SWINDON’S Kirsty Harris made her first start for Team Bath as the Blue and Gold stretched their winning run to nine matches over the Bank Holiday weekend.

With the return of fans helping to cheer Harris and co. on inside London’s Copper Box Arena for the first time since March 2020, Team Bath roared to victories over Severn Stars and Strathclyde Sirens.

Anna Stembridge’s side began their successful weekend with a 45-32 win over the Stars in Friday’s west-country derby before storming to an impressive 48-37 triumph against top-four contenders, Sirens on Saturday night.

As well as Harris making her debut start at wing-attack for Team Bath, all 12 players in the squad enjoyed court-time as the table toppers continued to work on combinations in the build-up to finals weekend.

Friday’s player of the match Kim Borger once again excelled in attack but head coach Stembridge felt her side could have been more clinical, something she was pleased to see them address the following evening.

Inspired by a brilliant display from Rachel Shaw, the Blue and Gold moved the ball quickly and with precision as they built up a 30-17 lead at half-time.

Sirens, who went on to record a vital win over Saracens Mavericks on Sunday, kept battling throughout but it was Team Bath who took three more points to remain top of the table with two games to go.

“I think we were very clinical in the first half, we had to move the ball around quickly and utilise our triangles,” said Stembridge after the Sirens match.

“We were just a bit in and out in the second half, which was disappointing, but we’ll make sure we address that. We want to have those tough games going into finals weekend, you want to be put under pressure and keep learning,” said Stembridge, whose side also face second-placed Loughborough Lightning on the final day of the regular season. “We’re still building and we want to get better every game.”

Player of the match Shaw added: “Sirens are trying to get into the top four so we knew they would come out hard, but we had a game plan, we stuck to it and managed to finish the game off.

“There will be patches that Anna’s happy with and others where we’ll go back to the drawing board. We’re in the semis and trying to get through to the final, so there is work to do with each game.”