Middlesbrough netball club breaks Guinness World Record

Members of Trinity Catholic College’s netball club, in Middlesbrough, decided to try to break the Guinness World Record for scoring the most goals by a team in an hour after being unable to play during lockdown.

With the previous record standing at 740, they knew they would have to be on the ball to break it.  

PE teacher Carol Rodgers, who came up with the idea of beating the record while the girls were unable to play because of the lockdown, said: “I wondered if there was a record and decided to look it up.

“When I read that the previous record was 740 I thought, ‘We can beat that!’, so we got it set up as soon as we got back to school.”

The team of 12 girls managed to smash the record on October 21 last year – scoring a huge 1,100 goals in their allotted time.

It has now been officially confirmed by Guinness World Records, who said the attempt had met requirements and been successful.

Ms Rodgers added: “Our girls went out and well and truly smashed the record.

“They knew they’d done it with about ten minutes to go and after that they wanted to get the score as high as they could.

“They were absolutely chuffed to bits and I’m so proud of them all.” 

Members play twice a week as one of the Middlesbrough school’s regular extracurricular activities and the record attempt replaced their usual training session. 

Two external umpires had to come in to ensure impartiality and two official timekeepers were appointed, with two more girls to keep the scores.

Only one player was allowed in the D at a time and they had to shoot before the next person could enter. The whole team’s total was then tallied together.

Trinity has a proud record of sporting success and the Year 11 girls’ team are unbeaten in the area throughout their five years at school.

Their only defeats in five years were when they came second to Trafford Netball Club in a tournament at Disneyland Paris and a loss in a national qualifier.

Year 11’s Emma Rodgers plays for Leeds Rhinos while her teammate Dani Walker represents the North-East. Year 7s Angelique Richardson also represents the region.