Tamworth’s Under 12, 13,14 and 15 sides will play over three days from Saturday to Monday, Tamworth Netball Association’s Lisa Fox said  yesterday.

“All the teams have been working very hard since the squads were picked in February,” she said.

 She said the teams had all had weekly training sessions as well as attending  regional carnivals for “all that important match practice”. 

“We also have three of our newly-badged umpires attending – Karen Guy, Carla Bird and Sarah Horne,” she said.

They will accompany  other umpires Danny Dalton,  Peter Lees and  Cherie Willis.

The  State Age Championships, one of the largest female sporting events in the southern hemisphere, was originally known as the Junior District Carnival, a day-long carnival which was first held on July 14,  1968 at Sydney’s Moore Park (now recognised as City of Sydney Netball Association).

Forty-four teams representing 10 associations contested  five age groups during the inaugural tournament: 14 years, 13 years, 12 years, 11 years and 10 years. 

Manly-Warringah and Sutherland Shire dominated the winners’ list for the first championships, with Manly taking out three  (13 years, 11 years, 10 years) and Sutherland taking home two titles (14 years, 12 years).

In 1969, the Netball NSW State Age Championships came into being for the U15, U14,  U13, U12 and U11 year age groups and eventually  the number of entries grew to such an extent it expanded to two days and now three days to enable each association to play one another. 

In 1983, the decision was made to introduce a second division in each age group  and, two years later, the competition was re-structured with age groups  U15, U14, U13 and U12. 

Since then, the titles have continued to grow, to include four divisions of competition in each of the age groups.

The competition is so large now that no single association has the court, venue space and facilities to host all four divisions and age groups by itself.

Multiple associations are now used simultaneously to host the event.