Netball Trivia
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58 free Netball trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
This netball trivia quiz covers the sport from the school court to the World Cup final. The easy questions are the ones any player knows: how many are on court, how long you can hold the ball, how many quarters there are and which countries dominate. Then it moves into the history most fans never hear, from a New Orleans teacher misreading James Naismith's basketball diagram to the first international match in Melbourne in 1938 and the 1960 meeting in Ceylon that standardised the rules. The harder end tests real followers of the game: the three-way tie at the 1979 World Championships, the double-extra-time Commonwealth finals, England's last-second gold in 2018, Fast5 power plays and two-point shots, Super Netball's inaugural champions, the Netball Super League's most successful club and the world's most-capped international. There are also questions on the governing body's many name changes and its long campaign for Olympic inclusion. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries for the sport, its competitions and its national teams before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our basketball, Commonwealth Games and Australian sport quizzes next.
30 of 58 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What tells a netball umpire each player's position?
Bib letters
Bib letters such as GS or WD name one of the seven positions, and each position is confined to set areas of the court.
Q 02Which basketball skill is banned outright in netball?
Dribbling
Dribbling is out: after a catch a player cannot run with the ball or bounce it back to herself, so it moves only by passes, each released within three seconds.
Q 03What settles a netball final still level after extra time?
A two-goal lead
A two-goal lead ends it, however long that takes: in the 2010 Commonwealth Games final, extra time ended level and play ran on until New Zealand led Australia 66-64.
Q 04Which part of a basketball hoop is missing from a netball goal?
The backboard
The backboard is absent, so every shot has to drop cleanly through a ring set 3.05 m (10 ft) above the court.
Q 05It is illegal to pass a netball untouched over what?
Whole third
A whole third is off limits: the ball must be touched in each third of the 30.5 m court, so nobody can hurl it from one end to the other.
Q 06Despite its name, what shape is the goal circle on a netball court?
Semicircle
A semicircle with a 4.9 m radius is drawn around each goal post, and a goal only counts when it is shot from inside it.
Q 07Besides the goal shooter, which netball position is allowed to score?
Goal attack
Goal attack is the only other scorer, and even she must be standing inside the goal circle when she shoots.
Q 08Which netball position has the run of all three thirds of the court?
Centre
Centre roams all three thirds and is barred only from the two goal circles, while every other position is shut out of at least one third.
Q 09Which netball offence is a defender committing by guarding a shot from closer than 0.9 m (3 ft)?
Obstruction
Obstruction hands the shooter a penalty pass or shot, and the offender must stand beside her, out of play, until the ball has gone.
Q 10After a goal is scored in netball, how is play restarted?
An alternating centre pass
An alternating centre pass means conceding a goal does not win you the ball: the two teams simply take turns, whoever scored last.
Q 11What is the call when a netball player strays into an area their position is barred from?
Offside
Offside is called whether or not the player has the ball, and the other team gets a free pass where they strayed.
Q 12Roughly how many people play netball worldwide, by its governing body's count?
About 20 million
About 20 million play, by World Netball's count, most of them in Commonwealth countries, because the game spread from England across the British Empire.
Q 13What did American teacher Clara Baer reportedly misread in the 1890s, accidentally giving netball its zones?
A court diagram
A court diagram, the story goes, arrived with pencilled lines showing where players could best patrol; Baer read them as boundaries, and by 1899 her mistake was in the rules.
Q 21Where was the first World Netball Championships (then the World Tournament) held in 1963?
Eastbourne, England
Eastbourne, England staged it, yet the country that gave the world netball finished third at home, behind New Zealand and unbeaten Australia.
Q 22Which city's Commonwealth Games in 1998 were the first to award netball medals?
Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur finally gave medals to a sport played mostly in Commonwealth countries; until then its only Games outing was a one-off demonstration match in Auckland in 1990.
Q 23Mwai Kumwenda, player of the tournament at the 2015 Netball World Cup, shoots for which African nation?
Malawi
Q 14What served as goals when Madame Osterberg's students first played the game that became netball?
Waste paper baskets
Waste paper baskets stood in for goals at her English college in 1895, before rings with nets took their place.
Q 15Netball grew out of basketball, invented in 1891 by which Massachusetts gym teacher?
James Naismith
James Naismith invented basketball in 1891, and by 1895 Martina Bergman-Osterberg's students in England were playing the version that grew into netball.
Q 16Which netball rule stops a player from running with the ball?
Footwork
Footwork is the call: once the landing foot is lifted it cannot touch down again until the ball has gone, which is why players pivot instead of run.
Q 17Where was the first international netball match played, on 20 August 1938?
Melbourne
Melbourne hosted it under Australia's seven-a-side rules; New Zealand, used to nine-a-side, lost 40-11.
Q 18Which Caribbean nation's Sunshine Girls reached their first Commonwealth Games netball final in 2022?
Jamaica
Jamaica knocked out New Zealand in the Birmingham semi-final and danced on court to celebrate, before losing the gold-medal match to Australia.
Q 19What did netball's nations settle at a 1960 meeting in Sri Lanka?
One set of rules
One set of rules ended decades of countries playing different versions, and cleared the way for the first world tournament three years later.
Q 20What was netball commonly called in Australia before the name was officially changed in 1970?
Women's basketball
Women's basketball stayed the official Australian name until 1970, so Australia won the first world netball title in 1963 while calling the game something else at home.
Malawi finished only sixth in 2015, yet Kumwenda was named the tournament's best player after scoring more goals than anyone else.
Q 24Which nation shared the 1979 World Championship title with Australia and New Zealand?
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago, the hosts, beat Australia 40-38 but lost to New Zealand, leaving all three level at the top of the table.
Q 25Why did three nations share netball's 1979 world title?
No deciding match
No deciding match was played: the top three each won eight of nine round-robin games, and the rules offered no way to split them.
Q 26Which city was chosen to host the 2027 Netball World Cup?
Sydney
Sydney, host in 1991 and 2015, was given 2027, the last World Cup of the four-year cycle before the event moves to every two years.
Q 27Who scored the winning goal in the last second to give England Commonwealth gold over Australia in 2018?
Helen Housby
Helen Housby scored with a second left for a 52-51 win, making England the first champions other than Australia or New Zealand.
Q 28Who scored the winning goal for New Zealand in double extra time in the 2010 Commonwealth Games final?
Maria Tutaia
Maria Tutaia's goal made it 66-64 in Delhi, rescuing a New Zealand side that had thrown away a seven-goal lead over Australia in the final quarter.
Q 29Which Australian shooter scored 49 from 53 to clinch the 2014 Commonwealth Games final?
Caitlin Bassett
Caitlin Bassett's shooting turned the tables: New Zealand had beaten Australia in the previous two Commonwealth finals, and this time lost 58-40.
Q 30Which footballing brothers' sister, Tracey, coached England to Commonwealth netball gold in 2018?
Gary and Phil Neville
Gary and Phil Neville are her brothers, Phil her twin by 12 minutes, and a year after the gold both twins led England teams at World Cups.