Team Bath Netball succumb to Superleague Storm in front of record Sports Training Village crowd
Team Bath’s Superleague side went down to one of its heavier home defeats in recent years at the hands of Surrey Storm 42-56 at the University of Bath’s Sports Training Village tonight.
Coach Jess Thirlby made continual and multiple changes as she strove to settle her new squad against a well-oiled opposition attack which included Rachel Dunn, Pamela Cookey and Tamsin Greenway, all formerly of Team Bath, who piled on the pressure in the first quarter.
The visitors went 12-5 up with only eight minutes played. Surrey took the first quarter 14-8 and in the first 30 minutes Team Bath squandered multiple defensive turn-overs from Sam Cook and Stacey Francis.
With Thirlby’s side 12-28 adrift early in the second quarter the future looked bleak and the 2000 capacity crowd fell silent.
Two time-outs gave Thirbly the chance to alter her line-ups twice, resulting in the only sparkling patch of Team Bath play. The home side scored 10 goals with no reply to move to 22-29 at half-time.
“We have some great patches and it’s now about making them last longer and making them stretch out across a whole game”, said team captain Asha Francis at the end of the match.
Surrey, meanwhile, used the break to re-focus and hit back to lead 42-29 at the end of the quarter before closing out the win by 56-42.
For the home side Cook and Stacey Francis were stand-outs in defence whilst Kyra Jones made impact off the bench as did Yas Parsons in the dying minutes.
Team Bath
Starting Seven
GS: Rosie Allison GA: Asha Francis (Captain), WA: Rachel Shaw , C: Mia Ritchie WD: Stacey Francis, GD: Bessie Manu, GK: Sam Cook
Bench: Lauren Dent, Kyra Jones, Claire Brownie, Yasmin Parsons, Jenna Murie.
Shooting stats: Team Bath: Rosie Allison 36 from 41 87.8%; Asha Francis 3 from 6 50%, Rachel Shaw 3 from 5 60%.
Surrey Storm
Starting seven
GS: Rachel Dunn; GA: Pamela Cookey; WA: Tamsin Greenway; C: Mikki Austin, WD: Kat Ainsworth; GD: Katy Holland; GK: Hannah Reid
Bench: Laurelle Borck; Amy Flanagan; Kay Hayes, Josie Huckle, Georgia Lees.
Shooting stats: Rachel Dunn 38 from 43 88.4%; Pamela Cookey 18 from 19 94.7%.
Quarter scores (Team Bath first):
Q1: 8-14 Q2: 14-15 (22-29) Q3: 7-13 (29-42); Q4: 13 – 14(42-56)
