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Tamsin's England Netball World Champs Blog: Day One

28 June 2011

tamsinblog

With the England netball team set for Singapore and the 2011 World Championships, we asked Surrey Storm captain Tamsin Greenway to keep us up-to-date with all things England during the team's campaign. Via this blog, you can get an insight into the team's progress in the tournament, and what it's like for an international athlete competing in a major tournament. T's blog starts with day one at Storm's home - Surrey Sports Park.

Day One

Finally tour has begun, yet it was not quite the exotic start I hoped for arriving in Guildford in the pouring rain, but at least I feel at home training at the very familiar Surrey Sports Park. The team were looking slick today clearly having made the most of their final week fitting in new haircuts and spray tans! The new kit had arrived from Kukri too, and everyone seemed very pleased with their new stash, which was particularly good for me as I helped design the stuff. Needless to say the whole team is looking polished and feeling good.

We hit the courts early for training and it was good to get out there and put our final preparations in place. Warm up was given to us by Louisa, and inspired by her love of horses she introduced us to the horses and jockeys game. As usual there was plenty of cheating going on (mentioning no names EBC), but the best moment was watching Jo H drop Rach Dunn, not like Rach to end up on the floor!

Water intake doubled after we had a nice surprise visit from the drugs testers. After randomly selecting all the shorties (yes I am in the short group) I proceeded to sit for 2 hours with an old lady called Dorothy in drug control, pressuring me to pee. How glamorous!

The afternoon picked up with a practice match against a mixed Mavericks side. It was good to see Storm team mate Stef Bello out on court with them, hassling me! We played lots of combinations and I got a half at WA and Rach showed her versatility with a run around at GA…dangerous. We got a good score and put together some great passages of play, so things are looking good for World Champs. It was also nice to see some familiar and friendly faces up on the arena balcony watching.

After ice baths, pool recovery and a very long massage for me, we headed back to the hotel. Team activity for the evening was an indoor campfire complete with duvets and marshmallows. What followed was some serious team bonding with classic stories from our past. I think I cleared up where my competitiveness stems from and I also learnt a lot (some unwelcome) stuff from my team mates. Lets just say I now see some in a very different light….what goes on tour stays on tour.

Bring on day two.

Check back here to get the next installment to T's World Champs Blog. Come on England!