Birmingham netball star Guscoth excited about prospect of home Commonwealth Games

Birmingham-born netball star Layla Guscoth says the chance of competing at a major event in her home city is an amazing prospect, writes Jack Lacey.

This week marks one year until the 2022 Commonwealth Games get under way in Guscoth’s home city, with Head Coach Jess Thirlby’s England side defending the netball gold medal they won in Gold Coast back in 2018.

Part of the England squad that won bronze at the last Netball World Cup in Liverpool, despite getting injured in the second game of the tournament and having to watch on from the sidelines, Guscoth has already had a taste of what a major competition at home feels like.

But even that is not likely to match the feeling of playing in her home city of Birmingham.

She said: “It is amazing just to even think about. I saw how much the World Cup did for Liverpool in 2019, the buzz around the city and the support we had.

“To think about that being in my hometown, in places I have caught the bus from, places I have played at when I was 11 and 12, it is just really cool.

“It will be great for the Birmingham community and hopefully the interest it generates from around the world, will really help the city continue to grow.

“It is hard to measure how much of an advantage you can get from a home crowd, but our English netball fans are absolutely amazing.

“We feel such a huge difference playing at home than when we go to Australia or New Zealand, and I think in a Commonwealth Games that will only be amplified.”

It has been a whirlwind year for Guscoth.

A qualified doctor, who since 2016 has regularly worked in hospitals when off-court, she volunteered to work at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham during the first wave of Covid-19 in the UK.

When the extent of the pandemic was becoming clear in April 2020, Guscoth put her netball ambitions to one side.

At that time, she was just getting to the latter stages of her rehabilitation from an Achilles injury which cruelly ended her Vitality Netball World Cup early, however, she said coronavirus "changed everything".

She immediately flew over 10,000 miles to swap Adelaide for Birmingham and returned to work on the frontline at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Then, starting in February, Guscoth managed to produce an outstanding season for Team Bath in the Vitality Netball Superleague, making it to the championship decider at the Copper Box Arena.

“It was a good season for our sport. Half of the achievement was just having a season in this country during covid, it was great just to be out there playing,” added Guscoth.

“We (Team Bath) made the grand final which was great. Lost the final, which was not so great, but it was still a season we will remember for a long time.

“We did well as a team, and also I think our sport has continued to grow even during a difficult 12 months.”

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