Manchester Thunder began as they left off in the Vitality Netball Superleague, beating Wasps 62-55 in a repeat of last season’s final to kick off their new campaign.

Five matches took place throughout the day at Arena Birmingham as the Superleague returned for a new season, and it was last year’s champions who took the spoils in the headline match.

Thunder lead in every quarter and had 56 per cent of the game’s intercepts, while England’s Eleanor Cardwell dominated with 40 goals and five goal assists to down the three-time Superleague winners.

Karen Greig, Thunder head coach, said: “I’m really pleased, we came out of the blocks pretty strong.

“We’ve got three solid and strong shooters that we can play and it’s nice to know that whatever team we come up against, we’ve got something we can throw at them.”

In the day’s first game, last year’s bottom two went head to head, with London Pulse triumphing 53-51 over Strathclyde Sirens.

With 31 goals and 13 goal assists, Scottish international Bethan Goodwin was unfortunate to end the match on the losing side, but Pulse had the better of all four quarters, which handed them victory by the same margin as they enjoyed in their first game of last term.

The second match-up saw Surrey Storm beat Celtic Dragons 44-43 as Dragons’ debutant goalkeeper Latanya Wilson made ten intercepts in a remarkable player of the match performance.

Storm had trailed at the end of each of the first three quarters but they were able to turn it around, thanks in part to Australian international Karyn Bailey’s 31 goals.

After these two tightly-contested games, Saracens Mavericks enjoyed the day’s first comfortable win, beating Severn Stars 70-49, despite trailing 17-11 after the first quarter.

England goal shooter George Fisher’s 51 goals, combined with seven intercepts from fellow international Razia Quashie were vital in turning the game around and securing the victory.

Qashie, who was named player of the match, said: “The first quarter I had a bit of nerves and then Kat (Ratnapala) had a go at me, and said you’ve got to get more intercepts or you come off.

“The good thing about our team is that we’ve got the calibre on the bench but I didn’t want to come off, so I just had to step up.”

Four-time Superleague champions Team Bath defeated Loughborough Lightning 72-58 after well-matched game that saw plenty of excellent attacking play.

Mary Cholhok’s 48 goals were not enough for Lightning, as her opposite number Kimberly Commane netted 55 goals to see last season’s third place team home.

After being named player of the match, Commane saluted her team’s defensive effort and said: “It’s obviously a team effort here.

“I’m at the end of the court and full credit to the girls for bringing the ball to me.”

The league will back in action next weekend, with teams returning to their regular home arenas.