Surrey Storm Netball Team kicked off their 2014 ZEO Superleague home fixture line-up on Monday night against defending champions Team Bath. At a sold out Surrey Sports Park, the girls played out a nail-biting 48-48 draw as England captain Pamela Cookey scored on the final whistle to secure a thrilling comeback for Team Bath and an eventful draw.
Storm coach Tamsin Greenway named an unchanged side to face the Somerset outfit, who brought a squad littered with England internationals including the afore mentioned Pamela Cookey and Serena Guthrie to the meeting.
Both sides took their time settling into the game and were closely matched in the opening minutes, but Storm quickly found their feet and began to build what appeared to be a decisive lead. Greenway fed a number of passes into goal shooter and England International Rachel Dunn as Storm gradually edged away from their opponents, whilst Amy Flanagan and Katy Holland put in some powerful defensive play between them. Surrey took a 14-11 score line into the first break.
The second quarter really saw Storm take control of the play as Flanagan immediately opened the period with a flying interception which was then fed through to Jury to score. The Surrey shooters became more mobile and held their ground (despite a number of contact calls against Bath) and so were able to find the space in the shooting circle to score effortlessly.
Storm’s efforts were countered on several occasions but the defensive work of Holland and Reid saw several outstanding interceptions being taken back to Storm’s attacking end. With the last 40 seconds of the half counting down on the clock, a huge long pass from Greenway to Dunn saw Storm win the second quarter 16-11 and secure a confident 30-22 lead at the mid-way point,.
Jess Thirlby, Team Bath head coach, commented on her team’s early woes, “We played better early on but we made some unforced errors which put us on the back foot.” However, Team Bath have not been the most successful team in Superleague history for nothing and upped their game in the second half.
Shooter Katy Harris joined the game at GA at the beginning of the third quarter and immediately netted a long distance shot from a Reid turnover ball. This gave Storm a huge ten point lead at 35-25 within a matter of minutes in the quarter and they looked to be taking a firm control of the game. However, Bath won the quarter by a single goal overall (11-12) to close the gap to seven points and Storm still looked comfortable at 41-34 going into the final quarter.
Bath returned to court for the closing stages with an unprecedented burst of desire and energy, outscoring the home team 14 points to 7, which proved pivotal in the match ending in a stalemate. Storm continued to create chances in the D, but the visitors were hot on every rebound and any sloppy passes made in the centre.
Before long it was a 2 point game at 41-39 and then this was followed by a passage of goal for goal play. A solitary turnover allowed Bath to bring the lead down to one point, forcing Storm to play out the final 40 seconds with possession netball. But a mistake in the mid court allowed Bath to drive forward, with England captain Pamela Cookey waiting under the net to level the scores at 48-48 on the final whistle thanks to a clinical final quarter for the reigning champions.
Surrey Storm are next in action on Monday as they travel to Cardiff to face Celtic Dragons and will return to Surrey Sports Park on Saturday 22 February to host Loughborough Lightning at 7pm.
Picture provided by Gary Baker