Netball NZ’s 100^th birthday has been officially marked by Mid Canterbury Netball with a dinner which further recognised some of those who have given huge portions of their lives to our sport.

As part of Netball NZ’s centenary celebrations, special commemorative certificates were created for all Netball NZ life members and service award holders, for each netball centre to present however they wished, and the Mid Canterbury Netball board decided to this with a dinner which all of our Netball NZ service award holders were invited to on Sunday 9 June.

Mid Canterbury Netball has had 13 people recognised with service awards by Netball NZ over the past 50 years, with 11 of those still with us, and seven of them present at Sunday night’s dinner.

The first recipients of Netball NZ service awards from Mid Canterbury were Eileen Hoglund in 1975, and Olive Husband in 1974. Current Mid Canterbury Netball patron Barbara McIntosh received hers in 1990, followed by Audrey Leath and Lorraine Stowell receiving theirs in 1993. It was then the turn of Dianne McTigue, Anne Marie Leech and Sheena Tyrrell (2008), Anne Marrett (2016), Karla Newlands, Barbara Reid and Rosemary Adlam (2017), and Gail Benseman (2018).

Sunday night’s dinner at Noble 600 started nice and early, with the service award holders and the Mid Canterbury Netball staff and board meeting at 4pm to watch the Tactix take on the Magic in the latest round of the ANZ Premiership. The good, strong win by the Tactix - which continued their fine run in 2024 and sees them top of the table after nine games - was followed by Mid Canterbury Netball president Ange Mitchell presenting the service award holders with their certificates, before the group sat down for an enjoyable dinner with a side order of much reminiscing.

Netball NZ turns 100 in 2024, with their birthday officially having been celebrated last month, while Mid Canterbury Netball celebrated its 100^th birthday in 2023 with a centenary weekend in October.

Article added: Monday 10 June 2024