Randwick Netball Club celebrate their 30th anniversary this season – and their two founder members are still heavily involved with the club.

Jo Smith and her daughter Lisa Harris formed the club when they moved to Stroud from Swindon in the late 1980s.

“My mum ran the Carpenters Arms in Westrip,” said Lisa. “That was where I met my husband Stuart who used to play football for Randwick.

“My mum and I had both played netball in Swindon and we decided to set up a team for the wives and girlfriends of Randwick’s footballers.”

And the netballers have had hoops of fun ever since, with the club now very well established in the Gloucestershire League with four senior teams.

They also run half-a-dozen age group teams and have come a long way since those early days when they ran just the one team and if you turned up you pretty much got a game.

“We must have 120 members,” said Lisa, 49, who is now the club’s chairperson and second team captain.

She used to captain the first team back in the day as well and when she’s not playing she is coaching the junior teams at Archway School and Stratford Park Leisure Centre.

“The juniors are also coached by Sara Constantine, Lauren Kelly, Zoey Mason and Kate Selby who are all first-team players or former first-team players,” said Lisa. “We also encourage members who have moved from juniors up to seniors to help coach and umpire our junior teams.”

It’s a real family affair for Lisa because her 19-year-old daughter Misha came through the youth set-up and is now one of the mainstays in the club’s first team which competes in the county’s premier division.

Lisa’s mum is also one of the mainstays off the pitch, even at the age of 73. “She helps with the coaching and manages the first team,” said Lisa.

Jo was a defender when she played whereas Lisa and Misha are both centres. Lisa managed to play half a season with Misha three years ago before dropping down to the second team, who play in division one.

“Netball has been a huge part of my life,” said Lisa. “Almost from the day I was born I’ve been going to netball with my mum and I started playing when I was 11.

“Misha is very good. She loves netball and she holds her own. She’s had netball bred into her!”

Misha helped the first team to finish second in the county league but they just missed out on a place in this season’s South West League after finishing third in the end-of-season regionals – only the top two get to go through to the higher level.

The club is hoping to go one better this time around but the strength of the club is not just determined by the success or otherwise of the flagship team.

Randwick also have senior teams competing in divisions three and four of the six-strong county league and have two teams at under-16, under-14 and under-13 age groups and one at under-12.

“The juniors are very strong,” said Lisa, “we must have 70 or 80 youngsters in the club.”

As chairperson, Lisa tries to watch as many of the senior teams as possible on a Saturday afternoon although she confesses that is not always easy.

“The two top teams play at the recreation centre in Cheltenham and the other two teams play at Bentham,” she said. “On a good day, I can play in one game and watch another three.”

While netball has always been Lisa’s sport, her husband has always been into his football.

The 54-year-old doesn’t play these days but just like his wife is doing his bit to bring the next generation through.

“He runs the youth set-up at Randwick,” said Lisa. “Our son Rory, who is 15, plays for the juniors.”

Lisa, who says that as a centre she “pretty much does everything except shoot” and says her strength is “probably feeding the circle”, wants to continue playing netball for as long as she can.

“They’ll have to wheel me off before I stop playing,” she laughed.