2. (countable) The ball used in this sport.
   Over the years he had stitched Dr. Bailey's black bag, Paul's pram hood, the net balls at the village school, and saddles and bridles for Joan and Ruth when they were small, and kept in trim the footwear that passed and repassed his window as the various owners went about their business on Thrush Green. 1959, “Miss Read” [pseudonym; Dora Jessie Saint], “Sam Curdle is Tempted”, in Thrush Green, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Company[…], published 1960, →OCLC, part 2 (Afternoon), page 122
   'If we could find our netball, you could borrow it,' she said softly. / 'A netball!' he said in disgust. 'A netball is no use. It is not heavy enough. But I would borrow it,' he added quickly. 'It would be better than no ball at all.' 1992, Eileen Molver, chapter 1, in Rod Nesbitt, editor, Lindiwi Finds a Way, Oxford, Oxfordshire, Gaborone, Botswana: Heinemann Educational Publishers, page 2
   I've never been hit before in my life, except by a netball in PE once, so it takes me a while to realize that my head hasn't just rocketed off the top of my spine but is in fact still attached to the rest of me and that the ringing noise is just the repercussion of the blow sounding in my ears and not an orchestral score blasting from the stereo. 2013, Sarah Alderson, The Sound, New York, N.Y.: Simon Pulse, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division, published May 2015, page 273
   In the MYSA program, organizers made an arrangement with local authorities to provide the young people with access to soccer balls, net balls, and playing fields. 2013, Roy McMurtry, “Sport as a Development Tool in the Commonwealth”, in Memoirs and Reflections, Toronto, Ont., Buffalo, N.Y.: University of Toronto Press for the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, part 4 (At the Court of St James and Home Again), page 438