Dominique Allen loving her new life in Romania

The Dudley-born star, who won Commonwealth silver during the summer with Team England, has signed for Romania champions ACS Sepsi.

Sepsi have also qualified for the Euro Cup this year, which will see Allen, aged 29, playing against the best teams on the continent.

And in between, she will be back playing with Team GB as the women’s team looks to qualify for the EuroBaskets tournament this month.

“I’m living in a very small town, so it’s been a bit of a culture shock although this is not my first time playing overseas,” said Allen, daughter of former Birmingham Bullets star Clive, who is also West Bromwich Albion head basketball coach.

“I wanted to get back playing abroad having played for Manchester Mystics last year.

“I found out about this position from my agent who had helped me play abroad in the past.

“We’re in the Euro Cup too and we’ll be coming up against teams in places like Turkey and Russia

“ACS Sepsi have been a good team who have been playing well for a number of years.

“They have won the Romania league title for the last few years.

“Women’s basketball is bigger overseas and it’s a pretty big deal here in Romania.

“At the age of 29, I felt this was probably one of my last chances.

“I also wanted to get out of the office for a bit – juggling basketball and a full-time job last year was really difficult.”

Allen has previously played in Italy, France, Czech Republic, Austria and Germany, so playing on the continent is nothing new.

However, she said the culture and surroundings in Romania had been the changes she had to deal with so far, but admitted she was already loving the challenge and playing in front of more than 2,000 fans on a regular basis.

“We’ve also won our first three Romanian league games and then we have our first Euro Cup match coming up too,” she said. “The standard of basketball is really high and It’s just a really good league to be playing in.

“The crowds are much bigger too and most games we’re getting about 2,000 fans watching us.

“They will probably be even bigger for the European games too. The atmosphere is incredible.”

Great Britain’s senior men and women will also be back in EuroBaskets action in November.

Chema Buceta’s women’s side currently have three wins from four in their qualifying group and have two huge games at home to Greece and Portugal.

Two wins will guarantee qualification for Team GB.

Both games will take place in Manchester, with the first against Greece on November 17, and then Portugal on November 21.

“We’re in a good position in our group and we’re really excited about what could lie ahead,” said Allen, who plays power forward.

“It’s our goal to win the next two qualifiers but we’re just going to take it game by game.”