Team Benches for Gloucestershire's Premier Division

The New Year will see a minor change to Gloucestershire Premier Division matches, with the addition of Team Benches.

Although provided for under the rules at all levels, until now only at Regional level and above has the Team Bench actually been a physical 'bench'.

To bring Gloucestershire's Premier Division into line with higher level netball, from January all squad members and team officials will be required to remain beside the court (i.e. inside the barriers), during play.

Claire Hopkinson, Gloucestershire Adult Competition chair said "this will help raise the profile of Gloucestershire's Premier Division, as well as differentiate spectators from Team Bench members and make the Umpire's job easier."

Team Benches will be placed behind each goal line of the court (on the non-umpire side). The Team Bench nearest the spectators will be the home team's bench and the Team Bench furthest from the spectators will be the away team's bench. Each team will be allocated as home or away based on the fixture card.

The Team Bench will include the coach, team manager, primary carer and any substitutes. If there is not enough room to sit together, other members of the Bench must stand beside the bench and not move around the court.