Ashby Netball Club may have become headline news thanks to their recent 75-hour record-breaking marathon - but that has crowned an incredible 14-year spell which now sees them boast 200 members.

The club's fundraising event was held over four days at Ivanhoe School and saw them collect more than £67,000 for the Kids Village charity.

But, since getting started in 2011, they have become increasingly influential in terms of providing a platform for women's sport - as well as being competitively successful. Currently, the Ashby club operates 12 teams and wants to expand to 14.

Club representative, Carla Garey, told Ashby Nub News: "The club itself now has over 200 members, half of them are juniors and half are seniors. 

"And what we've been working on over the last four years is the kind of growth and the development of setting up a junior club, but also the transition when the players can move into senior teams.

"A lot of people leave the sport at the end of the juniors, just because they don't carry on with it, and that's usually due to their life priorities changing.

"We wanted to kind of break those barriers down and keep women and girls in sport, especially during that key transition, so they become our seniors and then stay with the club or go on to join university clubs. 

"So we've created this pathway where they transition quite smoothly, and our club's sort of setting the benchmark now for that. Moving forward, we've got one of the most successful junior clubs in the region. 

"There are nine teams playing within that junior division. The seniors have two teams in the regional league, which is the most you're allowed to have. 

"We've got 12 teams in total, and that's likely to grow to 14, we're recruiting some players and have some gaps, but not many We've also got three Ashby teams in the semi finals of the cup."

Carla says she has seen the team's expansion over a decade or more with the club.

She added: "The club's been going since 2011 and there was one team originally, which were founding members, some of which are still in our club today. 

"We've seen a massive growth and so many individual success stories. Players that have gone on to play for the county and players that have gone on and played for like the franchises. 

"We have one - Mia Williams - who's now with the Nottingham Forest Netball Under18s."

Carla admits one of the side effects of their marathon weekend has been to raise the profile of the Ashby club.

She said: "It wasn't as much about trying to promote our club as such. It was promoting netball and the benefits for mental health and getting exercise.

"I think we've more than achieved that and created a legacy.

"Some of those corporate teams who took part have now entered social leagues, and some of those better netball players have now joined affiliated clubs. 

"That will live long, well beyond the marathon itself. And we're really proud of that."

Carla says the club's progress has accelerated over the last two years.

She added: "When we amalgamated the junior and senior clubs two years ago to create a pathway, that was a real turning point. We felt we could do more and now we want to be bigger than the sum of our parts. 

"I think we've proved that now with the World Records side as well. It's one thing to be recognised in your county and in your region and even in your country. But to have an accolade or a measurement that's world recognised, it just shows the kind of level that you can get to if you try.

"It's all about having a good idea."