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Netball: England reign over The Queens in opening World Champs encounter

July 4, 2024

The opening encounter for the 2011 World Championships for England was against risky opposition in the form of Malawi. Having seen Jamaica, Australia and New Zealand rack up some early big wins it was important for the England side to make their own statement of intent. England-v-Malawi--world-cha

Sue Hawkins has previously mentioned that The Queens represent our biggest challenge in the group stage and it would be important for the team to come out strong from the start. This is exactly what happened. After a slightly cagey opening, there were signs of good movement and fluent passing moves as England raced into a lead.

It was obvious from the start that Malawi’s best form of defence was attack. Periods of the first quarter saw the defence struggling to contain a high energy Malawi attack. However, two quick turnovers put England in control of the first quarter as Joanne Harten and Pamela Cookey started to work well in the circle.

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The mid-court was also asserting their influence and started to up the tempo, forcing mistakes from The Queens as England surged into 15 – 7 lead after 10 minutes. A fantastic end to the quarter saw Karen Atkinson, Jade Clarke and Tamsin Greenway working well in mid-court as the first fifteen minutes concluded at 22 – 10 in England’s favour.

The start of the second quarter saw another side to the team as great battling from Clarke saw possession retrieved. England continued to pile on the pressure and the defensive duo of Sonia Mkoloma and Eboni Beckford-Chambers were restricting the opposition. The only flaw to the play was the occasional sporadic pass that was leading to turnovers. These occasions allowed Malawi back into the game and with every chance they took, their belief grew.

Mkoloma saw this as the moment to impose herself on the game a little more and she showed the character and emotion of a captain as she started to marshal the troops from the back of the court. However, the scoring was not as free flowing as before and England took to the interval leading 36 – 17. Half-time also signalled the chance for Hawkins to adjust the ranks on court. Stacey Francis and Geva Mentor were brought on in defence and Louisa Brownfield came on at GS. Serena Guthrie replaced the hard working Clarke at GD.

More excellent work at the start of the half from Cookey saw England increase the lead. The ball was heading out for Malawi possession when the TeamBath shooter leapt back and flung the ball to her team mate as she made a crash landing. The ball was quickly moved around the mid-court and fed into Brownfield who sealed a wonderful move. The match continued to be a low scoring affair after the frenetic first quarter but England were doing enough to assert their superiority without ever having the sense that they would dominate as completely as they had done so against Fiji in their warm up match at the weekend.

The ball was starting to change hands at rate of knots as both teams struggled to make moves stick and keep possession. Credit has to be given to the opponents as Malawi were really pressing the England side and forcing quick decisions which ultimately led to misplaced passes and turnovers. In the fourth quarter the versatility of the squad was shown as Rachel Dunn was introduced for Cookey and Clarke took to the court again in place of Greenway. This moved Atkinson to WA as the Northern Thunder mid-courter headed to C.

The final quarter was more of a precession and the only real incident of note was a nasty looking accident involving Francis. Fighting for possession the defender leapt over the advertising boards and clattered into a sheet behind the court where she lodged her foot under some scaffolding. Fortunately, it was not as bad as first looked and she was able to continue, albeit with a small hobble.

With England back up to a full contingent they saw the game out to 65 – 33 and headed to the top of Group D. It was a hard fought match which was full of passion and energy from both sides and would have certainly left the team with an idea on how tough it will be to win this tournament.

Shooting Stats:

Q1: Pamela Cookey 9/10, Joanne Harten 13/13
Q2: Pamela Cookey 5/7, Joanne Harten 9/11
Q3: Pamela Cookey 3/3, Louisa Brownfield 10/12
Q4: Rachel Dunn 5/6, Louisa Brownfield 11/12
Team: 65/74

England Netball reporter
Sportsister, The Women’s Sports Magazine

Image credit: All images courtesy of the WNC Facebook site.

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