Fastnet goes west

Adrian Frater, News Editor
Western Bureau:

Western Jamaica will get its first taste of netball's newest innovation - fastnet - this Saturday at the Montego Bay Cricket Club when the Jamaica Netball Association (JNA) presents a much-anticipated seminar, to introduce what many have described as the Twenty20 version of netball.

"It is something we are looking forward to with much anticipation," said Gina Haughton, first vice-president of the St James Netball Association. "At present, we are spreading the word, in a bid to get as many interested persons as possible to participate in this seminar."

Seminar

The fastnet seminar, which will have Jill Mc Intosh, the former player and head coach of the Australian national team as the guest presenter, is the second of two such seminars to be staged in Jamaica.

The first seminar was held at the Hospitality Room and National Indoor Sports Centre, Independence Park, in Kingston, on Saturday, July 3.

Like the Kingston seminar, Saturday's in Montego Bay will run between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.

Dr Paula Daley-Morris, Yvonne Kong, Mrs Yvette Smith and national coach Connie Francis who were the local facilitators for the seminar in Kingston, will also be in Montego Bay on Saturday.

Fastnet has variations on the rules of netball and is designed to make the game faster, more appealing to fans and more television-friendly, in much the same way as Twenty20 cricket has been helping to revive cricket, which many feel was steadily losing its spectator appeal.

In fastnet, instead of the traditional 15 minutes per quarter, it is reduced to six minutes; coaches are allowed to give instructions from the sideline during play and, like basketball, rolling substitution is allowed as well as three-point shots.

Following Jamaica's second-place finish in last year's World Netball Series Fastnet tournament in Manchester, England, JNA president, Marva Bernard, described fastnet as a welcome addition to the sport.

"It's an exciting alternative to the regular game," Bernard stated. "Netball needs some excitement and the Jamaican girls certainly went up there and made it exciting."

'It's an exciting alternative to the regular game ... Netball needs some excitement and the Jamaican girls certainly went up there and made it exciting.'