SUPERLEAGUE NEWS

Northern Thunder are pleased to announce that we have secured a contract to compete in the Fiat Netball Superleague for the next four years. Following a lengthy application process which included a presentation in front of the England Netball board in London, the north west franchise scored highly in all departments and joins another seven teams competing for the 2012 season.
 
The Fiat Netball Superleague has been revamped for 2012, nine teams has been cut to eight, England Netball received 10 applications including one from Birmingham. However, we can exclusively reveal that the Birmingham bid was not successful and Glasgow Wildcats miss out.
 
So the new look Superleague is made up of the following teams: Northern Thunder, Yorkshire Jets (formerly Leeds), Team Northumbria, Loughborough Lightning, Team Bath, Hertfordshire Mavericks, Surrey Storm and Celtic Dragons.
 
It is exciting times for the Superleague, the fast growing league boasts more sponsors than ever and ever-increasing crowds, last season saw a Superleague record crowd of 1200 when Team Bath took on Northern Thunder at Bath University.
 
The new format also sees an innovative structure where in phase one all team play each other once, phase two sees the league split in half and the top four play each other three times while the bottom half mirror the format. The winner of the lower league gets a second chance to reach play-offs when they have a one-off play-off with the bottom team of the higher league. Culminating in a fantastic Grand Final weekend.
 
Director of Northern Thunder, Debbie Hallas said: “It is great to know the hard work we have put in has paid off and we have been rewarded another four year contract for the Superleague. We have made huge progress on and off the court and I can only thank all those involved for the help and support along the way. I can’t wait for the 2012 season to start now. We have some surprises in store so watch this space!”