End of Season Superleague Report

The end of wonderful season for Netball, plenty of highs with the lows being few and far between! Here we round up the season by highlighting different parts to the campaign allowing everyone to get a view of the wider Team Bath Superleague team.

Superleague Team Bath battled to a fifth win – their first since 2010 – on the 25 May 2013 in Worcester with a 62-56 win over Celtic Dragons.

The Team Bath squad started as marginal favourites despite losing to Celtic Dragons at home in the Showdown Phase of the league. This was a brutal and see-sawing final with neither side able to establish a significant lead until the final four minutes when Team Bath surged to the victory just when it mattered.

“It has to go down as the hardest fight we have ever had to bring the title home”, said Team Bath coach Jess Thirlby after the match.

“We were a goal down with 10 minutes to go at 47-48 and it was a massive team effort in that final period to get ourselves ahead again”, she added.

“We always knew that threat was going to be there and it can be demoralizing at times that no matter how hard you work you know that is always there”, said captain Asha Francis.

“But I am so proud of the team, really proud. I know we have the history but this is a different group of girls and every campaign is different. We worked so hard in the final quarter to get the result”, she said. See www..com for more news and information.

Record for 2013: Pld: Won Lost Drew For Against +/-

15 13 2 0 869 687 182

FastNet Team Bath’s netballers made a terrific start to 2013 by capturing their first silverware of the season, winning the Cathedral City Lighter FastNet Grand Prix for the first time.

Team Bath won all five of their games in the weekend’s grand prix, rounding their campaign off with a 26-21 victory over reigning champions Manchester Thunder in the grand final.

The roll-on/roll-off format of FastNet gave an opportunity to try out different combinations and to mix some of the younger squad members with the more experienced players. Head coach Jess Thirlby said the team’s performances and results auger well for the new Superleague season.

“It was great to start the year by bringing some silverware back to Bath,” she said “It gives us some real momentum for the next few weeks and we feel increasingly confident about our combinations.”

Internationals Call ups Pamela Cookey (C), Kadeen Corbin, Mia Ritchie, and Stacey Francis retained their places in the senior England squad. Samantha Cook, Shaunagh Craig and Yasmin Parsons got their first taste in the England Senior squad for the Netball Europe Open championships. The above three including Rosie Allison have been named in the England U21 squad for the upcoming World Youth Championships in Glasgow.

Netball Talent League A strong season for the U19s saw a third place finish realised. On their way to six wins out of nine matches the girls scored 384 goals whilst only conceding 357 providing a positive goal difference of 27. Manchester Thunder won the league with nine out of nine wins. There were England U17 call ups for Ashleigh Stock and Summer Artman and U19 call ups for Abi Caple, Sophie Masterson and Lauren Brooks.

Attendances We witnessed a record attendance for our second NSL home match of the season against Loughborough Lightening. Over the 7 home games this season we had 4639 people watch the matches making the average attendance equate to 663 people.

Social Media Following the success on the court, our social media has expanded this year with a large interest on Twitter (@teambathnetball) and Facebook with 2,811 followers and 957 likes respectively. We also have a website with more in depth information on our programme.

Support There has seen a rise in support from local businesses with Carter Jones, Sheckters, The Tramshed, Beechen Cliff, The Grill and J&J King coming on board in varying capacities.

School/Club Visits With most of the girls playing for Team Bath and England this year the school visits have been completed when we can. The schools we have visited include Canford, Chafyn Grove, Marlborough College and St Johns school. We also presented at Bridgwater Netball Club.

Holiday Camps Our holiday camps have taken off in their second year, with two days available during each holiday and half term period. The Superleague girls all helped out when they can to offer words of inspiration and advice to the years 7, 8 and 9 girls.

Thanks for your support  Jess and Denise