“It certainly toughens you up.”She represented Essex Under-21s when she was 16; was a member of the England Under-23 squad when she was 19 and, from 1961 to 1980, played regularly for England, with time off to bear three children (all boys, she says ruefully). It could be the truism about success attracting good players; it could be the coaching quality allied to PE skills (Pat, like her mother, is a PE teacher); it could even be that the club play outdoors. Though she’s been involved with New Cambell since her mother set up a netball team at the youth club 35 years ago, Pat still doesn’t quite know why the club is a hotbed of netball talent. Two other internationals learnt their craft at the club before moving out of the area. Some record, huh?Pat, who is Alice’s daughter, is continuing the family tradition by coaching the club teams (it now has eight senior and six junior sides). The club supplies several of the Essex Met side, while three of the England squad (it should have been four, but one was injured) for the World Championships, which continue for two weeks at the National Indoor Arena, are New Cambellers.

Under her tutelage, the New Cambell club, based in Dagenham, has bred a bevy of internationals. It is the best side in the country, unbeaten for the past two years in the National Clubs Championship. Jillean, 45, still represents the county champions, Essex Met, while Pat, 47, is England Under-21 coach. But they concede that their glittering careers (both are former England captains) and the disproportionate influence of their club on national netball are largely down to a 70-year-old grandmother.
Alice Hallmark only stopped playing a couple of years ago.

Though both are way past the traditional sell-by date for competitive netball, they are playing as well as any 20-year-old. If England finish among the top teams at the World Netball Championships, which begin in Birmingham tomorrow, three old ladies can take much of the credit. Actually, that’s pretty insulting to Pat Watson and Jillean Hipsey. I think it generates an intriguing strategy, although whether the spectators can follow it or are the slightest bit interested, I do not know. I think what excited them was the five-second pit-stop or a sparking, raging thing coming down the track when it was on full tanks.The purists would say that to have the fuel strategies applied with all the other strategies is very interesting, and I have to say that I do not have a problem with refuelling..