New flavour to twilight sport season

New flavour to twilight sport season

This summer sport season there is a new player in town, with the introduction of a brand new grass court netball competition which is set to rock Auckland.

From January 23 through to March 29, ‘MesoBall’ will be staged across three venues at Otahuhu’s Bert Henham Park, Jack Colvin Park in Te Atatu and Fowlds Park in Mt Albert.

The game itself is simple and suitable for all ages and abilities, with teams of seven playing 30 minute games, split into 15 minute halves, with adapted netball rules.

MesoBall competition director Troy Hardy said the sport would service a gap in the market and offer a summer alternative for some of the nearly 50,000 registered netball players in Auckland.

“Having been heavily involved in my daughter’s netball journey for several years now, I noticed there was a real lack of summer options available for the sport,” Hardy said.

“In MesoBall people have a game which is easy to understand, involves all of the chore skills of netball and is played in a social and fun environment.

"For existing netball players it is a great sport to maintain fitness and skill levels over the off-season, while for others it's a great way to have some social fun with friends and family over the summer."

Each tournament will have divisions for women and mixed teams, with squads able to contain up to 12 players.

While the concept will be a brand new one to the New Zealand market, MesoBall is believed to be one of the oldest sports in world, with roots stretching back to 1400BC.

ENDS

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