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It’s far from the national pasttime. But netball, an English-born sport played by 20 million people worldwide, is gaining a foothold in New York.
The Manhattan International Netball Club, which practices in a Chelsea gym, recently played in a national tournament in Flatbush, Brooklyn.
The team members are largely expatriates from England and some of the 70 other countries where netball is played. While women have historically played the non-contact sport, that is changing. The Bronx has its own men’s team.
Bizarro Basketball
To the uninitiated, netball looks like bizarro basketball meets Ultimate Frisbee.
The court is slightly larger than a basketball court, and there are baskets but no backboards. Players can’t dribble, either – it’s a passers’ game. And while each position is zoned, players shadow their counterparts up and down the court. A defender must leave three feet of space once an opposing team member catches a pass.
Netball has long been a mainstay of the Commonwealth Games, and there’s a push to make it an Olympic event.
Locally, Matthias Wilkie, president of the USA Netball Association, hopes to expand the game beyond the expatriate community, by bringing it to schools.
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