Man of the Match: Miriam – surely a future star of Zambian Netball. A rock in defence.

Lemon of the Match (a CSHC tradition): The Van. For reasons that will become apparent.

Inevitably whilst travelling, you will have nights when, tucked up in bed with your mind still projecting the events of the day like a home video on the bedroom ceiling, you realise that today will forever be a ‘defining moment’ of the place you’re in. Friday was one of those days.

This was to be Vinjeru school’s second stab at competitive sport, having pulled off an impressive win in their opening match against an established – and much larger – local school side a couple of weeks ago. A result made all the more impressive when you consider that Vinjeru has no netball posts to practice shooting at!

The start, of course, was delayed. As the supporting staff waited to be picked up by the van (a pick-up truck) we learnt first that it couldn’t be started and then that it had run out of petrol. 15 minutes after the scheduled start time, we set out walking. We were soon met by Karolyn in the family SUV and after some discussion on logistics, safety and (from the British) personal space, we crammed all nine of us in and set off.

The opponents were from Mount Carmel School, located in the Riverside* district of town. Upon arrival we untangled limbs, spilled out of the vehicle and dusted ourselves off. Immediately crowds of school kids materialized from nowhere to stand round us, some hiding behind their more confident friends, some smiling shyly and some even managing a breathless ‘Howareyou?’. Every 10 minutes or so another classroom would disgorge 50 more kids who would run wildly towards the rest of us, screaming and yelling, as if released from a ten year prison sentence.

We then learnt that the most important part of the fixture was not, in fact, the match itself but the Teacher’s Meeting before the match in which teachers from both schools squashed into a tiny room to discuss the latest updates to the International Netball Rules and the finer points of how these would be umpired, and who would be the official Umpires (2), Time-Keeper, Scorer and Team Coaches. Kylie, having previously made some passing remark about playing netball ten years ago, found herself in the thick of it and was presently nominated as one of the official match umpires.

In due course the match got under way. The court (so to speak) was a mixture of dirt and rough grass with the occasional hole lurking beneath tufts of grass, waiting to devour a mis-placed foot. The boundaries were marked with a shallow trench a few cm deep. The posts were sturdy wooden poles with a metal hoop attached to the top but no net. Most of the girls were bare-foot. All around the court boundary was a wall of school kids, almost all of whom were supporting the home side. Kylie, who had been volunteered to umpire, got the match started and immediately realised she was in for a long match…

I’d always been led to believe netball was a ‘no-contact’ sport. Apparently I was wrong. This was the most full-on, hard-core, no-holds-barred, accept-no-prisoners… you get the picture… version of ‘no-contact’ I’ve ever seen**. And it was AWESOME!

The noise was unbelievable – about 300 school children who I assume must have just eaten sugar for the past month had to be kept back from the line by a ferocious looking lady with a tree branch. Every time the home team scored, pandemonium would break loose and the entire court would be flooded with kids all running, yelling, singing, dancing and doing cartwheels. After a few minutes order would be more-or-less restored and the match would resume. I’ve never seen a sporting event like it – the heat, noise, dust, smells and tension combined to create a cocktail that is impossible to adequately put into words.

Note: I have a great video clip of this but I’ll have to wait until we have reasonable internet access before I can upload it. Stay tuned!

At half-time Vinjeru held a slender 4-3 lead thanks to their quicker passing and sharper (unpractised) shooting. The 2nd half proved harder though as the home team were boosted by their supporters, whilst Vinjeru now had the higher, crooked goal to shoot at. When the final whistle blew and the dust settled (literally), the score was agonisingly 8-7 to the opposition. The Mount Carmel kids of course were in jubilant mood. Spontaneous dancing and singing broke out as they all ran round and round the school grounds.

There was nothing left for us to do but console our girls and remind them that they played some fantastic netball for a team just playing their second ever match. We all clambered aboard the (now functional) school bus (i.e. the van) and drove off. It struck me how convenient it was to be able to pack nearly all your school into the back of a pick-up truck and just let them jump out as we neared their houses.

A return fixture was promptly scheduled for the next week, leaving Vinjeru five days to create a netball court/pitch and build some posts/goals.

All in all a brilliant effort from the team – and from debut umpire Dr Beasley. And a memorable insight into Zambian culture that will keep me grinning for years whenever I recall it.

* presumably named by the same person who called the new North Arbury estate in Cambridge ‘Orchard Park’ – despite the obvious lack of anything resembling a park, let alone fruit trees…

** with the possible exception of ‘church football’

• Kapiri Mposhi
• Netball
• Sport
• Vinjeru