If there was ever a special tribute made to the late great Tina Turner, it was at Maitland Park on Saturday.
The PA system was cranked up and hundreds of netballers from across the region took to the courts for a special warm up – the netball Nutbush.
Players from under 11s up to opens, plus coaches and managers, showed off their dance skills in a mass Nutbush ahead of the Maitland Netball Association Representative Carnival on Sunday, May 28.
Participants included teams from Cessnock District, Charlestown, Callaghan District, Great Lakes, Hastings Valley, Hills District, Kurri Kurri, Manning Valley, Muswellbrook, Nelson Bay, Newcastle, Port Stephens, Quirindi, Scone and District, Singleton, Tamworth, Westlakes, Woy Woy Peninsula and Wyong District netball associations.
Ahead of the weekend, Hunter Netball challenged all the associations to warm up with the Nutbush to celebrate the life of the great Tina Turner, whose song Nutbush City Limits the dance is set to.
Maitland Netball Association president Leearna Bennett said 72 teams played at the carnival, and she’d guess about 200 players took part in the dance.
“It was a bit of fun,” she said.
“We had our carnival so we had a lot of associations there, and while they were all there we thought what a great way to get everybody to do it together.”