Westbury Wasps encourage women to stay active and have fun with walking netball

ORGANISERS of the Westbury Wasps, the town’s walking netball team, say that the sport is a great way for women to enjoy low-impact exercise.

The Wasps, who have competed in two Wiltshire netball festivals recently, meet every Wednesday at the Leighton Recreation Centre from 12pm to 1pm. The team is a Wiltshire Council initiative, but it is run by volunteers. Each session costs £3, and this will go up to £3.20 in April.

Jean Phillips, who has been the organiser of the group for the last three and a half years said, “Most of our players are over 30 years old but it is geared to the active and mature lady that wants to play netball but who may be restricted by their ability to run, or someone that wants to undertake in some low-impact sports. We equally have women who can play traditional netball but prefer the walking version.

“We get competitive, don’t get me wrong, but we try to have as much fun as possible and we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We recently played in a netball festival in Swindon and one in Corsham against other teams from all over the south-west so there are plenty of opportunities to be more competitive. We had a few numbers drop off since Covid so it would be good to boost this back up again.”

If you would like more information or want to join, contact Leighton Recreation Centre on 01373 824448 or send an email to leightonrec@wiltshire.gov.uk