Cookey storms back for final redemption

Physically, she is where she once was but mentally missing the Commonwealth Games is still hard to bear

Pamela Cookey in action for England (Getty Images)

The date 26 April is etched on the mind of Pamela Cookey. Competing for Team Bath against Hertfordshire Mavericks in the Netball Superleague play-offs last year, she ruptured her Achilles and, in a flash, realised that her hopes of leading England at the Commonwealth Games were gone.

The same date this year has the potential to be altogether different, a possible day of celebration after the Grand Final at London’s Copper Box. There is a synergy, in that the Mavericks are once more the opponents, but this time Cookey is in the colours of Surrey Storm, having made the switch last season.

At the time of the injury she tweeted, “Devastated doesn’t even come close”. A year on she says: “It was such a tough time, such hard, hard work in rehab.”

At her lowest ebb, she pledged to get back to her very best and has delivered just that with a starring role for Storm this season, the goal attack with a scoring percentage of more than 90 per cent.

“I wanted to get back to my best and Storm have helped me to do that and get my love back for netball,” she says. “At the beginning of the season, I wasn’t at my best but I feel like I’m back to my best thanks to help from a lot of people.”

Physically, she is where she once was but mentally missing the Commonwealth Games is still hard to bear. She watched helplessly from the sidelines as her England team-mates were seconds away from the final, only to be denied in the final minutes of a breathtaking semi-final against New Zealand before coming up agonisingly short in the bronze medal match with Jamaica.

“Watching that was so miserable,” she admits. “I felt bad as I couldn’t do anything. That was the worst thing – that I couldn’t contribute.”

Cookey will be integral in whether this weekend is a moment of celebration a year on from her lowest sporting ebb as she attempts to give Storm their first Superleague title after previous final heartache for the team.

The form book suggests they are favourites, but Manchester Thunder had been unbeaten all season before being denied in the semi-finals by the Mavericks.

It has left Cookey wary. “They always come good towards the end of the season and they’re so strong defensively, probably the best in the league,” she acknowledges.

But Storm go into the game with the psychological boost of having twice defeated their opponents this season, once at the same Copper Box venue that will host the final in front of a sellout crowd of more than 6,000.

“We believe in ourselves enough to win but it’s one of those anything on the day can happen kind of games,” she adds.

Despite Cookey’s switch of teams, she still lives in Bristol, where she works for the West of England Sport Trust as business manager.

It means commuting each Thursday to Surrey for training and every other week on a Tuesday, with the rest of her training done solo. The juggling act makes for some “interesting weeks” but it is one she relishes.

“I come out of training with my cheeks hurting so much from laughing,” she says. “We work hard and it’s a lot of fun. It’s great with Tamsin Greenway, although I don’t know how she does it playing and coaching.”

She laughs at the suggestion she might more readily pass to or pander to Greenway on court to try to keep in her good books. “She’s actually really open to opinions and she’s open to that challenge,” Cookey says.

And theirs is a key combination in whether Cookey evades heartache a year on.