Meet the Team – National Women’s Team

With the European Curling Championships kicking off this weekend, we figured it might be a good idea to get to know our teams a little better and see who’s going to be carrying the flag this year in Perth! So let’s “meet the team”!

Up first, it’s the women’s team, skipped by Anna Fowler, with Hetty Garnier, Angharad Ward, Naomi Robinson, and Lisa Farnell joining at fifth. This England team is one of unmatched experience, with 539 caps between them, and more national titles than I’ve had hot dinners!

The fifth for this campaign is Lisa Farnell. You’ll likely recognise Lisa as being skip of the England women last year. Lisa has had an impressive run in the last few years as a skip, clocking up 38 caps in only a few seasons wearing the red jersey! She’s now bringing all of that experience in as fifth player, supporting the team tactically, morally, and on the ice if needed!

Lisa’s also got a wealth of experience beyond English curling, having been curling for 28 years, having started back home in Ontario, Canada. Back home she racked up two Ontario Women’s Provincial final appearances, an Ontario University Championship silver medal, a WCT event title! Lisa also made the finals of 4 Ontario Junior Championships, managing a gold medal in 2006 with her dad as the team coach. That bagged her a spot at the Canadian Juniors that season as team Ontario!

Outside of curling, Lisa is a passionate engineer and is looking forward to starting her own company next year… and we thought curling at this level would keep you busy enough!

At lead is Naomi Robinson who’s been with the team since juniors back in 2009! She’s got a fair few medals to her name, including 6 ECA women’s titles, 7 ECA junior titles, and an ECA mixed title. She was also part of the ECC-B Bronze Medal winning team in 2014 in Stavanger and, in 2015 won Gold at the EJCC in Prague, going on to represent England at the World Junior Championships.

Naomi got into curling when she was just 12 years old, with her dad having his 50th birthday party at Fenton’s rink where she just fell in love with the sport. Outside of curling, Naomi is a keen runner and triathlete. Perhaps more impressive is that she manages to balance curling with her career as a primary school teacher! Hopefully your pupils will be cheering you on this week!

At second, we have Angharad Ward who’s been on the ice for 18 years and with this team for 8. In that time, she’s put an impressive CV together. On top of her 12 English titles, she’s represented England at European Juniors, World Juniors, European Championships, World Mixed Championships, World Mixed Doubles Championships, the Youth Olympic Games and the Winter University Games. With all those caps to her name, the world stage is a second home for Angharad.

Like Lisa, Angharad is originally from Canada and first took to the ice with her school’s taster sessions. One of the coaches let her play on his team in a local league, and she was completely hooked. In 2015, Angharad was part of the England team that won gold at the EJCC and got the chance to represent England at the World Juniors. In her own words: “We had gotten so close the previous year, and to finally have all of our hard work pay off was brilliant!”

Away from the ice rink, Angharad spends her time tramping through bogs and heather along Scotland’s islands and west coast as part of her work for an environmental charity… it would seem some people just like the cold!

The team’s third and vice-skip is Hetty Garnier, whose experience at third and skip provides a real boost to this team. With 17 years of experience in the game, 12 English titles, and appearances at European Championships, European Junior Championships, and a World Junior Championships, Hetty knows the score at these high-profile events.

She also got into the sport at school, going to the same school as some of the other junior curlers, right around the corner from Fenton’s rink (how convenient!). Since her school days, she’s been winning medals and earning caps like it was all going out of fashion. Her cool demeanor and positive attitude are a real plus on and off the ice.

Aside from curling, Hetty is a keen tennis player and plays regularly for her local club.

Last, but by no means least, is the skip – Anna Fowler. She’s been curling for 19 years, and has collected a whopping 167 caps for England! She’s perfectly at home in the head, and a natural-born skip. That said, she’s also equally comfortable playing mixed doubles, with seven ECA Mixed Doubles titles to her name. Her favourite curling memory was making the quarter finals of the World Mixed Doubles Championships in 2016 – an amazing achievement!

For Anna, curling has always been a family affair. She first got a taste for curling when her mum took her and her two brothers along to Fenton’s in 2004, having seen an advert in the paper. Since then, much of her mixed doubles career has been with her brother, Ben – who’s also had a fairly respectable career in the men’s game.

She’s hoping to keep the dynasty going, having only recently given birth to her daughter Freya. In Anna’s words, “she won two English titles whilst in my tummy and this will be her second international curling championships aged 3 months!”. We’re sure Freya will be donning a red jersey soon enough!

The team have a long history together, placing fourth three times at the ECC-B, and winning Bronze in 2014. This will be the team’s 6th Europeans and they’ve been putting in a tremendous graft in preparation, with time spent training on and off the ice, with one goal in mind – get to the A-Division!

With that goal in mind, they’ve brought in expert coaches in the form of Jamie Farnell who has coached four European Championships as well as playing at the top level in Canada, and David “Rambo” Ramsay who has 16 years of coaching at the highest levels of Scottish and British Curling under his belt.

This team is one of grit, determination, and passion for the game, and I know they’re going to have a great week at the Championships that’s as close to home turf as it gets for England! Best of luck, Team England!