Christmas 2024

As we reach our Christmas break we look back on the past 4 months of this season and appreciate how much we have achieved. We have moved to a new court in Santa Luzia, welcomed new players and club members and have made new connections with other clubs in Portugal and internationally.

Some of our players were invited to attend a ‘Netball Fun Day’ with the Vilamoura Vipers and 3 teams of Mums and Dads a couple of Saturdays ago. The event was held at Browns sports resort in Vilamoura. Lisa and I were on 2 different teams, hilariously called ‘Hot Shots & Pot Shots’ and ‘Golden Oldies’ (a bit cheeky for 50 year olds!) The third team was called ‘The Midlife Misfits’ & of course the Vilamoura Vipers Elites team. Along with the Mums & Dads were some other Vipers players, their coach and some older brothers. It was a very steep learning curve for those who had never played netball and an exercise in muscle memory for the Mums who hadn’t played ‘since school’. Playing with and against men was a very different situation to what we have been used to. The movement of the men was far more energetic than playing against the ladies, with lots of jumping and soaring through the air. The day was fun and all the teams did unexpectedly well, gelling together very quickly. The eventual winners, by goal difference, were ‘The Midlife Misfits’. Well deserved.

We finished our practices this year with a Christmas session including Christmas jumpers, hats and fun warm up games followed by game play. Once again, our new players have settled in well and have quickly become part of the Rockets’ family. Unfortunately we had a few players out with illness, injury or being out of the country. We look forward to being all back together again next year.

We finish our practices now until Monday January 6th. When we return in January we will have new practice times: Mondays 18h30-20h and NEW Thursday evenings 18h30-20h, after consultation with our members. We look forward to friendly matches and mini tournaments from January onwards.

As always, if you’d like to join us please get in touch either through email, Facebook or Instagram. See you next year!