Abi Moss is netball mad. A fourth year Chemist, and now Captain of Oxford University Netball Club (OUNC), she has been playing netball since she was 10. “I had a bit of a ropey journey [at OUNC] because I ruptured my Achilles in my first varsity match”. After recovering from her injury, she graduated from the 2s to the Blues in second year, became joint social sec in third year, and was then elected to captaincy. Elaborating on her role, she emphasises that “you are part coach and also part captain”. She is captain of the Blues team, as well as being in charge of selecting, and often coaching, the other four squads. “There’s lots of managing people and managing personalities”. 

The academic nature of Oxford can sometimes be hostile to sport,but to Abi, it is vital: “I couldn’t imagine not doing it, and I think I would struggle with my degree a lot more if I didn’t do it … You can’t think about anything else when you’re doing it, so it completely clears your mind: you can’t be stressed, you can’t be worried about work, and you always leave feeling so much better than when you arrived”. 

OUNC is a very competitive club: “we have five teams and to get into the club you have to be a good, experienced player”. Like all Blues teams, it is under the umbrella of the Sports Federation (Sports Fed) who organise transport, schedule BUCS games, and provide support with things like strength and conditioning. 

However, Abi tells me Sports Fed uses a tier system to allocate the level of support available through their Blues Performance Scheme. Netball is only tier two. This means they receive less S&C time, physio, nutrition support, and sports psychology than tier one sports like women’s rugby, mixed fencing or rowing.

Abi thinks netball belongs in tier one. “We really challenged it this year, I would definitely say we are one of the most competitive women’s teams at the university … and that’s how we should measure it right? We do get a lot of injuries … and I do think a bit more continual support would have done us a lot of good.”  When challenged, Sports Fed said there were two things netball fell short on: they were not “historical enough”, and they were not in a high enough BUCS league.

“Not historical enough is quite difficult because we’re a women’s only team and women weren’t let into the university until quite late!”, says Abi.  Women were only matriculated and awarded degrees at Oxford in 1920 and most male colleges did not begin admitting women until the 1970s. 

Abi adds that “it’s not necessarily a public school sport, it’s not one of the really established ones”. She thinks another reason it does not have a rich history at Oxford is because it’s a less traditional game but now universal game. She resists any claims that Sports Fed itself is elitist: “I just don’t think they really thought about why it’s not historical”. 

With regards to the BUCS league issue, Abi passionately defends her team. “We’re in Midlands tier one, not a prem BUCS league. [But] the problem I have with that is that the number of people who play netball is astronomically more than those playing women’s rugby or women’s lacrosse, so the leagues are way more competitive”. She re-emphasises how competitive the netball Blues is and argues the level of experience necessary to enter the club is much higher than some other women’s teams on tier one. “It just seems a bit wrong really.” 

But Abi is hopeful. Sports Fed were receptive to OUNC’s appeal. “They really wanted to help us, they were very supportive, they said they could do a few more S&C sessions and I was like, yes but we’ll be back again next year to challenge it again.” Cheerily optimistic, she says “I think things are just a bit slow to change … [but] I think if we keep fighting for it each year we will succeed.”

Indeed, this isn’t the only fight OUNC wants to win. Netball Varsity takes place this weekend (21st-22nd February) . “We’re in the same league as Cambridge so we’ve already played them twice. We lost to them by two at the end of last Michaelmas, then we played them at the start of this term at home, and we beat them by eleven. So it’s all squared up now for the game… I think it’s ours to lose personally!”

She tells me “I actually feel so confident in the strength of the whole club this year – the biggest problem we’ve had is that we’ve got too many good players! … It’s so great to play Cambridge – it’s a forced rivalry, it’s just so fun! You get all your friends and family there; all your friends make an effort to come and watch. I think it’s just such a nice event! It’s such a big exhibition of netball, it feels like a culmination of the season.”

So, if you have a spare moment this weekend, why not go down to Iffley and make up your own mind about OUNC’s game?