What makes the growth of netball so fascinating is that it is a sport almost as old as Basketball, but its standard global set of rules that enabled international netball competitions is remarkably new.
The unified rules of World Netball were established in 1960 in a meeting between the Big Five Netball nations at the time (Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, The West Indies and England), which also led to the establishment of a global tournament starting in 1963.
The World Netball Championships (now the Netball World Cup) are contested every four years, with the first edition being held in the seaside town of Eastbourne in England.
Whilst the seaside sun shone brightly, the real heat was on the court, as one of the most successful nations in netball history set a record that has yet to be broken in international competition.
On 2nd August 1963, New Zealand took on Northern Ireland at the Chelsea College of Physical Education, and in a sport that allows for every team to have a chance to win as long as they play hard and play as a team, Northern Ireland scored just four points to New Zealand’s 112.
That same day, Australia beat Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) 82-12 in two matches that ultimately set the tone for the rest of the tournament.
The format was somewhat different from the double group stage and knockout playoff format seen since 2019, with eleven teams playing each other once.
The inaugural winners were Australia, a country that has won more Netball World Cups than any other nation in the world, although in this first edition it was a closely battled competition.
New Zealand was a close second, and a very narrow 37-36 loss to the Diamonds was the only separation between the two. England placed third, only losing to Australia and New Zealand themselves, and this would set the tone for the next half-century of netball.