Don't mess with the netballers!

I love reading and writing about decorating and thrifting finds and crafty ideas, but sports don't get touched on much. Until now.

Like most girls I played netball as a girl but it wasn't until I moved here that I picked it up again, as a way to get exercise and meet new people. It started as a vague interest, one that I'd reluctantly drag myself to at times, but this year something started to change.

I don't know if it was volunteering to coach my girls' netball team (the Elmos) and watching them transform from a mismatched bunch of girls, including two who'd never played before, to a team that were slowly but surely improving out of sight...not only winning but thrashing the opposition.

From there I found myself watching netball on the TV, practising for my social games (my own team isn't very good so we just make it fun) and then coaching a school team for a Queensland competition. I read books, trawled the internet for training activities and got together the cutest uniform any team had. (No ugly netball skirts for us.) I even started umpiring and that can be pretty daunting.

Well, today was the girls' quarter finals. They'd hauled their way to the top of the list and were playing their arch rivals, The Black Cats, who they'd beaten lately but were always a bit tough. We'd had a few upsets to start the game. Two of our players were sick, another only turned up at the last minute and in the first 5 mins of the game, our centre injured herself leaving us without a full team. You know when you have that sort of stress, it can be hard to pull yourself together.

Well, to cut a long story short, the game was neck to neck the whole way. They'd lead, then we'd catch up, then we'd pull ahead slightly. By the last quarter we were trailing by one but scored goal after goal after goal while they didn't get many at all. It was clear we were winning. So the final hooter goes and imagine our surprise when the other team starts cheering and yelling out "We won." I went over and checked the scoreboard (it was our quarter to score) and on it we won 20-19. I showed the board to the other team and said very awkwardly, "Uh, we actually won."

They were outraged. According to them, they'd being keeping score on a notebook and they 'apparently' beat us 22-17. Not a chance. I know it was neck to neck, and it could have been a little confusing and could have been out 1or 2, but them trying to convince us that they beat us by 5 was just ridiculous. And you could tell that they thought we were trying to cheat. I felt really insulted.

Ooh, there was muttering under the breath and dagger looks. I explained the problem to the netball conveners and they said that they go by the official scoreboard, which said we won (even though the other team wrote "their" scores on it before handing it back).

The animosity was thick in the air, and if looks could kill, we'd all be dead. I can't handle that sort of stuff very well, so I've just been trying to tell myself that they can hate me all they want and that's their problem. I know we didn't cheat, and we are at the top of the list which goes to show that we can play.

We'll be playing them again for the finals which will be a killer with both teams trying to prove that they are the better team. I just don't know why some parents have to be like that. (It reflects in the kids because most of them are the sort of players that will yell out critisism rather than encouragement "Why'd you have to drop the ball" whereas, even though we're competitive and like to win, I try to promote good sportsmanship and teamwork.)

Wish us luck!