Netball

[slackster]

Anybody else keeping an eye on the Netball World Cup in RSA? It’s one of the few sports Mrs Slacks will happily watch, and I can enjoy it too when it’s not one-sided.

The expected semi-finals line up of Aus, Jamaica, NZ and England are tomorrow, and the remaining lower place order playoffs (including Wales v Scotland for 9th/10th) conclude. Some of the final matches on the BBC iplayer, I think.

England beat Oz by a point in their final group game, whilst Jamaica won by 11 v NZ, and should push Aus hard in the semis.

[Janik]

The final is in its final quarter, and based on the score (46-36 to Australia) a repeat of England’s pool win is highly unlikely.

[Jon]

Yes, it's a really good watch on TV but I only watch the bigger games. Saw most of the England semi-final against new Zealand on Saturday morning. A great win and I was going to watch the final. However, I only found out last night that the final was on Sunday and England had already lost. What a ridiculous turnaround in a world cup. From semi-final to final is just over a day.

[slackster]

The schedule for the competition did seem remarkably condensed. The final 4 all played 8 games in 10 days. But I suppose the rolling substitutions and (probably) playing the squad fillers more against the weaker teams made it do-able for the top sides.

Sounds like the Aussies had a harder semi v Jamaica than final v England, but now they have both the Commonwealth and World titles back in the trophy cabinet, after being pipped for both previous events.

As it happens, I only ended up watching a bit of one of the weekend games live: the all important thumping of Scotland by Wales to decide the crucial 9th/10th place.

[Janik]

That will be the typical length of the competition, I suspect. Otherwise it is too long for the amateur teams (which is most of them) to attend.

[Ray de Galles]

Yeah, I'm one of the big Netball advocates on here but found this World Cup frustratingly hard to keep up with, doubly so as it's Wales first ever.

[tee rex]

The concern for New Zealand is not that the defending champions lost (that was widely expected) but that it was barely noticed. Netball has long been *the* women's sport in NZ, but the football has crowded it out. Of course hosting is only a one-off, but still.