With the 2019 Netball World Cup in full swing in Liverpool, check out these fast facts about the tournament and Scotland’s participation over its 56 year history:

1. The first Netball World Cup (then known as the Netball World Championships) was held in Eastbourne, England in 1963.

2. Held every four years, there have been 15 editions of the Netball World Cup. Scotland have played in 14 of them.

3. Australia have won the World Cup 11 times, New Zealand four times and Trinidad & Tobago once.

4. Yes our maths is correct! There was a three way tie in 1979 between Australia, New Zealand and Trinidad & Tobago as the competition format was a round-robin with no way to decide an outright winner.

5. Scotland’s best finish is 6^th place, which they have achieved on three occasions. At the last World Cup in 2015 they finished 12^th.

6. Scotland hosted the Netball World Cup in 1987 as 17 teams came to Glasgow. New Zealand lifted the trophy on that occasion while Scotland were 9^th.

7. The highest number of teams to contest a World Cup was 27 in Birmingham in 1995. Following fields also in the mid-twenties at both the 1999 and 2003 events, the competition format was revised to its current 16 team roster.

8. The 16 teams contesting the 2019 World Cup are: Australia, England, New Zealand, Jamaica, South Africa, Malawi, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Fiji, Samoa, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, Sri Lanka and Singapore. It is the first time Zimbabwe have ever qualified for the tournament.

9. The next World Cup will be held in Cape Town in 2023, the first time the competition will ever have been hosted in South Africa.