The Forbes Netball Association have enjoyed a great week, securing a timeframe for their courts upgrades as well as making the finals of the Orange State League event.
Resurfacing of four courts at the FNA’s base at Stephan Field will begin on Monday April 4, after Forbes Shire Council resolved to asphalt overlay and line marking remedial works at its February meeting. The works will be done during the April school holidays, when no netball will take place, and will be completed in time for the Forbes Netball Carnival on May 1.
The four courts to be re-sealed have been unplayable in recent times, according to FNA representative coach Robyn Kenny, and she said the upgrades will vastly improved conditions for netball.
“We had a very positive meeting with Council on March 15 and I’m happy to say that our courts will be re-sealed in the April school holidays,” she said.
“We were originally going to look at getting all of our courts re-sealed, but five of the courts still have a good coating on top so we thought we would leave them and just upgrade the other four.”
“As well as resealing those courts, all of our courts will also be widened, so we will have more space as well.” “It’ll be great having our new courts ready to go for our competition after the holidays, as well as our carnival at the start of May.”
Last year Forbes Shire Council also funded an upgrade to the Association’s administration building at Stephan Field, while the new amenities block there was completed last week.
Meanwhile, the FNA division two open team finished fourth in the Orange State League competition, qualifying for an elimination final meeting with Bathurst on 3 April.
After defeating Cobar and Cowra, and losing to Bathurst by only five goals in round one a fortnight ago, they lost both matches by comfortable margins to Orange and Dubbo in round two last week. Kenny said she was still impressed with her girls’ effort, but conceded the Orange and Dubbo teams were too strong for them on the day.
“The girls tried very hard with limited training throughout the week, so I am happy with the effort they put in,” she said. “Orange and Dubbo were just too fast, fit and strong for us I think.”
Their finals opponent Bathurst are undefeated, and finished first in the competition. Dubbo and Orange finished second and third respectively.
Kenny said her players were confident of pushing Bathurst right to the finish line after leading them at three quarter time in their last encounter.
“We’ll be trying our best out there. We had too many turnovers last week but if we can play how we did in the first week and hold on to the ball we’ll play much better,” she said.