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11 November 2025  3 min read

'We have heart - Welham on Ipswich's battle with adversity

In what is already shaping up as one of the most wide-open competitions in recent years, there have been plenty of thrills and spills across the first few months of the campaign.

Sat at 3-2, Ipswich have picked up wins against Anglia Ruskin, Bristol and Loughborough and suffered defeats to London Cavaliers and last season's third-place finishers Brent Bulls. That leaves them in a group of five teams on six points, two points behind Manchester and four behind table-topping rivals CoLA with two games in hand.

An 85-64 win against bottom side Loughborough last time out provided Ipswich with an uptick, but that doesn't change the outlook from D1W's all-time leading scorer.

"It’s been a tough start to the season for us, but something we were expecting as a transitional year," said Welham.

"Losing multiple players from last year’s roster was always going to put our backs against the ropes but one thing we’ve shown so far is that we have heart and hopefully as the season progresses, we can come together and pick up as many wins as we can along the way."

Welham in action against Bristol earlier this season (Richard Leach)

Ipswich are always likely to be a team in a state of transition due to their Academy foundations, with young players entering the programme, progressing through their studies, then carrying on their basketball journeys elsewhere.

This season that turnover has cut particularly deep, with injuries also adding to Coach Drane's selection headaches.

Cerys Leach, Hannah Gray and Louisa Gibbins were all expected off-season departures and last season's import Maddy Wormald has also left the club, but injuries to the likes of Maisie Keyes, Josefine Reumert and Kara Bassil have seen that trio absent for varying lengths so far.

Danni Cazey's off-season retirement lasted one game before she answered the Ipswich call for reinforcements and the club have been forced to draft in players from their youth ranks to fill out the D1W bench at times.

For Welham, no matter who is available, the approach is still the same.

"No excuses," stated the former D1W Player of the Season. "We have to play with what we’ve got during that game.

"We keep dreaming of a full roster but we don’t have a timescale on that, so there’s nothing we can do apart from just prep with who we’ve got and give people a chance to step up and show that they can play at this level."

By their own lofty standards, Ipswich's start to the season hasn't been the best, but it's certainly not been poor given the circumstances. Well placed in the early going, they can build from here, and as players return they can push on.

Welham is also able to focus some of her attention elsewhere, after taking further steps to progress her coaching ambitions away from the D1W spotlight.

Appointed as Copleston's EABL head coach back in September, Welham is balancing her standout playing career with helping the next generation develop theirs, and that's a challenge she's embraced over the last few months.

"Coaching has been a breath of fresh air," confessed Welham, who averages a D1W-second best 29.2PPG this season. "They’re a great group of lads and they're getting better and better every session.

"It’s been an easy transition. I have my coaching hat on during the week, and my playing hat on at the weekends."