Algarve 7s – June 2025

We went to this year’s Algarve 7s tournament with no expectations, a fancy new kit and, as always, a desire to do our best. The Algarve 7s tournament is always a great way to end our season. This year there were 17 teams from around the world including the Valley Vipers from France and Valkyrjur Netball all the way from Iceland! We also had 6 teams from around Portugal: Lagos Fireballs, Vilamoura Vipers, Silver Coast Sirens, Tavira Leoas, Lisbon Netball Club and us, the Rockets. The first time that nearly all the Portuguese clubs have been involved. It is so great to see netball growing here in Portugal.

Lots of great new players have joined our club this year and many of them were available to be a part of our team of 12 players, along with our more seasoned players. We played 5 of our group games on Saturday (in the scorching 36-40°C heat) followed by a friendly match against the Silver Coast Sirens. We only won 1 game but played really well throughout and many of the other games were a lot closer than the score line would show. On Sunday we started the day with a friendly match against Ulster University and then 4 games in the ‘Bowl Competition’. Like on Saturday, we won only 1 game, but again we were really happy with how we played. Tracey was voted ‘Player’s Choice Player of the Tournament’ and Emily won ‘Coaches’ choice Player of the Tournament’. Both players were new to Rockets this season and have worked incredibly hard both on and off the court to improve their play and fitness. Well done and very well deserved!

Everyone played extremely well, we had a fantastic time and learned so much. We have plenty to work on when we return to practices in September. We were surprised to win the ‘Team Spirit’ award for helping and supporting the other teams. Our club ethos of ‘lifting each other up’ certainly shone through. Well done to everyone involved; our fantastic committee for organising everything, our players for doing such a great job and, of course, our incredible supporters for always being the best!

So proud to win our first trophy!