Tag: Women’s Sport

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Lionesses

Squad Announced as England begin FIFA World Cup Campaign

Photo by Aimee Reynolds

England are back in action next month as they begin their bid to secure a spot in the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027.

In 2023, the team placed second in the competition in Australia & New Zealand, losing 1-0 to Spain in the final in Sydney and the team are out for vengeance this year.

Earlier today, a new 25-player squad was announced in lieu of the qualifying matches against both Ukraine and Iceland, with the squad as follows:

Goal Keepers:

Hannah Hampton, Anna Moorhouse, Ellie Roebuck

Defenders:

Lucy Bronze, Jess Carter, Grace Fisk, Alex Greenwood, Taylor Hinds, Maya Le Tissier, Esme Morgan, Poppy Pattinson, Leah Williamson, Lotte Wubben-Moy

Midfielders:

Laura Blindkilde Brown, Grace Clinton, Lucia Kendall, Georgia Stanway, Keira Walsh

Forwards:

Aggie Beever-Jones, Freya Godfrey, Lauren Hemp, Lauren James, Chloe Kelly, Jess Park, Alessia Russo

One big noticeable change sees Ellie Roebuck called up in place of Khiara Keating, the goal keeper being called up in the primary squad for the first time since October 2023, having missed out on play opportunities both due to a stroke and a lack of playing time prior to illness.

In terms of defence, Poppy Pattinson earned herself her maiden call up to the senior team, with Jess Carter, Alex Greenwood and captain Leah Williamson all returning to the side after missing out on the November/December fixtures due to injury and recovery protocol. Niamh Charles misses out through injury once more.

With just five players named in the Lionesses midfield, we see Ella Toone and Missy Bo Kearns miss out through injury. This, combined with the recent retirement of Fran Kirby leaves England with a unique midfield mix and veterans Georgia Stanway and Keira Walsh likely to play alongside more inexperienced players in Laura Blindkilde Brown, Grace Clinton and Lucia Kendall – the 21-year-old earning her debut just five months ago.

England’s attack looks much the same to previous squads, with Lauren James returning to the squad for the first time since England’s triumphant summer and Beth Mead missing out through injury. Meanwhile, Freya Godfrey maintains her spot in the squad after an impressive performance against Manchester City as Sarina Wiegman looked on.

England face Ukraine in Antalya, Turkeyon Tuesday 3rd March at 17:00 GMT with the sides facing each other for the first time since 2014.

Four days later, the Lionesses return to home soil as they face Iceland for the first time since 2009 on Saturday 7th March at 12:30 GMT with the match taking place at Nottingham Forest’s City Ground.

Categories
WSL

Sixth Sense for Manchester City against bottom of the league, Leicester City 

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photo taken from @mancitywomen on instagram

Goals from Khadija Shaw, Yui Hasegawa, Aoba Fujino, Kerolin and a Vivianne Miedema double secured all three points. After 14 league wins (including this one), it puts them 11 points clear of rivals, Manchester United with six league games remaining. 

Manchester City started positively out of the blocks with multiple chances from Bunny Shaw being saved from Leicester City Goalkeeper Olivia Clark. Chances continued to come until the first goal 22 minutes in, with efforts from Lauren Hemp, Sam Coffey, Bunny Shaw, Kerstin Casparij and Vivianne Miedema all finding wide of the goal. 

22 minutes in, a diving header from Bunny Shaw caused the start of a goal-scoring rampage from the hosts, after the cross from Lauren Hemp on the left side found Bunny in the box and breezed it past Clark in net. 

After chances from Kerolin and Alex Greenwood in the blue of Manchester City, Vivianne Miedema found the two goal cushion six minutes after the first goal. Just outside the 18 yard box, she cut it across, and fired it into the bottom left side of the net. 

Although it was predominantly Manchester City, the visitors did have a couple of chances from Alisha Lehmann but Ayaka Yamashita did well to keep them out of it. Chances continued to come for Bunny Shaw after her and Lauren Hemp were comfortable with the ball but nothing came from then until another Vivianne Miedema goal 36 minutes in. 

She saw the cross from Lauren Hemp on the left side with her head finding the ball, and firing it past Clark in the Leicester net. Just two minutes later, Yui Hasegawa made it 4-0 after a cross from Kerolin on the right side found Hasegawa in the box and her first time attempt looped over Olivia Clark. 

Half-time: Manchester City 4-0 Leicester City 

Right off the blocks in the second half saw a fifth for Manchester City just three minutes after the restart from Kerolin. Her first-time effort from outside the box found the top left corner after the initial shot from Vivianne Miedema was blocked. 

Chances for the home side kept coming in following the first goal of the half with Aoba Fujino rounding off the scoring in the 66th minute. After pressure on Leicester, the effort went past the keeper and slotted into the back of the net and just minutes later, even had another shot on target. 

Both Home and Away sides saw chances in the final 20 minutes including Leicester looking to reduce the demolition with chances from Noemie Mouchon, hitting the top netting twice. They ultimately saw their 10th loss of the season, with Manchester calling home a fortress after scoring 22 and conceding two in the last five games.  

Full-time: Manchester City 6-0 Leicester 

What’s next for the sides: 

City remain at home as they welcome WSL2 side Sheffield United in the Adobe Women’s FA Cup, on 22nd February. For Leicester, they now have a full month off with their next game being away from home against Liverpool on 15th March in the league. 

How the teams looked: 

Manchester City: Yamashita, Rose, Greenwood © (Ouahabi 58’), Shaw, Miedema (Clinton 58’), Hemp, Kerolin (Fujino 58’), Coffey (Blindkilde Brown 77’), Casparij (Beney 77’), Hasegawa, Knaak. 

Unused Substitutes: Keating, Coombs, Lohmann, Prior. 

Goals: Shaw (22’), Miedema (28’, 36’), Hasegawa (38’), Kerolin (48’), Fujino (66’).  

Leicester City: Clark, Kees (Ale 69’), Van Egmond, Mouchon, Lehmann (Williams 59’), Thibaud, Mayling, McLoughlin, O’Brien (Payne 59’), Neville ©, Swaby.

Substitutes: Keane, Goodwin, Cain, Ayane, Walne. 

Yellow Cards: Neville (62’) 

Categories
Cricket

WPL: A Successful Competition 

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The Women’s Premier League (WPL) is a T20 competition based in India and founded in 2022, having its first tournament in 2023. This year, Royal Challengers Bengaluru won their second title on Thursday 5th February with both Mumbai Indians and RCB winning two titles each. In the inaugural competition, Mumbai Indians were winners with Delhi Capitals finishing in second. 

The WPL is a five team competition with a round-robin format, followed by playoffs and proves to be successful in the T20 competition, following the likes of The Hundred in the UK and Women’s Big Bash League in Australia. The five teams include Delhi Capitals, Gujarat Giants, Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bengaluru and UP Warriorz of which all five have played in all four versions of the competition. 

In India, the cricket craze was always there but after their win in the ODI World Cup 2025, the rise continued throughout the tournament. The final had close to 31,000 fans in attendance which made it an almost sold out occasion, despite being around an hour drive outside of the city with their home team not qualifying for the final. 

The Royal Challengers Bengaluru won against Delhi Capitals in the final which was held in Vadodara. This was the highest chase that was in the final as Capitals put on a target of 203 runs, with RCB reaching this having two balls remaining and winning by six wickets overall. 

After chasing this target (which was the highest set in a final), the RCB recorded the highest successful run chase in WPL history and was helped with a masterclass from youngster Georgia Voll and Captain Smriti Mandhana (after their 165-run partnership). The side was dominant throughout the whole of the tournament after finishing top of the table and going straight to the final. After hitting 87 runs off 41 balls, she was named Player of the Match with Georgia Voll having a composed 79 runs off 54 balls, helping take the game away from the Delhi Capitals. 

In the fourth edition, there were many players that stood out throughout the tournament including some that did not make the final. The top-scorer and therefore winner of the Orange Cap was Smriti Mandhana from Royal Challengers who put on 377 runs across her games. She recently was announced to join the Manchester Super Giants for this upcoming Hundred tournament in the Summer of 2026. Harmanpreet Kaur finished with the highest average overall (68.40 across the games) and reached a total of 342 runs. Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Grace Harris had the highest strike-rate (178.19) winning the Super Striker of the Season with both Harmanpreet Kaur and Sophie Devine hitting the most sixes (at 13 each). 

The winner of the Purple Cap (the highest wicket-taker) was tied between Gujarat Giants’ Sophie Devine and Delhi Capitals’ Nandani Sharma with 17 wickets each. Amelia Kerr had the best average overall (15.00), with Lauren Bell having the best economy rate (5.52) and Sophie Devine having the best strike-rate (11.58). 

Receiving the Most Valuable Player of the Season and the best game intelligence award was Sophie Devine with the Emerging Player of the Season being rewarded to Nandni Sharma. 

Categories
Ice Hockey

Laila Edwards: A Women’s Ice Hockey defense making history

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photo taken from @badgerswhockey on instagram

The Winter Olympics Ice Hockey campaign commenced on Thursday 5th February in Milano Cortina and at the Milano Rho Ice Hockey Arena with the side winning 5-1 against Czechia, to open up their Olympic games campaign. Goals from Alex Spencer, Joy Dunne, Hilary Knight and a double from Hayley Scamurra helped secure the win for the side. The team have medaled in all seven Olympic appearances to date including gold in 1998 and 2018. 

On the same day, Laila Edwards made her Olympic Debut but this was more than just making her debut. She became the first black player to make her Olympic debut for the USA Ice Hockey team. The Ohio Native plays for collegiate side, University of Wisconsin with the 22 year old senior graduating this year. The youngster has won two World Championship medals including a Gold and Silver at the 2025 and 2024 World Championships respectively, being named Tournament MVP aged just 20 (the youngest to do so). 

In 2023, She made history as the first Black woman to play for the USA Senior Women’s National Team and the first to score a goal for Team USA at the Worlds in 2024. Meanwhile at Collegiate Level, she calls University of Wisconsin her home and has won two NCAA National Championships with the Badgers (in 2023 and 2025). Alongside this, she was a top-three finalist in the Patty Kazmaier Award in 2025 and led the nation with 35 goals in her junior season. In 2024, the right forward also won the USA Hockey Bob Allen Women’s Player of the Year Award. 

Born and raised in Ohio, she began figure skating aged three before moving to ice hockey the year later and was enrolled in the Cleveland Heights Youth Hockey Program. By the age of eight, Edwards was travelling out of state for tournaments and played AAA Hockey with different boys’ teams, as well as participating in the Pittsburgh Penguins Elite Girls Hockey Program. She moved to a different High School aged 13 for its elite girls’ hockey program and during her career there, she scored 147 goals and 266 assists in 287 games between 2018 and 2022. 

Laila Edwards in Team USA Colours | photo taken from @teamusa on instagram

She began her collegiate career in the 2022-23 season and during her freshman year, she had 13 goals and 14 assists in 41 games, ultimately being named in the WCHA All-Rookie Team. She was named in the NCAA All-Tournament team after she recorded four goals and one assist to help her Wisconsin side to their seventh national championship, in the 2023 NCAA Division I Women’s Ice Hockey Tournament. 

In her sophomore year (2023-24), she recorded 21 goals and 35 assists in 41 games and was named in the All-WCHA Third Team. For the 2024-25 season, she was named as the alternate captain for the season and in her junior year she put on 35 goals and 36 assists in 41 games, leading the nation with her goal scoring attributes. Her goals were the most by a Wisconsin Badger since Brianna Decker in 2011-12 when she recorded 37 goals. In that season, she was named in the All-WCHA First Team and during the semifinals, she recorded a hat-trick which helped the side reach the final for the third consecutive season. 

For the USA Hockey team, she represented the U18’s in 2022 for their IIHF World Women’s Championship where she was also named alternate captain. She led the team with eight goal contributions in five games and won a silver medal and was named the most valuable player, the best forward and in the All-Tournament team. The following year, she was named in the senior team and played in the November Rivalry Series against Canada. 

In March 2024, she was named in the squad for the 2024 IIHF Women’s World Championship and during the preliminary round, she was the first black woman to score a goal for the team in the Championship. During the semifinal stage, she recorded a hat-trick and led the squad to a silver medal in the series with six goals and two assists in seven games. In the same tournament, she also won Tournament MVP and was named in the All-Star team, ultimately becoming the youngest to be named MVP at the IIHF World Women’s Championship. 

Laila Edwards is one to watch across the tournament and in the future as she moves from forward to defense and is learning to adapt to this new lifestyle. USA continue with their Olympics campaign on Saturday 7th February as they face Finland at 3.40pm (GMT Time).

Categories
Netball NSL

An Overview into NXT Gen Netball 

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photo taken from @jlf_visuals on instagram

Ahead of the revamp in 2025, England Netball and Netball Super League 2.0 introduced the new U23 league, NXT Gen. This replaced the old U21 NPL League where emerging talents broke through with the NXT Gen consisting of nine teams, all of the Netball Super League sides and the addition of Team Bath. The 2025 competition was a tight one with Loughborough Lightning being champions. 

The competition starts tomorrow (23rd January) prior to the new Super League season, with most teams playing the same side they would face in the league as they would in the NXT Gen. This essentially creates a “double header” sort of atmosphere with fans able to watch the game with their match ticket. 

Last season, the Netball Super League player pool was reduced with 11 teams becoming 8 and 12 player squads becoming 10 which made it more of a struggle to get into the first team. The league allows players to continue to play under club settings but also will let them have a pathway towards the first team. 15 players are allowed in each side and four of the 15 can be older than 23, the players can also be called up as a temporary replacement into any of the eight NSL sides. 

This season has introduced the Super Shot after its debut in the NSL during the 2025 season. For the last five minutes of each quarter, players who score from the zone will get two goal points instead of the usual one. There are also no draws so if a score is level at the end of play, it will continue until a team goes three points ahead with a win equalling three points and a loss having one point. If a game ends with five goals or less between them, there will be one extra point to the losing side. 

Many of Team Bath’s players moved on since their removal from the league prior to the revamp but some stayed with the group and joined their NXTGen side. Current Co-Captain Ellie Ervine played for the side in the Netball Super League during her debut season in 2024 wearing the centre court positions. She was competing alongside her studies at University of Bath and stayed with the side while finishing her studies. She is a player to watch this campaign aiming to put the “gold” in blue and gold and using her NSL expertise to help her side improve from last season. 

Some players play alongside university, have been in the NSL squads previously or even have played in the senior squads as temporary replacements. Some Players to watch across the league would be London Pulse’s Hannah Gibson, Team Bath’s Ellie Ervine, Manchester Thunder’s Shannon Mahlik, London Maverick’s Hannah Knightbridge and Loughborough Lightning’s Ellen Withington. 

Loughborough Lightning winning squad from 2025 | Photo taken from @lborolightning on instagram

After coming through the ranks at Pulse, Hannah Gibson stays with the NXT Gen squad for another season becoming Vice Captain for this season. She was with the England Squad for the World Youth Cup in Gibraltar last year where they won bronze and the attacker looks to help her side this year in the league and even play in the senior side with her skills. She was also NXT Gen’s Player of the Season in the inaugural year.

Manchester Thunder’s Shannon Mahlik was performing alongside the senior squad last season and hopes her experience in the squad will help the thunder side this season. The shooter has been part of the pathway since she was 12 and proves to be a player to watch this season and hope her shooting skills will help her side. 

Hannah Knightbridge made the move to London Mavericks this season after being with London Pulse in the past. The centre and wing attack performer was England’s captain in the Netball Youth Cup and after her season with London Pulse in the NXT Gen last year, she is a player to watch helping the movement across the court from the centre pass to the shooting third.

Ellen Withington is a player to watch this season after moving from Birmingham Panthers to Loughborough Lightning for the 2026 campaign. During last season, she made her debut for the Panthers and helped her side when needed during injuries, eventually replacing Gabby Marshall towards the end of the season. She hopes to bring her midcourt expertise to her new side and bring her quick transitional skills between defence and attack. 

The games are shown on englandnetball.tv with fans also able to watch the games when in attendance watching the senior side in the NSL. The website offers fans to watch the NXT Gen games as well as the younger players in action such as the PL1 and NPL. Users can pay between £49.99 to £69.99 for a yearly pass depending on the leagues and single tickets cost £5.99 per match with the ticket valid for 2 days after.