2005–06 Netball Superleague season

The 2005–06 Netball Superleague season (known for sponsorship reasons as the figleaves.com Netball Superleague) was the inaugural season of the new Netball Superleague which replaced the Super Cup as the top level netball competition in England. The inaugural champions were Team Bath, who defeated Galleria Mavericks in the grand final.

Overview

The Netball Superleague replaced the Super Cup as the top level netball competition in England. Four of the six Super Cup teams – Brunel Hurricanes, Northern Thunder, Team Bath and Team Northumbria – were joined by four new teams – Celtic Dragons, Galleria Mavericks, Leeds Carnegie and Loughborough Lightning – to become the eight founder members of the Netball Superleague. The season started in October 2005 and concluded in June 2006. Its main sponsor was figleaves.com.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5] With a squad that included Pamela Cookey, Rachel Dunn, Stacey Francis, Jess Garland, Tamsin Greenway and Geva Mentor, Team Bath won the inaugural Netball Superleague title.^[6]^[7]^[8]

2005–06 Superleague teams	Home venue/base	Country/Region
Brunel Hurricanes	Brunel University London	Greater London/South East England
Celtic Dragons	Welsh Institute of Sport	Wales
Galleria Mavericks	University of Hertfordshire	East of England
Leeds Met Carnegie	Leeds Metropolitan University	Yorkshire
Loughborough Lightning	Loughborough University	East Midlands
Northern Thunder	Bury, Greater Manchester	North West England
Team Bath	University of Bath	South West England/West of England
Team Northumbria	Gateshead Leisure Centre^[9]	North East England

Source:^[4]^[5]

10 June 2006	Team Bath	43–35	Galleria Mavericks	Guildford Spectrum^[6] Umpires: Bill Alexander and Margaret Deighan
	Scoring by quarter: 10–8, 22–15, 32–22, 43–35
	Rachel Dunn 29/34 (85%) Pamela Cookey 14/28 (50%)		Lynsey Armitage 15/18 (83%) Louisa Brownfield 13/19 (68%) Ann Marie Muller 4/8 (50%) Heather Clarke 3/6 (50%)

^ Dr. Louise Mansfield & Dr. Lara Killick (1 January 2012). "The UK Netball Superleague: A Case Study of Franchising in Elite Women's Sport" (PDF). Brunel University, School of Sport and Education, Kingston Lane, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UK; and University of the Pacific, Department of Health, Exercise and Sport Science, Stockton, CA.
^ "SPORT Netball". www.alamy.com. 4 October 2005. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
^ "Netball: Abby's habit given a new lease of life". www.independent.co.uk. 9 October 2005. Archived from the original on 2022-05-01. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
^ ^a ^b "Lightning to strike at Loughborough University". www.lboro.ac.uk. 28 October 2005. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
^ ^a ^b "Competition Intensifies as figleaves.com Netball Superleague Progresses". www.sportfocus.com. 11 February 2006. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
^ ^a ^b "TeamBath take Superleague title". news.bbc.co.uk. 4 June 2006. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
^ "2005–06 Team Bath squad". www.teambath.com. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
^ "2006–07 Team Bath squad". www.teambath.com. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
^ "Netball: Worked into a sweat!". www.thejournal.co.uk. 27 November 2005. Retrieved 2 April 2020.^{[permanent dead link‍]}