The Swan netball club has been nominated for an award.

A netball club in the district, the SWAN netball club has been nominated for an award.

The club, which trains in Saffron Walden, Newport, Stansted and Bishop’s Stortford, has been shortlisted for the Netball East GGA 2020 Outstanding Club Awards.

It is one of just six clubs chosen from the region. The award is for clubs who have made an outstanding contribution to netball within their community.

Paula Evans, chairman of SWAN said: “We are delighted. All year round, coaches, volunteers, and players work hard to provide netball for junior and senior players, Back2Netball and Walking netball.

“This year, we’ve also run Inclusion netball and we are one of a handful of clubs across the country who have been selected by England Netball to run the Bee Netball programme to develop our youngest players.”

The honour for the club comes in the same week that England Netball has said that netball training can start again after being stopped during the lockdown.

The training will be at outdoor venues onlyfor the time being. Safety measures will be in place to ensure two-metre distancing with groups of no more than five players with a coach and no ball passing. It will focus purely on strength and conditioning, tactical play and drills.

SWAN Coach Julia Kay said: “We are excited that we will soon be able to move from our weekly Zoom training sessions and back on to the courts. We are working with our venues and trialling some sessions before we go ahead to ensure that everything is in place for a safe return. It will be a different kind of training from what we are used to but coaches and players are looking forward to seeing each other again.”

SWAN netball has more than 250 registered players of an age range from under8s to under16s. Teams include seniors, Back2Netball, Walking Netball, and Bee Netball.

The club plays matches in Bishop’s Stortford, Chelmsford and Cambridge.

For more details, contact: info@swannetball.co.uk