Cathedral City Lighter Fast Net Grand Prix heads to Surrey

If you loved watching England win the World Netball Series, be sure not to miss Surrey Storm in the brand new Cathedral City Lighter Fast Net Grand Prix, beginning in January 2012 at Surrey Sports Park.

Surrey Storm will join seven other Superleague teams and compete for the prize of the best domestic Fast Net team in the UK. Tickets are available to buy online now here.

The competition, a first for top flight domestic netball, is split into a northern and a southern conference with four teams contesting each event, followed by a Finals Night comprising of the best four teams from the conference stages.

Andy Crook, Competition General Manager, believes this competition is a big step forward for netball in the UK. “We are delighted Dairy Crest, the parent company of the nation’s favourite cheddar, Cathedral City, has recognised netball as a progressive and exciting sport and have signed as title sponsor of the Fast Net Grand Prix and as Official Dairy Partner of the Netball Superleague for the 2012 and 2013 seasons. 

“The introduction of the Cathedral City Lighter Fast Net Grand Prix into the UK competition calendar demonstrates England Netball’s continued innovation of the sport at all levels. Fast Net is an exciting form of the game and with the World Netball Series departing our shores for the Southern Hemisphere after the event on the 25th, 26th and 27th November, the new competition fills that void perfectly.

First up for the Cathedral City Lighter Grand Prix is the Manchester Conference, supported by Manchester City Council, which hosts Loughborough Lightning, Northern Thunder, Team Northumbria and Yorkshire Jets on Saturday 7th January at the Wright Robinson Sports Centre. The Surrey Conference is held the following day with Surrey Storm, Celtic Dragons, Hertfordshire Mavericks and Team Bath doing battle at Storm's home, Surrey Sports Park. 

All teams will play each other once during the Conference stages with the Conference Final winner and the Conference Final runners-up qualifying for the Finals Night to be held again at Storm's home, Surrey Sports Park on Friday 13th January.

The two top teams will face each other on Finals Night with the winner of this contest progressing straight to the final and the loser given a ‘double-chance’. The two teams who finish second will face one another in an elimination match with the loser taking fourth place overall. The winner faces the loser from the first game for a place in the final.

Matches will be televised on Sky Sports and tickets for the Surrey conference are available to buy now via the Surrey Sports Park Box Office.