Thunder too fast for rivals

Sarah Bayman

NETBALL
Tracey Neville, director of Northern Thunder, guided her girls to the Fast Net Grand Prix national finals with a 25-23 extra-time victory over cross-Pennine rivals Yorkshire Jets.

The Fast Net Grand Prix features all eight Superleague teams and is split into Northern and Southern conferences, with the top two from each going through to the finals weekend.

Thunder went unbeaten for the whole of the conference tournament, which was played in the Fast Net format of the sport.

It is a shorter more entertainment-orientated version, with the quarters reduced from 15 to six minutes, rolling subs, three-pointers from outside of the shooting circle and a power play where every goal is doubled in value.

The competition was Neville’s debut as Thunder head coach and she is not planning on simply making up the numbers in Friday’s finals in Surrey.

“It has been a real rollercoaster for me getting to know the players in a short space of time,” the former England international shooter said.

“We’ve always wanted to go to Surrey and the finals are what we want to be in.

“Fast Net is one of those games where you can’t predict what’s going to happen, it all depends on where you play your power plays — but we’ll definitely be competing for the championship.”

Thunder opened up with a 28-14 victory over Yorkshire Jets, with their Leeds-based rivals unable to compete with Thunder’s mid-court, which featured England internationals Laura Malcolm and Sara Bayman.

They then went on to beat Loughborough Lightning 32-16 and Team Northumbria 34-12 in the remaining round-robin games.

Jets put up a great fight in the final, but it was Thunder who booked their trip south with a hard-fought success.

SQUAD: K Almond, E Dovey, E Cardwell, B Cobden, L Malcolm, S Bayman (captain), D Bloomfield, R Henry, M McAndrew, K Turner, J Lawson, K Enziano.