Both Nell in Upper Sixth and Eva in Middle Fifth have been rewarded for their hard work and dedication with places in the Team Bath squads for their forthcoming seasons. Nell, who has played for Team Bath across other age groups has been selected their U19 NPL squad for the 2024/25 season. This is her third season playing in the NPL league with the previous two seasons were in the U17s. The U19s is a big step up, but very exciting and will require Nell to travel to train twice a week in Bath.
The NPL league consists of all the professional franchises playing against each other. England netball says
“The U19 Netball Performance League (NPL) has eleven teams competing for the trophy. Its aim is to provide the game’s outstanding youth (U19) players with a performance environment and to organise regular, highly disciplined, and intense competition for them.”
This season, the teams competing are Birmingham Panthers, Cardiff Dragons, Leeds Rhinos (North East), Leeds Rhinos (Yorkshire), London Mavericks, London Pulse, Loughborough Lightning, Manchester Thunder, Nottingham Forest, Pulse Power, and Team Bath. Nell’s season starts this weekend, 23 November at home to Loughborough Lightning, who were the previous winners of the u19 league so it’s a tough start. We wish Nell the very best.
It is also a superb achievement and big commitment for Eva who moves up from the Team Bath ADC squad to a more regionalised squad called the junior PDP. Eva will train weekly and will play against other super league teams as they aim to progress to the NPL U17 squad in the franchise league next year and beyond. This is a superb achievement for Eva and she will be looking forward to playing and training at an extremely high standard each week.
