Imogen Allison interview: From Brooksbank School to Netball World Cup final for Yorkshire terrier

But Imogen Allison of Huddersfield had certainly earned her place in the biggest game in her sport. A graduate of the netball pathway in Yorkshire via six years playing for Team Bath in Superleague, Allison got a lucky break at last year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham when she was elevated from reserve player to the full squad, and she has not looked back since.

Indeed, 12 months later she could call herself a World Cup finalist, a pinch-me moment for a girl who only started playing netball at the Brooksbank School in Halifax at the age of 11.

“To get into our first World Cup final, I just couldn’t believe it,” Allison tells The Yorkshire Post. “If somebody had have told me at any stage of my career that I would get there with this England team, I wouldn’t have believed them.

“It was an incredible feeling. We had family and friends out there and they were just going wild.”

The presence of her mum and her old coach at Yorkshire Terriers, Lee Davis, in the arena in Cape Town as England defeated New Zealand in the World Cup semi-final made it extra special, two people who had been with Allison from the very start of her netball journey.

Fourteen years earlier she was an 11-year-old who played every sport going.

“A lot of gymnastics when I was younger, I loved football,” she recalls. “When I got to (Brooksbank) high school I did everything I could – rounders, trampolining, one time I was in the PE department and they were one down for the hockey team. I’d never played hockey before but I gave it a go.

“I love the social element of sport. I’m very competitive, but I love playing with friends.”

Netball combined the social element of a team game with playing indoors.

“I wasn’t a big wet-weather fan playing football,” she laughs. “Netball was a sport that I was good at, but also I enjoyed how fast-paced it was, the tactics, figuring out the opposition.

“I got better at it quicker than I did other sports. When you’re younger and you’re good at something you just roll with it and I just fell in love with the sport.”

Fortunately for Allison, there was a pathway within Yorkshire to harness her talent.

She played for the Yorkshire Terriers who were based at Brooksbank School and at the encouragement of her PE teacher, went for trials at Calderdale district, then West Yorkshire, and then county level.

By the time she reached her first England trial it had all been plain sailing. Then she hit her first setback.

“I walked into that England trial and thought ‘wow, I could do with a growth spurt here’,” laughs Allison. “Because it was kind of the first time I was surrounded by people from different areas, all the London girls, south west girls. I’d played against some of them but never walked into a room with quite a mixture of people and I just thought ‘oh my gosh, this is intense’.

“This was pre-growth spurt for me so I was pretty small. I remember looking at my Dad who was up on the balcony, and just mouthing ‘what’s going on?’. He was like ‘don’t worry, you’ll be fine’.

“I walked in thinking whatever happens, happens, which was quite mature for my 15-year-old self, but when I didn’t get picked I was gutted. It was a knockback that took time to process because prior to that I’d go to a trial and get in.

“Twelve months later I was a bit bigger – my growth spurt came quite late. I’m still the smallest on most of my teams!

“And that second time I was more confident, I’d had more time in the academy at Yorkshire, a few of my friends had already made it to England level so there were a couple of people I knew which always helps.

“I knew how the trial was going to go. You’ve got to put your hand up, you’ve got to step up, you’ve got to put yourself out there. So second time around I was a bit more confident.”

The final step on the Yorkshire pathway was playing for the county’s team in Superleague, the Jets. She ticked that off the list in 2016 when still a teenager.

“I loved the team, loved every minute, everyone looked after me because I was the youngest on the team,” says Allison, for whom that Yorkshire pathway was essential. “I was 17/18 and I learned so much. Playing in Superleague was a big step up for me but I learned so much about netball and about myself.

“I was the youngest so I wasn’t going to get in every team, every squad, so when I did I was super grateful. I knew I had to give it my all after fighting and fighting to get in the squad.”

The Yorkshire Jets would not return in 2017, denied a Superleague licence by Netball England due to a lack of infrastructure.

Allison had already resolved by then that she would go to university in Bath and so started a six-year relationship with Team Bath, an established operation in English netball’s top flight. Senior England recognition for a player who can operate as a wing defence or centre, came during the Covid lockdowns of 2020.

“It was a pretty crazy time of year, mid-Covid, but they still put a tour on to New Zealand,” says Allison.

“I didn’t expect to play so that first time I got put on the court they said ‘Imo you’re going to go on’ and I nearly turned round to them and said ‘are you sure?’

“It was so overwhelming, but such an amazing experience. It was the fastest quarter of my life. I was turned inside out, running around chasing everyone, I gave it my all, but didn’t play very well.

“It was an experience I won’t forget.”

Then came the Commonwealth Games, and an unexpected elevation into a 12-strong squad when Beth Cobden - a gold medallist four years earlier - withdrew injured. “I wasn’t even expecting to be playing so my mindset was you’ve just got to take it all in,” says the 25-year-old.

“It was crazy, unlike any other Commonwealth Games, they were still doing Covid testing, but going into every game with that crowd – I’ve never heard noise like it, you can’t hear your team-mates, you can’t hear the refs. Again I was just running around.”

Modest she might be with claims of ‘just running around’ but Allison had clearly taken the eye of the England selectors.

She went to the Quad Series this January knowing it was her best chance to nail down a place in the squad for the World Cup and then the call came through in the Spring that she would head to South Africa in July to represent her country on the biggest stage. As England progressed through the group stage with Allison’s role becoming ever more important, they got their statement win over historically dominant Australia in the group stage to set up a semi-final with defending champions New Zealand, a team that were wobbling.

“I was more nervous the night before the semi-final than I was the night before the final,” says Allison. “Knowing England had previously never got past the semi-final, that was nerve racking.

“And the semi was absolute madness; quarters one, two and three all ended in a draw so it was like playing for no reason, all down to that last 15 minutes, but we pulled away. Geva and Jade have been to six of these and never got to a World Cup final; you look at their faces and see how huge it is.

“I was doing it for me but I was also doing it for them.

“Once we were in the final, I was nervous, it was more this uncharted territory, it was a ‘give it what you’ve got’ situation.”

England did give everything but fell short against Australia.

Two months after that enormous high, Allison is keeping everything in perspective.

She has a new club to play for in Superleague champions Manchester Thunder – “a really cool opportunity for me” – and a new World Cup cycle to begin, starting in December against South Africa in a three-match test series in Manchester and Nottingham.

“What’s next,” she asks rhetorically, “I don’t know, wherever the wind takes me.

“It’s time to rebuild, reset and take a breath. We start again with the international series, we’ve got the South Africa series at the end of the year.

“When I started the last four-year cycle, I wasn’t too young, but definitely inexperienced, but now I feel much more experienced and looking forward to taking on a bit more of a senior role – though not too senior.”