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Published 26 July 2023 4 min read
England Women's Senior Team

World Cup diary: Hannah Hampton full of colour at England's base camp

Written by:

Hannah Hampton

The Lionesses goalkeeper provides the latest from camp in Australia as the England squad settle into new surroundings

HANNAH HAMPTON: ENGLAND FOOTBALL PROFILE

Honestly, the base camp we have here in Terrigal is actually unreal.

When I first walked in, I think they caught it on camera, and I just said ‘wow!’ because it was so good and welcoming.

It’s very similar to St. George’s Park with all the graphics and stuff that we can see, so it’s created a familiarisation with what we get back at home. That’s made it all very easy to settle in and hopefully we’re here for a long time now.

With the amount of stuff that we’ve got around, it’s all kitted out to make sure we have plenty to do in our free time and it’s definitely created that home-away-from-home feeling.
Colouring has 100 per cent been my favourite activity in my downtime so far
Colouring has 100 per cent been my favourite activity in my downtime so far
The girls have all been loving it, there’s activities we can all do both individually or as a team group in our free time and it’s just incredible that they’ve been able to put all these facilities in and around the hotel for us.

But the one thing that has really taken off, which no-one would have ever thought about before we came here, is colouring.

There’s this huge colouring station and everyone has been joining in. There’s posters with little cartoons on which we’ve all been colouring in.

It's been my favourite of the activities so far and I’ve found it very therapeutic. I’d never think to do it at home, but then we’ve come here and you see everyone after dinner sat colouring in.
Colouring in has become a popular pastime at England's World Cup base in Australia
Colouring in has become a popular pastime at England's World Cup base in Australia
I don’t know about the other girls, but I’ve found it really good and it’s something for us to all bond over so it’s been really nice.

As well as that, we’ve been bracelet making, playing table tennis, darts – there’s loads for everyone.

We’ve had a lovely welcome from everyone wherever we’ve been in Australia so far and it was the same again here. When we got to the stadium the other day and saw all the support we’re getting, it really feels like home.
Everyone's been enjoying training this week, working hard but with a smile on our faces
Everyone's been enjoying training this week, working hard but with a smile on our faces
You can see that the supporters were enjoying themselves and we’re all training with a smile on our faces so hopefully there’s a lot we can look forward to.On the pitch, we were pleased to get the three points from our first game last weekend.

We needed to start the tournament off with a win and we’ve now got a lot to build on and we know that. But the main thing was to get the win and start the World Cup off strongly.

We’re now turning our attention to Friday’s game with Denmark. We’re all focused on the game and we know what we can do to improve from the first match.

Everyone’s looking forward to it and training’s been going well. You can see everyone’s been training with freedom and enjoying it, so we just want to keep going.