British Vogue - 08.2019

Squad

GOALS

England’s revered netball

team has rekindled our love

for the game. As the World

Cup gets under way, Laura

Bailey takes to the court.

Photographs by Alice Mann

I

spent most of my teens in an

eclectic variety of sports kits:

track spikes, leotards, harlequin

blue-and-whites for county hockey,

and a neat navy Aertex shirt and

miniskirt for senior netball. The latter

we paired with white ankle socks, and

the bobble-sock phase was especially

thrilling. The team co-ordinated in

baby-blue or dolly-pink pompoms,

worn with Green Flash trainers that,

once outgrown, we’d carve the ends off

and wear peep-toe style (a concept I

failed to sell to my kids recently).

I wore my C for Centre bib with pride,

thriving on anticipation, interception,

reading the game and making things

happen. Each team I played for became

a surrogate family, and I relished the

thrill of the rides to away matches,

Deep Heat and last Rolos, the captain’s

armband and customised hoodies. But

then life accelerated – I discovered boys

and music – and I gave up.

So, when my 11-year-old daughter

told me that netball was on television

in April last year, I almost didn’t believe

her. I’d never seen it played beyond

schoolgirl level, let alone internationally.

Yet she cheered from our sofa, entranced

as England’s Vitality Roses triumphed

in 2018’s Commonwealth Games.

Through my daughter, I reconnected

with the game, messing around with

her and a rusty hoop in our basement.

I shared her excitement when an ex-

England player visited her school, and

Clockwise from

left: Laura Bailey

with Serena

Guthrie, Summer

Artman and Eboni

Usoro-Brown.

Laura wears

hoodie, £600.

Trackpants, £540.

Both The Row, at

Matchesfashion.

com. Trainers,

£780, Chanel.

Hair: Diana Moar.

Make-up: Rebekah

Lidstone. Styling:

Julia Brenard

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