From trial to triumph: Murray Bridge Walking Netball wins state award

At the start of the year Murray Bridge held their first Walking Netball competition, now the initiative has been recognised by Walking SA.

The sport which rapidly grew popular started out as a six week trial and is currently a permanent weekly activity in Murray Bridge.

Walking SA's annual awards recognise sustained and outstanding contributions to walking at all levels throughout South Australia.

The group took out the overall category: Walking for Health- Supporting South Australians’ health and wellbeing through walking.

Event organisers, Shelly Rose and Helen Mattick said they now have 150 registered participants.

"What we've seen really is this amazing community of people who cross all demographics of Murray Bridge, connecting with each other and supporting each other," Ms Mattick said.

"People find it amazing spending time with lovely people and there's so much laughter, literally your face hurts at the end of the night because you have laughed so much," Ms Rose said.

The community centre used the prize money that came with the award to buy drink bottles for participants.

"Every single person got one of these... which is really cool, we designed it, we loved it," Ms Rose said.

The joint event organisers, Murray Bridge Community Centre, The Haven and The Murray Bridge Wellbeing Hub, help behind the scenes but it's the community who drive the initiative along.

"I think, because as a community, they really took ownership of it and really wanted it... so they just kept coming and being committed to it," Ms Mattick said.

Many participants hadn’t played netball since they left school or had children and some were completely new to the game altogether.

During winter the group played inside at Unity College but they're now back outside at Christian Reserve.

Anyone thinking about starting up their walking netball journey is strongly encouraged to come along and have a go.

It's not a competitive sport but sometimes sneaky players may hold your bib or even tickle you, Ms Rose said.

"The white line fever of your previous netball experience is very real... you step across the line and go straight back into that competitive edge, even if you are walking," Ms Mattick said.

"And we keep it really casual, so people can just drop in and drop out."

It's a bit of a free for all, with no scoring, or official umpires, each player has the flexibility to sub on and off as they please.

The community centre are also hoping to start up a new walking sport early in the new year: soccer.

"It's a whole different set of rules that we need to learn ourselves... there might be some actual skills involved," Ms Mattick said.

• More information on the awards: https://www.walkingsa.org.au/awards