World Cup’s a hot ticket for Neville’s golden girls
ENGLAND’S netball team became national heroes for beating Australia in their own backyard earlier this year, and such has been the rise in popularity even players cannot lay hands on tickets for next year’s World Cup in Liverpool. Tracey Neville’s team won gold Down Under in April against the odds, becoming one of the stories of the Commonwealth Games and propelling the sport into the public spotlight. So much so that when tickets for the home World Cup in 2019 went on sale online, demand was huge and left some stars of Australia without a chance to get seats for their families. Beth Cobden, wing defence, said: have much ‘We had so support from the public, and people telling us they have bought tickets; 70,000 have been sold in ‘The Liverpool. final sold out in a few minutes. I tried to get some but I couldn’t get any. ‘I was sat in the queue waiting. We get some as players but I wanted a few extras. ‘I was sat there refreshing the page constantly. They are harder to get than Glastonbury!’ England are back in action on home soil next week for the first time since Helen Housby sank a final-second shot to upset Australia seven months ago. They face Uganda in a three-match series beginning at Liverpool’s Echo Arena on Tuesday. The sides then meet again at the Copper Box Arena in Stratford on November 30 and December 2. Sasha Corbin believes the African nation provide a unique threat and a perfect tune-up for what is in store at the World Cup. ‘Uganda have a fantastic style, they play very differently to what we are used to and gave us a really big challenge at the Commonwealth Games, where we won by six,’ she said. ‘It Cobden determined will be insisted a tough to add England three to the games.’ are success of the Commonwealths. ‘We’ve definitely stamped our authority and proven we can beat the best teams,’ she said. ‘We still have a lot to do and we are not going in cocky or anything. Everyone will be coming for us. But it’s about having that belief, we’ve proved we can do it, it’s just about doing it again.’