The Mo Hunt Column: Beach cricket and birthday celebrations
In her second column, Natasha 'Mo' Hunt takes us behind the scenes as the Red Roses continue their WXV campaign in Dunedin.
Hello lovely people, welcome back to week two of my WXV column. I hope you enjoyed last week’s and I’m sure you’ve been eagerly awaiting week two!
First things first, I must apologise to my mum, I joked that she didn’t have a clue about the tournament; in truth, she’s probably the most switched on. She has WXV1, 2 and 3 times and dates of games handwritten on a piece of A4 paper and even colour coded so if anyone needs a hand, @sallyhunt301 is your girl!
Welcome, Mitch
I left you last time having not met our new head coach and eagerly awaiting our game to see if all the hard graft and new shape was going to come together for us. I can confirm it’s been great to have Mitch (John Mitchell) here. He’s been in the background so far but is offering loads of helpful hints and tips to various players and is a breath of fresh air. My first exchange with him, he shook my hand and said, “hello Natasha, nice to meet you”. I obviously quickly responded with “you can call me Mo” but the fact he knew everyone, knew what we were about after being so incredibly busy with the Japan team through the World Cup, for me is instant respect. Even more respect was awarded when he put us into four teams and got us to play grubber touch against each other; the winners got coffees, bought for us by the man himself. I’m just buzzing because my team has won twice in a row!
We had an incredible welcome to the New Zealand Campus of Innovation & Sport, where we were based in Wellington. As a traditional welcome from NZCIS, Marlie was gifted a taura (binding rope) with Red Roses written on it, which she attached to the pou at the facility and will remain there forever more. The rope’s strands are said to signify the coming together of diverse individuals who will be watched over whilst they are at the facility. It was a really cool moment and one that will live long with us.
We then got taken to the premier changing room which was just insane! It was all set up for the Sweden Women’s football team as they were based here for the Football World Cup but they have genuinely thought of everything. Another great thing about our training centre, we were sharing with the Welsh girls and we got to have a couple of catch ups through the week. I play with loads of the girls at club and it was so nice to see them, the sunshine even came out for our coffee catch ups, which was needed.
Game day
Game day came around fast and we had a special shirt presentation as Daisy Hibbert-Jones was awarded her first cap and the girls were buzzing for it. It was also the first time (we think!) all of the Gloucester-Hartpury girls were playing in the same matchday squad, so we had a picture to mark that too.
I always get nervous on match day mornings and this was no different; eating becomes a struggle so I do everything to get some fuel into me. It’s always harder when it’s a late kick-off as you have so long to work yourself up to it. I love a drive to the stadium because I get to put my matchday music on. When we arrived it was the first time I’d stepped into the stadium and the pitch could not have been in better condition. I really enjoy my pitch walk and the classic throwing of the grass in each corner to see which way the wind is blowing. There wasn’t a massive crowd but there were enough and our bench had a plastic casing which rattled when we hit it meaning we could create our own atmosphere! It was an incredible way to start our campaign against a great Australian team; the vibes were good and post-match was class. We had a bit of a sing song in the centre of the changing rooms (and on the bus back to NZCIS!), for those that wanted to, and Daisy was presented with her first cap in front of her mum and dad - special moments.
We moved to Dunedin on Saturday, on a flight with the Australia team. It was a great idea at the time until you combine all of the luggage! Needless to say, the airline staff had a good game of Jenga with the bags!
Meggy (Meg Jones) had her birthday this week which was cute. We set the room up with her cards and presents and the girls got her a few bits. It’s always so hard to have a birthday away from everyone but we always do our best. We had the evening off as well, so a few of us headed out for a nice meal to celebrate. I’m very grateful to be surrounded by great teammates.
Howzat!
Cricket has been living rent free in Goughy’s (one of our analysts) head since we were in Wellington. He stepped up to bat for the first staff v players game and when asked if he played cricket his response was “I’ve played a bit”… You can guess what happened next. First ball: Out! We played another game in Dunedin and Goughy stepped up as first batter for his redemption. He missed his first two swings and got bowled on the third so he was wounded. It wasn’t just Goughy; the staff didn’t offer much, they had 30 bowls and got 17 runs! Our umpire Amy Cokayne was in fine form as ever and the team buy-in was massive. Maud had an absolutely outrageous shot which made us all go wild and Singers (Emma Sing) did her classic trick of whacking the ball as hard as she could into the waiting batters - yes towards her teammates! - this week Tatty (Tatyana Heard) was the victim of a ball to the stomach!
It’s important to note here that the loser of the staff v players game had been told they had to get into the sea. Considering how baltic it was, that soon got dismissed, but when Goughy dropped the final catch of the day, the girls started chanting, “Goughy in the sea, in the sea!’.
After a few verses he ran down to the water and belly flopped in fully clothed! He now has legendary status! Team hero and hoping to be awarded the courage award this weekend – more on this next week!
For now, have a lovely week, we can’t wait to go again this Friday, the stadium looks class and training has been great, we just hope we can put in another performance! Big love.
