Gruelling Journey in the Quest for Glory

To mark 63 days to go until Netball World Cup 2015, Netball New Zealand is looking back on the first World Netball Tournament in 1963 and the extraordinary journey the Silver Ferns undertook in their quest for glory… 

In 1963, DC-8 jet airliners were a thing of dreams in New Zealand, so when the first World Netball Tournament in Eastbourne, England was announced, the New Zealand Netball team had no other way to get there – but by ship.

The six-week voyage through the Panama Canal to the England port city of Southampton was a highlight of a remarkable playing career for Dame Lois Muir, one of the NZ team members to endure the passage.

“The World Champs in Eastbourne in 1963 were marvellous, a new experience for us all,” she said.

“The New Zealand Apple and Pear Board sponsored us and we were sitting on board the ship with apples in our hands and getting ready for the six week trip.

“We gave the deck hands a thrilling time because we had to do our exercise on the deck before they washed the decks in the morning and ball handling when the first-class passengers were snoozing because we used their deck.

“We only lost about two balls overboard and the whole journey taught us that we had to stay focused and be an athlete and I loved it.”

Eleven teams played each other in round-robin fashion over 13 days, with Sundays as rest days. The title-deciding match was played on August 8 when Australia beat New Zealand 37-36, so beginning a tradition of fierce trans-Tasman rivalry for Netball’s pinnacle event every four years.

“I felt the New Zealand/Australia rivalry right then,” Dame Lois remembers.

With Australia ahead by one goal in the dying seconds, Dame Lois says the wily opposition made sure the kiwis did not get a chance to equalise.

“We had the ball in the goal third and it was our possession and one of the Australian’s rolled the ball out and we had to go and get it,” she recalls.

“Sure it would have been a draw and we probably deserved what we got, but you know there’s nothing worse than an Australian playing well and knowing it and that made me really believe that Australia were never going to beat me if I could possibly help it!”