Surrey Storm netballer Tamsin Greenway blogs exclusively for Sportsister. Well the past 6 weeks haven’t disappointed, its been crazy jam packed with netball, netball and more netball, the question is where to start?!
We’ll begin with Surrey Storm who are still happily perched on the top of the league, with three games remaining before the playoff finals start.
They are three crucial matches though as the top place looks like it will go down to goal difference now as we are on equal points with Team Bath so we are on a mission to pile on the goals, Rachel Dunn our shooting machine is currently chained to the post practising away!
We definitely haven’t had it our own way the past few games and it just goes to show how the competition is changing. With convincing wins over Glasgow Wildcats, Loughborough Lightning, Celtic Dragons and Leeds Carnegie, we’ve also had to suffer out first two losses of the season through Northern Thunder and Team Bath.
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However it has only made us stronger as a squad and we can take some big positives from all the games. We had to say goodbye to our captain Sonia Mkoloma and Geva Mentor as they left for Australia to play in the ANZ, but we welcomed in two new recruits ex-England players Janet Coulburne and Natalie Seaton and what a great job they have done so far. They’ve slotted in excellently and as a team we have been moving forward nicely, so bring on the finals!
Talking of BIG changes we have moved in to Surrey Sports Park, our new home and what a facility it is! For those who don’t know Storm are partnered by The University Of Surrey in Guildford and Surrey Sports Park and for the past few months we have been waiting for our new multi-million pound venue to be finished and it is!
Obviously the Sports Park doesn’t completely belong to us, we share it with a few other sports and teams, like the Guildford Heat Basketball and Harlequins Rugby. It is absolutely incredible. More exciting than that we are hosting our first home game there on Saturday 10th April and although it will be sad to leave the Guildford Spectrum who have been great at hosting all our home games this year, it’ll be amazing to have our own fortress! If you haven’t seen anything about the Surrey Sports Park then please check it out online www.surreysportspark.co.uk you won’t be disappointed!
Now I couldn’t not mention the England Test Series against Australia in February as everyone I bump in to is still talking about it. What a three match test it ended up being, we said we were feeling positive before the games and rightly so after our performances.
After winning the first test by just one goal and losing the next one by just four, it was set up to be a fantastic finale at the O2 in London for the decider. What a show down it was, in front of a packed house England led the whole way only to beaten in the last five minutes going down by two goals. We were truly gutted, as it was definitely ours for the taking.
From a Storm perceptive Sonia and Geva were fantastic as always, and Rach got to start in the first test. Personally I got lots of court time which I was pleased with although pretty sad I didn’t get on to court in the last game. However as a squad it shows how far we’ve come, beating Australia for the first time in 27 years was a massive accomplishment and shows the gap is closing. It also gives us great hope moving forward to the Commonwealth Games later this year.
So finally off the court, my netball development role at Surrey Sports Park is going well, although I’m not sure I’m used to being this busy, ever! But as usual I’ve been out and about in the region attending tournaments like the Surrey Schools competition in Epsom and the Camden High 5 Schools Finals. I’ve also been taking some more Satellite Academies in Surrey and been at court openings in Bracknell as well as trips further a field to Guernsey!
Can I just say thanks to everyone who has had me along, I’ve enjoyed all of them, the netball has been great and the enthusiasm amazing. I think the strangest trip was when Sky Sports followed me around for the day for a day in the life of Tamsin Greenway!
We went along to Royal School in Haslemere for some coaching and I had the cameraman in my face all day! He followed me to Eagle Radio station where I had an interview, then to the school, then back to work at the Sports Park before I started Storm training. It was a long day, but a funny one, its very weird having a camera with you everywhere you go, people look at you strangely, but I enjoyed the experience all the same.
Speaking of different things, I have got myself involved in something called street netball, it’s a new take on the game that is aimed at teens, both boys and girls and its awesome. If you haven’t heard about it check out their website www.goplaynetball.com its pretty cool.
I got roped in to play a little exhibition match and I loved it, we played with a group of basketball guys, who had some amazing tricks and we had so much fun. We even went down and did a festival in Bournemouth the other week, which was really popular. Ex England Captain Amanda Newton is involved in it as well as current international Sasha Corbin and we all had a lot of fun catching up and coaching Street Netball, I think its really going to take off.
Last but not least I do have some social time and I managed to get one night off to put on a dress and do my hair for a really nice charity event. One of my best friends decided she was going to run the London Marathon next month, which I think is incredible – I’m not sure I could do it! So she asked me to host her charity auction in Surrey, we had a great night. I was given my own hammer and did not a bad job for my first auction! Plus we raised nearly £4,000 for her charity Chase. So I’ll be cheering her on in London next month, resting my legs for the netball finals.
That’s it for now!
Tamsin x
Tamsin Greenway, Sportsister
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