Welcome to the Cashmere Netball Club!

If your new to the Club, here you will find some useful information to assist you during your netball season with us. Including details on the competitions on offer, how to become part of a team, what to expect throughout the season and key events we hold. The 2024 season will be a little different as Christchurch Netball embraces a new era moving into the newall weather indoor facility located at Nga Puna Wai. So some things about this season will be different to prior years. As a Club we are really excited to give our players the opportunity to play indoors in a world class facility. We will update this page as the new processes and procedures unfold over the next few months of planning for 2024, however if you do have any further questions do not hesitate to email the comittee at [email protected]

Timelines -

February - Registration opens until approx. mid-March; Club merchandise orders open

March - Team allocations are worked through including trials for some grades; coaches allocated

April - Uniform issue ; Trainings start (where applicable); Merchandise orders close.

May - Season starts ; Full player subscriptions due 31/5 at latest if on a payment plan; Team photo fundraiser happens

June / July - Club Day fundraiser ; Jellybean Tournament tbc (Year 5-8 run by CNC not the Club)

August - Season finals (where applicable); Return uniforms; Rainbow Tournament tbc (Year 3-8 run by CNC not the Club) ; Prizegiving Celebration

December - AGM of the Cashmere Netball Club Inc is held

Registration -

In early February we will advertise on our Facebook page and website when our registration is open for the new season ahead. It's an online form you need to complete via our website, providing us with as much detail as possible in the fields provided to assist with team allocations. We have around 220 players register each year, so it takes a bit of time to work through all the teams and allocate players to an appropriate team (including trials for Year 7 and older). What is really critical for us, if after registration your circumstances change and your player is withdrawing, please email us at [email protected] to let us know. Otherwise all registrants will be placed into a team, and late withdrawals are quite disruptive to team allocations.

We close registrations off in March once we start putting teams together. If you have missed out, please email us as team placement may still be possible (if we have space or people withdraw late), but we need to manage this on a case by case basis.

Fees -

In February we set our fees for the season once we know how much the team entry fees CNC charge us are. We update our website with this information and add the fees onto our online registration form. When registering you can pay online as part of that process using several electronic payment methods, we also welcome payment plans if you need to spread the cost over several months. Please see our seperate website tab for more details on paying fees. Its important to note the full amount of your fees must be paid by 31 May each year if your on a payment plan. This is when we have to pay CNC for team entry, so it's critical that Club has received all subscriptions from players at this time. All other fees are due prior to collecting a uniform.

Our fees are used to pay for - competition team entry fees ; uniforms ; equipment ; prizegiving.

Uniforms -

The Club provides all uniforms to the players for the season, and these are issued in April before the season starts at our 'Uniform Issue Day'. This is normally held at The Cashmere Club, on a Sunday afternoon, and it's the ONLY time you can individually collect a uniform for your player. We send out communications well ahead of time on our Facebook page (please join - even if you are not a frequent Facebook user), coaches will remind you, and emails will be sent from our Club registration database to your registration email address (make sure to add our email to your contacts/trusted sender list).

A $20 CASH bond is paid when the uniform is collected, and this is repaid to you in cash when the uniform is returned at end of the season in the same condition. We manage the uniform return process via your coach/manager who collect the uniforms for their entire team at end of season and they return them to the Club alongside their gearbags.

We have a wide variety of uniform sizes to suit all players, but it is important your player can come to uniform issue day and try sizes on to ensure they are comfortable for the season. All leftover uniforms go back into storage after that day, and it becomes a challenge for our volunteers to have to collect another uniform later on.

At end of season, please ensure you adequately wash, remove any stains, and fully dry the uniform before returning to the coaches. If there are any repairs required to the uniform (ie restitching on velcro) and you are happy to attend to those we would hugely appreciate that, otherwise somehow let us know what repairs are required so we can attend to those in the off-season. Self-responsibility is hugely appreciated, the uniforms are expensive for the Club to purchase.

Communications -

Once your player has been allocated into a team, we provide their coach with your contact details (email and phone) so they can get in touch with their own team players directly. Please ensure when registering that you only put the parental guardians contact information on the form (age relevant). Once teams are allocated, all communications specific to your team will come directly from your coach &/or team manager. You will continue to hear from the Club around general matters ie events, fundraising, reminders via email. Your coach may choose to use different communication methods for the team through the year (messenger/text/heja/whatsapp), we ask you support them with whatever method that is - as they are having to communicate with up to 10 families and playing a critical role here for the season.

Juniors - Year 3 to Year 6

Our Club has between 10-15 teams in this age group each year, so if your child is new to netball, has some experience or is very experienced we will have a suitable team for them. Please see our Future Ferns info menu above for more detailed information on the structure of how it all works, ie the competition, days they play, and training.

Please note some important aspects before heading across to the other page:

• There are no trials for this age group at all. Future Ferns is about fun and skill development, players will rotate across all positions, throughout the season. Netball NZ require that player rotation is prioritised through to Year 8
• On the registration form we ask for an honest opinion on your players ability, this is to assist in team allocations. To ensure everyone has fun playing netball, its important we are able to group similarly skilled players together. Coaching a team with a huge variation in skill level is very unproductive for all involved, so an honest player assessment is our ask of you.
• On the registration form we ask for you to list a couple of friends who your player may want to be in a team with. They must be the same school year level for this to be considered, and we will try our very best to meet everyones requests where possible (its not guaranteed). We have to be careful around team balance.
• Once we start putting teams together in March for the season its important you are committed for the duration of the season (ie right through to mid-August).
• Coaches are volunteers and so the teams timetable of training (where applicable) is centred on the coaches availability primarily, so until coaches are allocated we don't know what day training will be
• The game days and times and fixed by Christchurch Netball, so you need to be sure of your availability.
• If you are able to provide support for the team in any way, coaching, managing, assist with fundraising - please let us know via your registration form as we need alot of support to run things through the year.

Juniors Year 7 - Year 8

Our Club has around 8-10 teams in this age group each year and we run trials for this age group. Attending trials is optional, so if your player would prefer to be allocated into a team without going through the trial process that is absolutely fine. They are slotted into a relevant team once the trial process is complete, using information on the registration form.

Please be aware as parents that player rotation of court positions is a requirement of Netball NZ at this age, and our coaches are strongly encouraged to abide by these guidelines through the season. We ask you support your players development, by supporting this guideline through the season.

Under 14 to Seniors -

Traditionally we have had just one or two teams in the Under 14 to Under 19 age groups, and continue to welcome any players who wish to join the Club. Our Club has a proud history of providing great supportive coaches to ensure your netball continues to develop whilst also having a great time. If you are interested in joining the Club please register, however if you are also trialling for a High School team just let us know on the registration form so we can plan and communicate accordingly. We tend to provide experienced adult coaches for this age group, to ensure players continue with their development.

Our Club has two Senior teams in the Open League competition, one is a social team and the other a competitive team seeded in Section 2. We don't currently have any teams seeded for higher level grades at this time. Our social team has historically not had a dedicated coach (instead a player/coach), our competitive team is coached, and both teams have a training night. 

The Club welcomes any pre-made senior teams who don't require us to find a coach to get in touch and discuss the possibility of registering as a Cashmere team in the CNC competition.

Team placement (if NOT attending trials)-

Will be assessed based on previous playing ability (if played for the Club in prior years), information provided by you on the registration form (ability, friends, school), and anything else the independant Selectors feel is relevant. 

Trial process -

The Club appoints independant selectors each year who volunteer hours and hours of their time to undertake this for us. Our selectors are suitably experienced netball players/coaches and they will assess all players on the following aspects - fitness; positional play; team play; awareness; team support; attitude.

The players will be given opportunity to take the court in several positions, across two trial dates. The selectors will allocate all players who trialled and those who chose not to trial into teams, they will email the Club their selection decisions, the Club will cross check team allocations to information provided on the registration forms by guardians (friends, schools, experience levels) and team announcements will then be finalised.

We have a formal process in place should a player feel their team allocation is not appropriate for any reason. The selection review form is located under our Policies menu, and must be submitted within 1 week of team announcements. We ask that other than undergoing this formal review process, all selector decisions are supported to ensure the culture of the team starts off on a positive note. We thank our selectors for undertaking this process, it is thorough, very time consuming & more complex than most parents realise.

Game times -

With 2024 season being the first using the new indoor facility at Nga Puna Wai, each grade may have a different game day compared to past years when all teams played on a Saturday (or a Friday night for Year 3-4).  Please see our seperate menu above under Draws & Season Dates for the season dates, and we will continue to communicate and provide information when we know which day of the week your age grade is likely to be playing. We understand that mid-week afternoon games are likely to start from 4.15pm.

Some grades will have the option of playing on a Saturday, we will need to work through this as part of the registration process, because that will be dependant on other players availability, but most critically coaches availability for mid-week games.

Team Photos -

In May the Club arranges for a photographer to take formal team photos which are then available for purchase. The cost of the photos is around $25 and payment is made directly with the photographer on the day via eftpos. We hold the photo session at The Cashmere Club, and its usually a Sunday afternoon/early evening.

Club Day -

Held in June/July each year this is a celebration weekend for our Club and one of our main fundraising events for the year. There are events on game day and then the Sunday afternoon of that week (at Cashmere Club). In the lead up to Club Day we will be asking our players to sell raffle tickets to anyone they can to go into the draw for an array of awesome prizes our Committee collate from local businesses (if you are able to assist with donation of any prizes please get in touch). We also ask each team to provide a few mystery bottle prizes ($5-$10 of value) which are wrapped and raffled off at Club night (its a bit like the old 'lucky dip' at the fair), the bottles could contain anything from lollies to stickers to hair ties and chocolates.

Club Day Support 

Traditionally each of our teams playing will be supported on the sideline by another Cashmere team who will cheer them on, and will also pick a player of the day. 

Each of our teams will be given some choclates and a certificate to present to their opposition, as a thank you for a great game. The umpires will also be provided with some chocolates.

Sunday Club Night 

We will hold an event at The Cashmere Club where we will be celebrating each of the Cashmere teams player of the day for that week.

The draw for our raffle prizes will take place.

The draw for our mystery bottle prizes will take place.

Some drink and nibbles will be provided for the players.

Prizegiving - 

Once most of the final games are over for the season, we celebrate our teams and players achievements with prizegiving. Cashmere does this pretty well, usually held at the Cashmere Club, the players sit with their team mates while we go through the awards for each team (player of the year and coaches choice). We provide a light snack and drinks for the players, and adults can order & pay for their own food and drink from the bar. Once the formalities are over, we have have a photo booth set up, and Mr Whippy comes for some free icecreams for the players. Usually we hold this on a Sunday afternoon, and it takes 2-3hrs in total. For the most part, that concludes our season!