Centennial netball project

Barbara McIntosh’s first involvement with netball was as a pupil of Hampstead School in the late 1940’s. She was chosen to play for a primary age rep team that played at a tournament in Christchurch. Seven decades on she remains an enthusiastic fan of the game and has given countless hours to the sport she loves.

Like her fellow players in the 1940s and early 1950s, Barbara played on grass courts in the Ashburton Domain.

“The domain courts were very sheltered with beautiful maples along the pathway. On sunny days everyone really enjoyed playing there and that was why it was a hard decision to move later,’’ Barbara said.

At times the grass courts did become very muddy.

“I remember falling over and getting very muddy on the grass before asphalt came along.

“A spring ran right through court 3 and the courts sometimes became waterlogged and were very icy in the winter. ‘’

A pavilion, built in 1930, was located near the six courts, and was one spacious room with a kitchen, office, but had no toilets.

Fortnightly meetings were held in the pavilion, with umpires meeting for 30 minutes and then the association afterwards.

“Being winter it was always very dark, and the only lights were in the pavilion, or if a team was practicing on the one court that had flood lights.

“Leaving the meetings in the pitch-dark with torches was essential and we made sure we all left together to go back to our cars.

Back then the game was called basketball and players wore their school gym frocks, Barbara said.

The frocks were good because they kept you warm and thin boots offered some ankle protection.

Barbara usually played as a defender and later as goalie and the playing season ran, as it does now, from Easter to August.

“I was one of the taller ones and later I played in most positions, except centre.’’

She played for the Ashburton Technical School team, and from 1955 for St Stephen’s. In her late teens she played for the Ashburton B team.

“A lot of us in our late 20’s wanted to continue playing and because we were so keen, but didn’t want to worry about reps, we started up what we called the ‘ladies’ teams’.

“We finished with four clubs having teams and by then we all had kids and played Senior A.

“All of our children were at the games, but there were always plenty of baby-sitters to look after them.

Barbara was a delegate to the basketball association for Technical School and later St Stephen’s and became involved in umpiring in her 20’s.

“Clubs were growing and there was a big need for more umpires, so all the senior players were required to be umpires.’’

Barbara was the Ashburton Netball Association president for six years from the mid-1970s and umpired through until the 1990s. Her umpiring duties took her to three NZ Tournaments.

“Back then there was an Ashburton badge, a Canterbury badge and a NZ badge for umpires,’’ she said.

Ashburton was one of a handful of areas chosen to trial new rules when the game was renamed to netball from basketball in 1970.

“We had Annette Orangi here in the district, who was one of the top NZ umpires at that time, and under her guidance we trailed the news rules a year before any

one else,’’ Barbara said.

Under Barbara’s presidency the Ashburton Netball Association built a new pavilion and made the move to the nine netball courts at the newly built Ashburton College in the 1970s.

Jane Taylor was a teacher at Ashburton College and president of the netball association in 1973 when discussions first took place about the possibility of relocating to the site, Barbara said.

“We looked at options to expand the domain site and building a new pavilion there, but that was not possible because of the protected tall trees. We also looked at the United Tennis Club site which had grass courts, but the college site with its existing hard courts was the best option.’’

Ironically, in 1976, about six of the 100-year-old trees at the domain blew down in the big wind.

A hard-working fundraising committee was formed in 1975 and funds were raised from various fundraisers such as sponsor goal days, craft days, cake stalls, potato picking, pickling onions, secondhand clothing sales and a recipe book.

A lease agreement to use the courts was agreed and permission was given to build the pavilion.

Morning games continued to be played in the domain, but afternoon games were played for three years on the college site until the new pavilion was officially opened in September 1978. All netball then shifted to the Ashburton College site.

The two-storey pavilion cost $65,000 and was fully repaid within five years. It was purpose-built and featured a big kitchen, umpires’ room, changing rooms, toilet block, canteen area and first aid room.

“We were building for the future, but we had real trouble getting a loan. The council would not give us any money, but the college was given $10,000 by the Ministry of Education and gave that to the project.

“The rest of the money was raised through hard work, and we were fortunate to get a loan from National Bank manager Barry Hunt, whose wife was a strong netball supporter and joined our committee.’’

A lot of volunteer labour was used on the pavilion project and came mostly from the husbands of committee members and senior players, as well as from the "older ladies" who played, who helped paint the inside, Barbara said.

Collaboration with the college was always very good, especially when the engineering students made three sets of 3-tiered seating for around the courts, with netball supplying the materials, she said.

The college courts were exposed to the southerlies and later Millichamp Nurseries generously donated about 60 trees and shrubs which were planted along the fence line to provide some shelter.

“The pavilion was a real asset, especially with Ashburton being in the central South Island.

“We held two-day South Island tournaments over Queens Birthday weekend for many years, which were very good for the town, and we had 10 to 12 rep squad teams attending most years from the 1980's.

“We even hosted a New Zealand/Australia game in 1982.’’

The pavilion has stood the test of time and is still used by Ashburton College today.

Barbara says she has made so many friends through her association with netball over the years and the netball community has been like a second family.

“Generations of the same family have played and continue to play the game. The children of girls I coached are playing these days, which is great to see.’’

Netball is more physical and more competitive these days, and remains a great game, she said.

Barbara was given life membership of the Ashburton Netball Association in 1989 and is today proud and honoured to be called the association’s patron.

“I have followed in the footsteps to some extent of Olive Husband who was a resolute supporter of the game when I started playing. She was a netballer, coach, president, and patron of the association, and helped to start up netball locally after World War 2.’’

Barbara has plenty of fond memories of her involvement with netball in Ashburton and has several scrapbooks to remind her of some magic moments. She plans to rekindle those memories at the centenary celebrations.