Anna Saunter hits the fast lane of lacrosse to master many skills at Cambridge University
Anna Saunter could be a great advocate to take lacrosse to the masses.
“I think it is just a really fast-paced game,” starts the 20-year-old English student.
“You’ve just got so much space to run and move, and it’s quite a free-moving game, there’s not too much structure to it so you can be really creative with tactics and plays.
“I think it’s quite different to a lot of other sports. It’s a really skilful game because obviously you’ve got a small net with a small ball – tennis ball size but solid rubber.
“You’re just chucking it about and running around!”
Saunter has been playing since the age of 11, and so is well aware of all the intricacies of the sport that gets a rather low-key billing in the UK.
It all started at school for the Murray Edwards College student, but that is late compared to our transatlantic cousins, who will have taken up the sport at a much younger age.
Having taken part in hockey, netball, athletics and tennis during the spring and summer terms, lacrosse became the go to for the autumn and winter months.
The size and scale of the discipline in North America, where it is the oldest organised sport, is far bigger, but it is growing in popularity in this country.
England Lacrosse estimates that there are more than 36,000 participants playing once a week for at least 30 minutes, and that more than 200,000 people participate in lacrosse annually in schools, colleges, universities, clubs and wider communities.
For the uninitiated, it is played on a pitch 110m long by 60m wide, with 10 players on either side, including one goalkeeper.
Of the nine outfield players, there are three defenders, three midfielders and three attackers.
“The attacking format is six v six, and then three people have to stay behind the two-thirds line, so like netball in that some people can’t go over,” explains Saunter.
“Coming back again, it’s six v six. The midfielders go both ends and then the attackers just do the attacking and defenders just do the defending.
“You could pick it up by the goal, run the whole way down and shoot and score.
“But it’s always better to play with your team-mates and work together.
“The ball moves a lot faster than you running your legs, and that’s what gets hammered into you when you’re playing as a child – the ball moves faster than your legs so don’t hog the ball.”
Saunter is a midfielder – “I really loved trying to do everything because you get to defend and attack” – and on picking up a stick, it was an instant sell.
“I’ve always been sporty, ever since I was tiny,” she says.
“Just having a game which was a really good combination of physical skills, so speed and endurance, but also technical skills of passing, catching and shooting – all of that coming together.”
Netball was the other predominant sport growing up, but that had to take a back seat while studying for her A-levels and applying for Cambridge.
There was also the small matter of England recognition by that point. Having progressed through the regional academy, Saunter was selected for the national academy under-19 system at the age of just 14.
That, in itself, was a surprise.
“You are suddenly playing with four years older than you,” she explains
“I think that made me get better a lot quicker by playing with those people.
“I don’t think I ever really over-thought how much younger I was, I think then I would have found it intimidating. I just got on with it and saw them as other lacrosse players.”
On completion of her A-levels, she was on a flight out to Canada to take part in the Under-19 World Cup with England.
Saunter has since remained part of the national set-up.
There is a senior world cup this summer and although she is still training with the squad, it may come a bit too early for selection after missing out on a tour to Florida this January.
Given the disruption caused by the Covid pandemic, it means that the next World Cup will only be three years away and that may be a more achievable target for Saunter.
Further down the line, there may even be bigger opportunities.
A new strand of lacrosse is emerging which is six-a-side, and it is being pushed for inclusion in the Olympics – lacrosse has been in two Summer Olympics, admittedly in 1904 and 1908.
“It’s in the World Games which is a stepping stone to the Olympics,” says Saunter.
“It’s a smaller pitch with different rules. They are trying that out.
“England Lacrosse set up this tournament called The Fly which is to practise the six-a-side format. It had very similar branding to cricket’s The Hundred.
“There were four different teams, with different colours and names like Forge and Swift.”
Lacrosse may go under the radar in the broader scheme of things, but the participation levels are still strong in this country.
In the North West it is played more at club level, while in the South East it tends to be played more through schools, but Saunter represents a team called Centaurs.
There is also a high standard at universities, with the likes of Nottingham, Exeter and Durham having four or five lacrosse teams each.
At Cambridge, there are the Kingfishers and the Blues, who have reached the British Universities & Colleges Sport final within the last six years.
“I think because people don’t know about it, they see it as something that is quite far away from their realm of experience, but actually it’s got all the same sorts of elements to other sports,” says Saunter.
“But then, also because it’s played in a lot of private schools, especially in the south, it’s seen as quite a privileged sport. It’s in films as just a boarding school game.
“It is a really serious sport, and if you see university teams or international teams play then you can see how incredible and fast paced and really watchable it is.”
There is a dearth of funding for lacrosse, Saunter has to pay to play for England for all the training camps and tours but she has been boosted while at Cambridge.
In her first year, she was part of the University of Cambridge Athlete Performance Programme and now, in her third year, is on the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS).
“Even more important than the money is the support that the sports centre can give me because of it,” says Saunter.
“I get one-to-one strength and conditioning coaching from Josh (Gooden, fitness coach), and I can come and get physio here, and I can have nutrition support as much as I want. I can have psychology sessions.
“Tristan (Coles, fitness, strength and conditioning manager) and some of the other sport staff have got to know me, and having them working on my programme and with me over that time has been so helpful for my development.”
It is that level of support that has helped make studying at Cambridge so enjoyable for Saunter.
It is not just the facilities available at the University of Cambridge Sports Centre and the lacrosse team, but the understanding of staff at Murray Edwards College.
“I think my favourite thing about being at Cambridge is sport and the friends that I’ve made through lacrosse,” she highlights.
“I think that’s because the university does support its athletes and also – I don’t know if this is the case in every college – my supervisors, my director of studies and my tutor have just been encouraging of me doing sport alongside my studies.
“They know that if they told me to stop playing lacrosse then I would probably stop writing essays – if you gave me a whole week to do something, I would take the whole week to do it rather than if I’ve got a lacrosse match then, training then, then I will fit my work in around it.
“I’ve managed to do that OK so far, all of the staff have supported me to keep doing that.”
She adds: “When you are playing sport your mind is fully focused on that so you don’t have any other distractions.
“You focus on your work, you focus on your sport, you have your downtime and just having those different sections of my life I find really helpful.”
Saunter will be hoping to add to those experiences and memories this Saturday (February 26) when Cambridge play Oxford at the University Parks in Oxford in the Lacrosse Varsity Matches, which start at 2.30pm.
