How to start a netball club in England

1. How netball membership works

This is the thing that surprises people from other sports. England Netball membership is individual, not club. The club does not affiliate its members; each adult, or each parent, buys England Netball plus regional plus county membership on ENgage and links it to your club. A 2025/26 adult in Kent paid about £47 (£43.30 EN, £1 region, £4 county); under-18 about £19, under-14 £10, under-11 £7. The year runs 1 September to 31 August and the renewal window for 2026/27 is 25 July to 30 September. It includes personal-accident and public-liability cover.

What the club does: registers itself on ENgage, gets a club ID, and puts the join link and the club ID on its website so members can find it. Then it enters leagues, and leagues check every player is a member.

2. The court

Court hire is the largest running cost and a fixed weekly slot dictates your training night. Outdoor courts at schools and leisure centres run about £20 to £26 an hour. Book a full season in one go; a slot that is yours every Tuesday is worth more than a cheaper slot that moves. Winter leagues need floodlights or an indoor hall.

3. An umpire for every team

In most leagues each team supplies its own affiliated umpire or loses points. National Premier League home teams must supply two B-award umpires and a scorer or concede 30-0. This is the rule that catches new clubs.

The award ladder is Into Officiating (from 13), then C (county), B (regional, with a fitness test) and A. Get two people through Into Officiating and C in your first season, and pay them: £15 to £22.50 a match is the going rate depending on award. An Umpiring Secretary is a real committee role in netball for this reason.

4. Juniors: Bee Netball and school years

Ages 5 to 11 play Bee Netball, England Netball’s replacement for High 5, in three stages: Buzzers (Years 1–2), Fliers (Years 3–4) and Stingers (Years 5–6), delivered as festivals booked on Playwaze. From U11 to U16 teams are by school year (U12 is Year 7) with age taken at 23:59 on 31 August. A player may play her own band plus one above; from Year 9, any band including senior. Higher play-up needs an England Netball age-banding form.

County junior leagues run U11 to U16 on Sundays from September to May. Regional U14 and U16 leagues are reached through June qualifying tournaments.

5. Adults: three ways in

• Back to Netball: a ten-week course for women returning to the game. Over 150,000 have taken part. Run one and half of the graduates will join your club.
• Walking Netball: 40,000 women in more than 200 programmes. A daytime session in a sports hall fills itself.
• Netball Now: England Netball’s pay-and-play sessions, good for finding players before you have a team.

Men’s and mixed netball sits with EMMNA, in partnership with England Netball, about twenty clubs.

6. Leagues and the 5-3-2-1-0 table

Below the Netball Super League (a closed franchise league of eight) and the National Premier League 1–3, the grassroots layer is regional leagues run by the regional associations, fed by county leagues, with local and summer leagues underneath. Winter leagues run September or October to March or April with play-offs in May; summer leagues run May to August, usually without promotion or relegation. Entry is per team: a county winter league can be £600 a team; a summer league £80.

League points are unusual: 5 for a win, 3 for a draw, 2 for a loss within five goals, 1 for a loss with more than half the winner’s score, 0 otherwise. Tables carry goals for, goals against and goal average. Senior matches are four fifteen-minute quarters; scores run 25 to 65 a side.

7. Safeguarding and CAPS

A named Welfare Officer, a safeguarding policy submitted to the leagues you enter, and enhanced DBS checks every three years. From 1 September 2026 every coach and volunteer needs a DBS check regardless of supervision. CAPS accreditation (Bronze, Silver, Gold, aligned to Clubmark) is the mark leagues and funders look for, with re-accreditation grants of £100 to £200. Template: safeguarding policy template.

8. Money

Netball club finances are small and per-match: subs of £5 to £7 a match or an annual sub plus match fees, league registration of £20 adult and £15 junior, court hire, umpire pay, kit and bibs. Sport England’s Movement Fund goes to £15,000, Crowdfunder match funding to £10,000, and England Netball grants come via the county.

9. The year

September: membership year and leagues start. October: league AGMs, regional U14 starts. March: NPL ends. May: regional play-offs, summer leagues, mid-season transfers. June: U14/U16 qualifying tournaments, winter-league entry deadlines. Late July: ENgage renewals open. August: league entry fees due.

10. Your first season, in order

1. Constitution, committee, bank account, Welfare Officer.
2. Court booked for the season.
3. Club registered on ENgage; club ID and join link on the website.
4. Two umpires started on the award ladder.
5. A Back to Netball course or a Bee Netball festival to find members.
6. County or local league entry by June; fees in August.
7. First fixtures in September; results typed onto the site the same evening.