Team Bath players looking forward to England opener v South Africa

Team Bath’s England international netballers said they can’t wait to tackle South Africa in Sunday’s (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 Sunday’s game at the University, which gets underway at 1.30pm, is already a sellout.

England captain Pamela Cookey, a Team Bath player and University of Bath Business Administration graduate, said: “I can’t wait for it to start. It will be good to put our training into action on the court.

“Bath is my home and the crowd here is fantastic. That makes it really special,” she added. “The crowd are close to the court and that gives it a great atmosphere. It’s always an honour to captain your country.”

Team Bath midcourter Serena Guthrie said: “It will be good to get back out there in England colours. Everyone has been training hard and the intensity is good, but we’re all pretty relaxed.

“Most 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.”

Defender Stacey Francis, also a Team Bath player, added: “The mood in the camp is absolutely fantastic.  South Africa are the sort of team that keep you honest, so if you don’t play well they’ll capitalise on it. We want to win it and we want to win it convincingly. We’ll be trying to put out four consistent quarters over three matches.”

Mia Ritchie and Kadeen Corbin, who both featured in Team Bath’s 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.

You can find out more about Team Bath on our website teambath.com

You can also follow Team Bath on Twitter at twitter.com/teambath or facebook.com/teambath

For further information please contact the Team Bath press office at Matchtight Ltd on 01225 383518.