Eleven teams participated in the first international tournament, with three teams braving the seas on a six-week voyage to get to England. Australia, New Zealand and South Africa trained and exercised on the decks of their boats to keep fit.

"We had a fitness routine and did our physical exercises before the deckhands washed the deck in the mornings,” Dame Louis Muir, then Vice-captain of the New Zealand team said. 

This was the start of a now long-time tradition of holding a World Netball tournament every four years. The tournament was in a round-robin style format, meaning all teams would play ten games each. Australia went undefeated, winning 10 straight games to become the first-ever World Champions. Australia’s winning captain Joyce Brown had the honour of being the first-ever winning captain of the Netball World Cup.

Runners-up New Zealand, who lost to the Aussies by a goal, had the highest goal-scoring average of the tournament at 71.1% per match.  They also set a record that still stands today for winning a World Cup game by the largest margin, winning a 112-4 victory against Northern Ireland.

Brown, would go on to coach Australia’s team and win three more world titles undefeated. Her legacy with 10 wins from 10 games as a player, and 29 wins and one draw from 30 matches as a coach is one of the most incredible in netball history. 

Vice-captain Muir went on to coach the Kiwis in four straight world tournaments, winning titles in 1979 and 1987. The next Netball World Cup will be held in Sydney, Australia in 2027 where the top 16 teams will battle to become the sport’s ultimate champion.