Sidmouth Netball Club held its first annual general meeting and presentation evening at Sidmouth Sailing Club.

There was a large turnout of both players and parents to help celebrate the clubs first birthday.

Club coach Louise Hastie says: “The club was only an idea last May! Louise Neilson and I play together with Sidmouth Toucans [who play in the Honiton Netball League] and had got involved with the sport through our children at Honiton Netball Club.

“We just had a desire to get girls into team sport that might not have previously have given it a go.

Team spirit is central to the club ethos and we hope that we have given the players the opportunity to experience just that.”

Louise continued: “The support that we have received from the town has been fantastic, we have had substantial support from the Keith Owen Fund and the town council’s Parishes Together Fund, without which, we would not have been able to start.

“St Johns School has also been key to our formation by providing facilities to train at a subsidised rate.”

In terms of the AGM, Debbie Marriott started proceedings with a round of thanks to the committee and volunteers for their hard work and support over the past year and the new officers and committee members were nominated.

The awards came next with head coach Louise Neilson and assistant coach Louise Hastie having the unenviable job of deciding who should receive the awards!

Louise Neilson explained how difficult it had been decide as there had been so much enthusiasm and hard work from all of the girls this year.

Each team had two awards; coaches’ player and most improved player.

The awards went to: Flora Hadfield, Fern Denner, Tara Darlami, Mollie Perram, Sioarse Malton, Emily Pulman, Molly Parry Immy Hewitt, Maddie Neilson and Enya Nair.

The final award of the evening was the Player of the Year Award and this went to Hannah Darlami who has shown great commitment not only to her play but also volunteers at the club in the younger age groups.