Origins of classification

The first reference to classification appears in Joan Scruton’s book “Stoke Mandeville: Road to the Paralympics”, on page 79, when consideration is given by the then Aylesbury Hospital Management Committee (host of the Stoke Mandeville Games) to “...make netball a fairer competition. It was at this stage that we changed from netball to basketball and divided the competition into two classes: (a) for complete lesions and (b) for incomplete lesions.” That was in 1955, in the lead up to the 6th edition of the annual Stoke Mandeville Games.