The Scottish Cup is widely recognised as the biggest competition across Netball in Scotland. Teams enter up and down the country to take home the top prize. Last years final was played in-front of an arena crowd at the Emirates, Glasgow.

With the Scottish Cup now in full swing and the knockout rounds having commenced the competition is fiercer than ever. All teams have the same goal, to be the 2023 Scottish Cup Champions.

Wednesday the 14^th of December saw Caledonian Eagles take on Edinburgh University 3’s in what was an incredibly closely contested match. Both sides hunting for the win and giving it their absolute all.  Each quarter was nail biting and both sides played some brilliant netball.  In the end it was Edinburgh University who walked away with the win, with the final score being 56-53.

Edinburgh University 1’s were the Scottish Cup runners up to Edinburgh Accies Netball Club in the 2022 Scottish Cup Final, showing the high level of netball that is played within this club, making them ones to watch.

We spoke to the captains after the match to get their views;

“It was a great match against Edinburgh University, they brought a lot of energy and had some lovely shots. We dug deep which is always great to see in your team and everyone played with their heads up and with confidence which always makes me so proud to play with a group of fierce strong women.”

• Lauren Leigh Porter, Caledonian Eagles Captain

“Really great match today. Such a competitive game which brought out the best from both sides. Hats off to Caley for a lovely game of netball, such a pleasure to play against teams like them. We kept pushing through the whole game and had some great turnover. Shooting did an amazing job today, shout out to them. Well done to all these girls, a lot of effort put in today and we got the result we wanted because of it!”

• Olivia Shannon, Edinburgh University 3’s Captain

Edinburgh University 3’s will progress onto the third round of the Scottish Cup.

Netball competitions across the country are now in full swing, but one competition that stands out amongst the rest is the Scottish Youth Cup. The Scottish Youth Cup is open to all affiliated junior clubs, with competitions across 3 different age groups: Under 13, Under 15 and Under 17. Making this competition the highlight of many young girl’s school years. Each age group competition commences with a regional first round, with the remaining rounds following a knockout format. The culmination of this competition is held as part of National Finals Day event.

The Scottish Youth Cup allows young girls from across Scotland to compete at Netball and experience competition and team spirit from a formative age. This competition allows for players who may not have a school club to continue to compete which in turn allows them to grow as players.

We spoke to Youth Cup hopefuls, St. Peters Netball Club about what they are hoping to achieve this year.

“We are lucky enough to have three teams in the cup this season, in three different age groups, U13, U15 and U17. All three teams are newly formed and working hard at training to deliver during games. We were lucky enough to have our U15 team reach the last 6 last season!

Our U13s have played their first two games and started their campaign with two wins and are looking forward to the remaining 2 matches.

Our U15s won their first match, and narrowly lost their second match so still all to play for.

Our U17s have faced really tough competition and unfortunately are yet to pick up the win, but the resilience on court has been great to see.

At St Peter’s Netball Club, we feel incredibly lucky to have such great girls within our club.  All our age groups continue to work hard learning from every game, focussing on development areas in training. Team spirit is always on show during our matches with the girls always working hard for each other. Our focus remains the same this season, give the girls as many opportunities as possible to play, working hard in training to increase skill level, build great team relationships, and most importantly have fun and love netball!!”

This year will be St. Peters third time competing in the Scottish Youth Cup.