On Saturday April 23 Uplands Prep School held a first-of-its-kind sports event in the Lowveld. A fast-five netball festival was hosted on the campus. Eleven teams participated in the challenge.

Fast-five netball can be compared to sevens rugby, where a maximum of five players are allowed on court. The game is very fast with three different scoring zones. At the start teams are encouraged to do a one-minute dance.

Each game also has a power-play half, which allows teams to score double points during this phase. The 11 teams were divided into two pools of five and six respectively. Matches were played in round-robin format. The top teams then qualified for the semi-finals and the final. The final was decided between the teams of St Peter’s and Malelane Primary.

Malelane had been dominant all morning and convincingly won by 18-0. Uplands Prep School hopes to make this an annual event and encourages all local schools to participate next year.