Is there a story that you could tell us? Is there an experience and, that's really stayed with you, that reminded you of why work like this and programs like walking netball matter so much?

Yeah.

I think for me, like one of my favorite moments at work that I've ever had was the first walking netball tournament I went to.

I think I'd j- just started my role.

I was only about maybe like a month in, and Kelly Thompson, our Northampton Shirendian every year, um, she runs her, um, walking netball tournament and I just remember being absolutely blown awa- away by Just the, the amount of different people there and loads of people, um, I sort of went with my Love for Lightning hat on as well as my, um, work hat.

So people, you know, just coming up to me, just get- start getting chatting and I just remember being just so blown away by, by everybody's different stories and, you know, like some, some women had like all of their family here, their partners, their kids, and they were like, "Oh, we're like, we're just so proud to see, to see Mom, you know, back on the netball court after, you know, tearing an Achilles or, or just having a baby." And, you know, and then you had, you know, other clubs that were there in, in their matching T-shirts and it was, you know, they'd had this in their calendar for months and months, and they absolutely love it.

Um, yeah, so I think that day just, it really opened my eyes and yeah, just highlighted the whole diverse, um, audience that walking netball attracts.

What have you seen is really drives the success of a cl- of a grassroots club?

What do you think's helped you particularly this season perform so well so far? And has it had a positive impact having Joe Noel involved in the team, obviously being a bit more defensive style coach?

Yeah, I think having Joe here.

has definitely helped me I think I think it's important just to have fresh faces fresh coaches just for personal development I think at Lightning one of our strengths is that we have such a core group of coaching staff and players as well stay year after year I do think it is important just to have yeah some new fresh faces because everybody's got different ideas different you know coaching philosophies and they can just bring out and see different things and different athletes so yeah I think for me probably the introduction of Jo Noelle coming in has been really positive I think yeah just learning from her like I say it's just just new ideas that she brings to the group yeah I think that's that's really helped me I also think just like away from the court personal life I'm just really feel like really happy at the minute like really supported with lightning and I think yeah when you're happy off the court that definitely transpires and you end up just having just more fun and played more freedom and yeah I just feel like I've taken the pressure off myself quite a bit this year and yeah I'm glad it looks like that on the court as well.

Which opposition particularly do you think challenged you the most in terms of obviously the shooting element of who you've played against?

For us, I think probably one of the most surprising teams we came up against was the Birmingham Panthers attacking lineup.

I think we maybe didn't expect them to quite light up like they did.

I think it was definitely, you know, a battle between Tiana and Sammy at the other end who could shoot the most twos.

Yeah, so I think it's just, you know, our game is very much, we definitely attack the two-point time.