Potters House tournament shows the way

An inspirational tournament hit a milestone last year.

VJ Davidson is in an upbeat mood. You get the feeling that upbeat is her default setting, but she also has good reason. The tournament she started over a decade ago, and which she manages, is going from strength to strength, connecting community netball teams from around the country and generally spreading joy to all!

VJ says: “I’m a Christian and part of a worldwide Christian fellowship, known as Potters House in the UK. There was traditionally a football tournament every August, where all the guys got together, then one year somebody asked me how come the guys had this and we (the ladies) had nothing?! She said that she played netball but I was not that interested as I had played at school and didn’t really enjoy it. I’m five foot six in height, same as I was when I was 12, and I was a rubbish defender back then!”

What a difference a decade makes! VJ ended up emailing England Netball to find a Back to Netball session in Newham in London in 2014. She says: “We turned up with about five or six girls and I said I wanted to start a netball tournament but didn’t have a clue as to how to do it. Our session leader Lucy Hantson said she could help. She was just brilliant! She helped with the fixtures and I galvanized everybody from across the fellowship. We always wanted it to be a UK-wide initiative and we were kind of jumping on the back of the Olympics basically, and how successful sport had become, us being in East London and all the rest of it. Our church team was right in the Olympic village!”

At first there were just five or six teams but VJ was onto a good thing and several of those teams were still competing last year, in the tenth anniversary special in September, when 16 sides took part.

VJ says: “We play indoors, which gives us security (with the weather) and the tournament has really brought a new love for the sport that so many people played when they were younger. This year we did a junior tournament as well. I was like, come on, some of us are getting a little bit older now, so we need to get these young ones involved!”

Future England Rose, Aliyah Zaranyika came along to take part in the fun and VJ says: “She really took a shine to a couple of the young ones and told them they have got potential. It was so lovely she could come along. She was at a summer netball camp my daughter attended and said she’d love to help out.”

So is VJ a total netball convert then? “Absolutely! I’m quite evangelical about it now! The health and well-being aspects are phenomenal and the camaraderie amongst the teams is a wonderful thing to behold. I have testimony after testimony about how the tournament has helped individuals to build confidence, work with others, impact and change lives for the better. It’s so great to see everyone come together on tournament day, compete in some healthy sporting rivalry and create lifelong memories. We’ve grown so much over the years, from humble beginnings and one indoor court, to currently being based at the Score Leisure Centre in Leyton. We have booked that for later this year too – they’ve got five courts!”

The standard has varied over time but VJ is keen to point out that it is not about the quality, it’s about togetherness and spreading the netball word. “We’ve got groups from all over – our furthest team is from Bolton, who faithfully come up and down in a day. When they started attending in 2019, they were really inexperienced and didn’t have any local support and were just watching online videos. They’ve come a long way since then and finished fourth last year! How amazing is that!”

VJ is quick to say that the tournaments could not have happened without the help & support of so many people. “Initially Lucy Hantson, of course, and also her replacement Sophie Johnson, who has helped coordinate the last two years. And Phyll Karkoski, our head umpire who has been there since the very start and as been really encouraging. Now she brings along her umpiring protégés!”

In closing, VJ says that if anyone is interested in joining one of the PH community teams, they should feel free to contact phuknetball@gmail.com or visit www.pottershouse.co.uk

And with that, she is gone, almost certainly off to plan this year’s tournament!