England Netball | England Men’s and Mixed Netball Association on the up with National Championships approaching

At international level, England Thorns – the national men’s netball team – have announced their 2024 squad, a 24-strong group featuring a number of young and emerging players, with an exciting fixture list to look forward to.

Several of the Thorns have also had the opportunity to train with Netball Super League (NSL) clubs, expanding their own game while also providing a unique challenge to push players in the NSL training environment.

Meanwhile, the UK Men’s and Mixed Netball National Championships, which will take place at Loughborough University from 23-25 August, is set for its biggest year yet, with almost 50 teams signed up, including several who have formed over the last 12 months.

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The three-day event is set to showcase not only the best talent from across the UK but also teams from the USA and France, making it a truly international competition.

In 2023, Knights Netball did the double – being crowned champions of both the men’s and mixed tournaments – after a hotly-contested set of fixtures.

With the club counting down the days until they get ready to defend their titles, Future Rose Izzi Phillips went along to a training session to see how their preparations were going and what being involved in netball means to them.

James O’Connor first picked up netball socially to meet people at work and then his involvement grew from there.

I found it was a really good outlet for me to have team sport in my life again.

“I’ve been with Knights a while now; I showed up on the very first trial and it’s been great seeing the club grow. You go through a lot of tough, tough work together; you figure a few things out together and so it’s been a great sort of learning curve.”

And James is now hoping that all the preparation will come to fruition when they step out onto court on Friday.

“So we’ve been training down the courts at least once a week and have had a few games. I’ve been coming back from injury through the course of this year so it’s been a bit of a slower build for me, but there’s been a lot of extra work around the outside doing a reasonable amount of sport every day. I think we’re just slowly ramping up into Nationals and will hopefully peak at the right time.”

Centre / Wing attack Ellie Chambers shares her favourite memory with Knights

Meanwhile, Future Roses Anya Williams and Yomi Wilson visited Spartans Netball Club, who have announced that the most-capped Vitality Rose Jade Clarke has signed up to play for them.

Another familiar face at the club is four-time NSL winner Kerry Almond.

Asked what she’s most looking forward to at Nationals, she said: “Just getting out there and playing! We’ve got such a good squad and I’m just really looking forward to seeing how they get on together, gelling together and seeing how it all goes.

I think coming up against some of the teams [is going to be exciting] – we’ve got Surrey Hurricanes in our group who have got Proscovia Peace-Nwokocha so that’ll be a battle again.

“Then there are Super League players across the teams so it’s going to be fun!”

With a jam-packed three days ahead, here are all the ways that you can keep up to date with the EMMNA National Championships:

The EMMNA League also continues to expand. “The league ran last year, but this year it’s much bigger,” says Daveena Saranna, EMMNA social media coordinator. “They’ve split off into different divisions, so you’ve got North and South, men’s and mixed – more teams, more competition, and the standard has improved massively since last year.”

At university level, a highly competitive BUCS University Men’s Netball Cup was held at the University of Loughborough and served as trials for the Trailblazers, EMMNA’s pathway squad for young players – while Leeds played host to a youth workshop, which had visits from two of the Leeds Rhinos NSL squad, encouraging more boys to get involved in netball.

“It’s an opportunity for boys to come along and see what netball is like in a boys’ only environment,” adds Daveena. “A lot of the feedback we’ve had from boys who want to be involved in netball at school is that they hold back because it’s a mixed thing. It’s also a chance to grow the sport and show what performance sport can look like.”

If you want more information on men’s or mixed netball and find out where to play in England visit EMMNA’s website or find a session or club through EMMNA’s local club finder.