Team Bath players looking forward to England opener v South Africa
Team Bath¹s England international netballers said they can¹t wait to tackle South Africa in Sunday¹s (22 September) international fixture at the University of Bath.
Five members of Team Bath 2013 Superleague winning set-up feature in the 12-strong England squad for the three-game series.
They are joined in the England squad by a further five former Team Bath players.
England have been training at the Sports Training Village ahead of the series and Sunday¹s game at the University, which gets underway at 1.30pn, is already a sellout.
England captain Pamela Cookey, a Team Bath player and University of Bath Business Administration graduate, said: ³I can¹t wait for it to start. It will be good to put our training into action on the court.
³Bath is my home and the crowd here is fantastic. That makes it really special,² she added. ³The crowd are close to the court and that gives it a great atmosphere. It¹s always an honour to captain your country.²
Team Bath midcourter Serena Guthrie said: ³It will be good to get back out there in England colours. Everyone has been training hard and the intensity is good, but we¹re all pretty relaxed.
³Most of the squad have had some experience of playing in Bath during their careers, so we love playing in front of the amazing crowd here.²
Defender Stacey Francis, also a Team Bath player, added: ³The mood in the camp is absolutely fantastic. South Africa are the sort of team that keep you honest, so if you don¹t play well they¹ll capitalise on it. We want to win it and we want to win it convincingly. We¹ll be trying to put out four consistent quarters over three matches.²
Mia Ritchie and Kadeen Corbin, who both featured in Team Bath¹s 2013 Superleague winning team, are also members of England squad for the series. The Bath game is followed by fixtures at Wembley Arena on Wednesday and at Worcester on 27 September.
With excitement building ahead of the opening game at the University, people arriving on campus by car on Sunday are being advised to leave some extra time to park.
A lot of students are returning to their campus accommodation for the start of the new term that day and there may be delays of up to 15 minutes between arriving at the campus entrance and getting to a car park space.
There are plenty of parking spaces available but traffic arriving on campus is likely to be heavy.
