Francesca 'Fran' Williams (born 23 December 1997) is an English international netballer who currently plays for

West Coast Fever West Coast Fever is a professional Australian netball team based in Perth, Western Australia. Since 2017 they have played in Suncorp Super Netball. Between 2008 and 2016, they competed in the ANZ Championship. Between 1997 and 2007, as Pert ...

Suncorp Super Netball The Super Netball League (known predominantly by its sponsored name Suncorp Group, Suncorp Super Netball (SSN)) is a professional netball league in Netball in Australia, Australia. It superseded the trans-Tasman ANZ Championship, which also inc ...

. With the England Roses she has won a silver and bronze medal at the

Netball World Cup The Netball World Cup is a quadrennial international netball world championship organised by World Netball, inaugurated in 1963. Since its inception the competition has been dominated primarily by the Australia national netball team and the New ...

and she has four

Netball Super League Netball Super League may refer to: * Netball Super League (Singapore), the highest league in Singaporean netball * Netball Super League (Malaysia), the highest league in Malaysian netball * Netball Super League (United Kingdom), the highest leag ...

titles with Wasps Netball and Loughborough Lightning.

Early life and education

Williams started playing netball in her last year of primary school before joining Woodley Netball Club in

Reading, Berkshire Reading ( ) is a town and borough in Berkshire, England, and the county town of Berkshire. It is the United Kingdom's largest town, with a combined population of 355,596. Most of Reading built-up area, its built-up area lies within the Borough ...

. She attended

Kendrick School Kendrick School is a selective girls' grammar school situated in the centre of Reading, Berkshire, UK. In February 2011, Kendrick became an Academy. History The school is named after John Kendrick, a Reading cloth merchant who died in 1624. ...

and later Reading Blue Coat School for sixth form. Williams has a degree in Economics from the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

Club career

Surrey Storm

Williams started her career as part of the

Surrey Storm Surrey Storm was an English netball team based at the University of Surrey. Their senior team played in the Netball Super League between 2005 and 2024. Between 2001 and 2005 they played in the Super Cup as London Hurricanes. After forming a p ...

pathway.

Wasps Netball

She moved to Wasps Netball in 2017, and won the 2017 Super League Grand Final in her first year. She went on to make the Super League grand final in the following 2 seasons, winning a second title in

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

and losing to

Manchester Thunder Manchester Thunder are an English netball team based in Manchester. Their senior team plays in the Netball Super League. In 2005–06, Thunder were founding members of the league. They were Super League champions in 2012, 2014, 2019 and 2022 ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Loughborough Lightning

Williams moved to Loughborough Lightning ahead of the 2022 season. She had a standout year with Lightning in

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

, winning her third

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

title and voted Fan's Player of the Season. Williams won a fourth

title the following season in

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

West Coast Fever

Williams signed for the

for the 2024

season.

International career

Williams came through the England Netball pathway and was captain of the England under-21 team. She made her senior debut for the England Roses in November 2018 against

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

. Williams made an instant impression in the national side and was later selected in England's 12-woman squad for the January 2019 Quad Series and the

2019 Netball World Cup The 2019 Netball World Cup (also known as the 2019 Vitality Netball World Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 15th edition of the INF Netball World Cup. It was held from 12–21 July 2019 at the Liverpool Arena in Liverpool, England with matches ...

, where the team finished third. She was not selected for the 2022 Commonwealth Games but returned to the side in 2023 as part of the England Roses team who achieved their first ever

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

Silver Medal in Cape Town. In the semi-final against New Zealand, Williams secured the vital intercept that helped the Roses through to their first ever World Cup Final. Later that year she was appointed Captain for a test series against South Africa. Williams captained the England side when they won the

2024 Taini Jamison Trophy Series The 2024 Taini Jamison Trophy Series, also known as the 2024 Cadbury Netball Series, was the 14th Taini Jamison Trophy series. It featured New Zealand playing England in three netball test matches, played in September and October 2024. After ...

and

2025 Netball Nations Cup The 2025 Vitality Netball Nations Cup was an international netball series hosted and organised by England Netball in February 2025. It featured England, South Africa, Malawi and Uganda. The series was played over two successive weekends. The fir ...

as well as silver at the 2024 Netball Nations Cup.

Personal life

Before moving to Australia she served as Player Chair for England's Netball Players Association (NPA) and is an advocate for NetballHer, an England netball campaign advocating for women's health issues.

Honours

England

: Silver:

Bronze:

Taini Jamison Trophy The Taini Jamison Trophy series is an international netball series hosted by Netball New Zealand. The series traditionally features New Zealand national netball team, New Zealand playing a series of Test match (netball), test matches against a ...

* Netball Nations Cup:

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

Silver:

Wasps Netball

* Netball Super League:

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

Runner up:

Loughborough Lightning

* Netball Super League:

References

External links

Interview with Fran Williams
– The Netball Show
England Netball Player Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Fran 1996 births Living people English netball players 2019 Netball World Cup players Netball Superleague players Wasps Netball players Surrey Storm players People educated at Kendrick School People educated at Reading Blue Coat School Alumni of the University of Birmingham 2023 Netball World Cup players West Coast Fever players Suncorp Super Netball players English expatriate netball people in Australia 21st-century English sportswomen England international netball players