If someone had said to me at the start of the 2009-10 season that we would have improved from ninth to sixth in Superleague, finished as runner-up in all three Netball Europe events and qualified for the 2011 World Championships I think it's safe to say I might have bitten their hand off.

Although it was incredibly tight in the bottom half of the Superleague table the Dragons managed to secure sixth place after a combination of results went our way. Having won only one match in the previous season it was a significant improvement and a credit to the players, and to both Sara Hale and Melissa Hyndman as coaches.

The gap to fifth is not inconsiderable and it will take a lot of hard work if we are to continue the rise up the table but that is exactly the sort of improvement we are targeting. We would love to be "in the mix" and involved in end-of-season play-offs at some stage. One step at a time, I suppose..

The qualifiers for the World Championships were, as expected, extremely hard fought. It did seem tough that one team out of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales would miss out and all three teams approached the weekend of June 18-21 with an uncompromising attitude. In ranking terms, we were technically the outsiders, but having performed so well to beat both opponents at the Netball Europe Open event a couple of months previously Melissa & Co. weren't about to just make up the numbers.

I received a text from Wendy P, the senior team's estimable (and hugely appreciated) Team Manager, saying we'd lost by 10 to Northern Ireland on the Friday and I wasn't really sure what to say in reply. I suppose the cynic in me just harked back to the difficult summers at Glamorgan Cricket, when I knew that, if nothing else, texts to coaches and captains after defeats were always appreciated at the other end.

On the Sunday, knowing that with Northern Ireland having won again to book their place, leaving Scotland and Wales in a winner-takes-all fight for second, I had for some reason assumed we were starting after lunch. Not even having had a chance to think about the game the texts started coming through and it was a pleasant surprise to realise that not only had I got the start time wrong, but we had played... and won.

I'm sure that long coach journey back from Glasgow was a happy one after winning that game. There were texts from all and sundry. Rightly so.

It means we have two trips to Singapore now in 2010-11. The December Six Nations Cup invitation we'd accepted was now going to act as an acclimatizer for the World Championships in the same country in July next year. After thinking of just what that meant for the players, I'm ashamed to say my next thought, after working out when I'd have to buy all of the girls a drink on the company credit card!, was that we'd need to get our act together in terms of fundraising. But if you want a successful national team these are exactly the problems we need to have. Bring them on!

To that end we've put together a group of people to form a group which will look at fundraising and other income generating ideas. Not that we're expecting them to raise all of the money but it seems that our fundraising has been a bit scattergun, with groups operating in silos based on their own particular needs and challenges. We need to have a broader handle on this and I'm hopeful that this group can identify the main reasons for fundraising (ie which squads are facing the biggest income generating challenges) and to suggest and help organize some functions and events to work towards the targets they've set. It meets for the first time in around four weeks. The 2010-11 targets will, understandably, centre around the senior team's visits to Singapore but we'll let you know as and when we've started making some headway, as well as who's involved.

Parallel to this, we’ve drawn up a schedule of areas where we think we can do some work in attracting sponsors and partnership support. We’re not in a position to employ anyone full time to look at this but we have a few ideas of how we can use a couple of people to start working their way through that. It’s no secret that I believe we need a much more commercial outlook throughout the sport. We cannot expect our income to come from Sport Wales and from affiliations: we have to generate new sources of income and develop a more commercial mindset.

At the Glasgow qualifiers, Chelsea Lewis – at the grand old age of sixteen – became Welsh cap number 190. Wendy White’s list, which is on the website, shows the players in the order in which they appeared for Wales, with each, in turn, taking their own unique number. At the Netball Europe Open event Steph Murphy (187), Emma Thomas (188) and Sophie Morgan (189) made their Welsh debuts. Before the first match against England, Wales’s most-capped player, Helen Weston (111 caps, player number 102) presented all of the girls with their dresses, which have each player’s individual number on them. The feedback has been incredibly positive, from current and former internationals alike.

Also at Glasgow, Sara Hale won her 50th cap for Wales when she took to the court against Northern Ireland. I’m glad the weekend ended for her in a slightly more positive way, result wise, than it started! That’s no mean achievement. Helen Weston is way out in front in terms of appearance but she is only the eighth player to have reached 50, so a huge ‘well done’ to Sara for what is an impressive achievement, especially as Wales have played so few internationals in recent years. I have told Sara that she’ll need to still be playing at 40 if she wants to overtake Helen! And I think she’s willing to have a go!!

The new website is up and running now but we have had a few technical issues which still need ironing out. There is some software which has yet to arrive and the staff team have still to undertake the appropriate training so we've been less active than we anticipated. That will change shortly and I've set ourselves the challenge of seeing if we can post something new every day!

The strategic plan (for the period 2010-14) is in its last stages. We are discussing it with the staff and Netball Development Officers in early July, with consultation with the Board and Sport Wales later in the month. I hope to circulate it to key personnel in the Area Associations, as well as the local authorities, during August, and we aim to "go live" with it on 1st September, which is the start of our new financial year.

There's nothing of a rocket scientific variety in it and I doubt if the areas we're seeking to concentrate on will come as a major surprise to those active in the sport across Wales, not least as we've consulted very widely over the course of the last twelve months. There are 26 areas we're targeting improvements, including world ranking, support services, commercial activity, coach and umpire education, participation numbers and a presence in all 22 local authorities. The principal concern from a development perspective is the fact that there is such a significant drop off in participation between primary and secondary school ages. We have to address that, either through providing more junior clubs or sections up and down Wales or via other means. We have established a very healthy dialogue with the majority of the local authorities, enough to appreciate that we will need to be creative in our approach as they each have different challenges and different priorities. But we're ready to roll our sleeves up!!

"Join Welsh Netball and see the world" was one of the messages one of my old cricket mates sent to me when he found out my first Netball Europe AGM had taken place in the glamorous surrounds of the Holiday Inn Express in Cardiff Bay (nice enough venue, but I'd probably hoped to go a little further). That was compounded when he learned that I'd attended a Superleague meeting in Birmingham and my first Netball Europe event in Loughborough. Not exactly following in the footsteps of Alan Whicker or Michael Palin..

But last month I was let off the leash and managed to travel as far as Malta, for the Netball Europe Council meeting and AGM, as well as the opportunity to watch the Development Tournament. That was very impressive. Some of the emerging European nations - Malta, Gibraltar, Ireland, Sweden amongst them - came together along with a GB team which comprised a mix of English, Scottish and Welsh girls. Cultivating more netball in a wide range of European countries is important to us as a region and we hope, eventually, the interest shown by these teams, as well as the likes of Switzerland, Denmark and, most recently, Belgium, will stand us in good stead if we are to continue lobbying for netball to be given a place at the Olympic table.

The competition was pretty fierce but the GB team - with Hannah Aldcroft, Katie Blair, Grace Stone and Olivia Rees, who captained the squad - won the final in a nailbiter against the Irish. All good experience, as it was for Karen Baker, who co-coached them, and both of our umpires, Debbie Stott and Laura Harry, who I know impressed those watching. I thought the concept was really good. The fact that I spent most of the time in meetings won't wash with those of you reading this, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

I suppose I should finish by congratulating Louise, Kate, Melissa and Lyanne for winning Sport Wales's 'Bike Week Challenge' last month. Challenged to ride to work instead of drive and to cycle to a number of pre-determined places during the week they beat off a host of competitors (it says here) to win the coveted prize. As I know they doubled their points just by turning up at the pub on the final day, and that they put a clearly petrified Lyanne Fairclough onto a bike for the first time just to shamelessly rack up points, my congratulations are a little muted. But, blimey, what a bunch of competitors we have in the office!! And just for the record, as they're aware I did my bit by cycling up the M5 to Birmingham for the Superleague meeting on the Thursday.. Of course I did.

I'll "blog" again in another few weeks. In the meantime, you can contact me at [email protected]


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