Sport Netball Inaugural season 2014 Country South Africa | Founded 2014 No. of teams 10 Most recent
champion(s) Free State Crinums | |
 | ||
The Brutal Fruit Netball Cup is a South African semi-professional netball league.
On the 16th of April 2014, Netball South Africa announced that the first semi-professional netball league ever to play in Africa would be launched. Brutal Fruit holds a five-year naming sponsorship to the league, expiring in 2019. The championship is contested by 10 teams from all 9 South African provinces over a five week period. The top five provincial teams form Division 1, with the remainder forming Division 2. The first competition ran from May 10, 2014 to June 7, 2014. All matches were held in the Rembrandt Hall at the University of Pretoria. All matches were broadcast live on SuperSport.
The Free State Crinums won the inaugural Brutal Fruit Netball Cup, beating the Gauteng North Jaguars 40-36 in a match that went into overtime. Western Cape's Southern Stings won the Division 2 Shield of the Brutal Fruit Netball Netball in its inaugural year, beating KZN Kingdom Stars 39-31 in the final match.
The President of Netball South Africa is Mimi Mthethwa, chief executive Blanche de la Guerre.
Tournament Rules
All matches in the Brutal Fruit Cup are played according to prevailing International Netball Federation (INF) rules. Bench consists of a coach, team manager, 2 support staff and 12 players. Two divisions of 5 teams, and each team plays twice against teams within the same division. Points are awarded as follows:
The duration of each match is 1 hour, consisting of 4 quarters of 15 minutes each. 3 minutes rest between 1st and 3rd quarters, 5 minute rest after the 2nd quarter. Injury time is 2 minutes per team, as per INF rules.