The Netball Show
S7 Ep65: James Thomson-Boston (08th Sept 2024)
(upbeat music) - Nat Netcoff here. I'm really proud to be an ambassador for Flyhawk, leading the way for Netball and Women's Sport. Flyhawk design and make Netball dresses have Netball kit, Netball team wear, and Netballs plus much, much more. Head to flyhawk.com now. - The Netball show with Flyhawk, raising the bar for Netball and Women's Sport. - In Thompson, Boston, captain of the Thorns and Flyhawk ambassador joins me now as the new Thorns team has just been announced. And Jimmy, this is a team that's really strong in it. - Yes, oh God, this, we're really excited for this new squad. We've managed to grab some boys who've been away from the program for a couple of years. Notably, Jamal, I think most people hopefully have seen Jamal before. They would have seen photos of Jamal before. He's had a year across in Australia playing for New South Wales and has come back with loads more experience. And his on-court presence is just second to none now. So it's very exciting having back inside the squad. - Any other names that we should keep an eye on? - Oh, I think everyone across the program will have something special that people can really cheer on. Obviously, Kai Lewis is another really strong competitor, but Kai's been in the program for a couple years. He's been coming on lakes and bounds. And then sort of defensively, we've still got James McClelland. I'm sitting there in the mid court. But then a few faces that people may have seen in the mixed program who have come across people like Joel Taylor, who's gonna be sliding into our attacking lineup, Lee Robnut, who is a very, very fast wing attack. So I think hopefully with this squad and bringing some of the strongest boys across from mixed as well, we should really be competing in this calendar year. - And nice as well. We've obviously got that representation from Kraken and Hurricanes as well. There's this great representation right across the board from all different sides, really, which is good to see. - Yeah, although I'm in Scotland, we've got some of the Highland fever playing for us as well. And it's good to have such the, so I get the width and breadth of the whole country represented. It does make training a bit tricky because we all have to find a spot for me. But it is worth it to get all of us on corn together. 'Cause we want the best, the best playing with us, we want to be competing at the highest level. And it's only gonna happen if we grab the best players from around the country and find time to all mate and sort of form those connections. - And there's interest growing in the men's and mixed game all the time. So have you seen it grown over the last couple of years? - Yeah, last couple of years, it's just been sort of exponential. And sometimes it's a pinch me moment to sort of look back and go, okay, when, you know, just before we were going to Australia, when obviously we went over and played Australia in New Zealand, we were, you know, a squad of 20. And that was it. 20 people, 20, 20 lads who were going across representing England and try our best. And at one of the last training camps we were there, we not only had the thorns, which is obviously the men's side. We had the trailblazers who are under 25s. And then out of nowhere, there's now enough men's boys willing to play it. There's a full under 19 squad. And these people ranging from 14 to 19. And some of them Andy are enormous. They are absolutely enormous. Two words, I put humongous and enormous there together. New words, you know. - Very good. - But there's some boys there who are like six, three, six, four. And when they came to the doors, it's like, well, are you playing thorns? Where are you playing? I've never seen you before. But easy boys who are bucking the trend. And when they were told that they weren't allowed to play, you know, post 14, they're like, no, I'm going to keep playing. I'm going to find a club. And now they're inside the England program. So we're very excited. - Obviously performing games against side on an international basis is maybe one of the games. We know that the roses have with the games for Australia later this year. So are you maybe hoping to go with them and put a side against the Kelpies together? - We, I don't think we'll be going back to Australia this year. I know that we do have a tournament that we're going to. And I'm sure I'm not out of sight. So I'm going to go with it. And if not, we're going to have to do some editing. It is west of the US Men's tournament, which is happening in September in St. Kitts. And there I think is probably eight or nine teams, maybe even 10, including Jamaica, who we've obviously played last year. But also there's the US, there's Canada, St. Kitts, Grenada, like it's going to be amazing. And by all accounts, they hosted every two years last year, last time I think South Africa went. By all accounts, it is going to be a lot of fun. And it's also going to be highly competitive, which is I guess the exact mix you want when you're going across for a tournament. - And it's really just about growing again, isn't it continuing to grow the game? - Yeah, it is. It's about stepping on court and hopefully representing the values that the thorns want to put out there into the world. And I think if we can continue to do that and show that men do want to play this sport and then want to help grow this sport alongside, obviously the female side of the sport, then more people want to step on court. And I think that's probably the goal at the end of the day. Get yourself on court, give it a go 'cause this sport really is for everyone. - And the best place to find out more of the Emner website? - Yeah, Emner website. So Emner is in the men's mix netball association. So if you just Google that, it'll take you to the website and they have this really handy tracker there. So if you just say you're from Nottingham and you're right Nottingham in, it'll help you find mixed clubs, men's clubs around you, or traditionally if your female clubs for Lao, men's come down and train with them. And you can just, it'll link you to them and then get in contact with who you are, need to be in contact with. - It's a really good look inside. Jimmy, thanks again for your time. - Thank you, and it's pleasure as always. - The netball show is now also available via Sky HD, Sky Q, and Sky Glass. So let's get it. And we're on the podcast rail. (logo whooshing)
James Thomson-Boston joins us ahead of the Thorns trip to St Kitts and Nevis this week