DIARY

Diary - May; Diary - June; Diary- July

31/08/03

No. Imagine the look on my face, two days into our holiday, when we were approached at lunchtime with the question "Aren't you from Doncaster?" It turned out to be Shirley Brennan (sorry, Shirley, can't remember your married name), who plays for Doncaster Panthers in EBL Division 2 Women, and who was staying in the same hotel!

The following day we were partaking of an evening drink (well, you have to force yourself to observe local customs, don't you!) with the parents of some youngsters with whom my daughter had become friendly. In the course of conversation, it turned out that the mother of these youngsters used to be a big fan of Team Ziebart - the Panthers' team which won the League & Cup "double" back in 1979.

So, it turned out to be a real busman's holiday ... but relaxing nonetheless, and just a little warmer than it has been back here, in spite of the domestic heatwave.

That's certainly true this year, with such an incident-packed close-season in progress, and I came home to a full Inbox, including various items of correspondence about the National Cup. Then, of course, there was the delay with the server-problem (see below) which held me up for a further 24 hours.

I've received some criticism over the tenor of the article on the Cup, suggesting that it's perhaps too strongly slanted towards the BBL viewpoint, and that the disinclination to compromise was the other way round.

All I can say is that the article was based on the information to hand at the time, and unfortunately by the time I was ready to post it, England Basketball was temporarily unavailable, as they're in the throes of moving to Sheffield (where they will reside from tomorrow).

I'll certainly be trying to get an EB view on what has happened, but to be quite honest I think the question of who is more to blame is less important than the fact that the game has succeeded in shooting itself in the foot yet again!

Ellesmere Port are running a series of pre-season Tournaments over the next few weekends (apparently the only national pre-season events for girls), and the response from other clubs has been under-whelming to say the least.

On 7th September, the Cadet Tournament has so far attracted entries only from Essex and Northants, and those same clubs are also the only two to have entered the Junior event on 14th September. Meanwhile, on 20th/21st September there is a combined Cadet and Junior Girls' Tournament at Ellesmere Port Young Peoples' Centre, which will feature St. Mirren, from Scotland ... but so far, only the hosts from England!

Jim is so determined that the Tournaments should be a success that he's rashly offered to pay the entry fee (of just £20) himself if that's what's holding other participants back. So, come on the rest of you Cadet and Junior Girls' teams, don't you fancy a good pre-season work-out?

It's occurred to me that regular readers might like to know in advance when there are updates of particular interest, so I'm planning a free "update alert" service by e-mail. Look out for the application form in the near future (as soon as I finish putting it together).

28/08/03

Rushed to complete the latest news scoop, about the BBL teams' decision not to enter the National Cup, and then found that I couldn't upload it.

Turns out that there was a problem with my web host (or rather, with the expiry date on my credit card) and that the site was temporarily "frozen".

Anyway, that's sorted now (or if it's not, you won't be able to read this anyway), and I've also had time, while waiting for them to resume normal service, to update all the player-signing information from the last two weeks.

Apologies to those of you who tried to log on yesterday and earlier today, expecting to find masses of information only to discover an error message instead.

More updates follow very soon.

11/08/03

I thought I just had time, before my holiday, to do various bits of tidying up on the site, and then what did I receive this morning? Only the entire "Collected Works of BBL" - season's preview (including what we've all known for a long time, that Leopards are sitting out for at least one season), and complete fixture lists for the BBL and BBL Trophy!

Somehow I've managed to process all of that, and the grids for the BBL fixtures and BBL Trophy Fixtures are now online.

Unfortunately it's been at a price, and those of you who were hoping that all senior fixtures would also be up on Fixtures Live will find that they're still short of Senior Men 3 South and both North and South in Women's Division Two.

Still, it'll give me something to do when I get back, I suppose - together with the final fixtures for the various Youth Leagues and Cups, the new "Patron's Cup" (for EBL Division 2 teams), and maybe even the Men's National Cup (if EB and BBL have got round to sorting their differences by then)

Intriguingly, though, the weekend of 8th/9th November has no BBL games - but that's the quarter final stage, which can only accommodate eight teams, and BBL isn't down to that few, yet!

I must admit that part of me is enjoying the "close" season so much that I'm loath to leave my keyboard. Last Summer, after a very hectic season (my first as a full-timer), I took a breather over the Summer, and hardly updated the site at all. That showed clearly in the number of "hits", which fell rapidly, and then took time to recover once the season began. This year it's very clear that there's a real appetite among the basketball public for information. Site visitors in June and July were up 50% on last year - and we've already passed the August figure from twelve months ago.

The more realistic part of me, though, is really looking forward to the break. I keep trying to think of a downside to lying by a swimming pool, toasting in the sunshine (I know we've got the latter here at the moment - but not the former), with a drink in my hand and a book open in front of me, while I wait for the next mealtime. When I think of one, I'll let you know.

Anyway, you're spared my theorising and sermonising for the next couple of weeks, but I trust there's now enough pre-season information uploaded to keep you busy for a while anyway.

And, as the saying goes, "I'll be back ..."

10/08/03

The Junior Women's competition, for instance, seems to have contracted still further, and is now down to just one, national, division. Mind you, I suppose that's hardly surprising in view of the fact that the Northern "Premier" division was down to three teams by the end of last season ... with more games "pending" than had been played.

Even so, it's disappointing to see that a club like Doncaster Panthers is unable to put out a team in either Junior or Cadet leagues this year, despite having been one of the strongest clubs in the country for many years (and Cadet Women's Cup Finalists for the last three years!).

Mind you, I notice that Doncaster do have a team back in the Cadet Men's League, which is a welcome development. Judging by the name (Doncaster Danum Eagles) I would guess that it could well be under the guidance of popular ex-Doncaster NBL player Ben Lowe, who is Head of Maths at Danum School.

Rather more surprising is to see Norwich in the Cadet Premier League South. Last season they were an absolute nightmare in their Conference. Getting hold of their results was like the hunt for Weapons of Mass destruction ... either they don't exist, or they're incredibly well hidden! They did complete (and eventually submit) six of their seven home games, but of their seven away matches, two were never played (after postponements) and two others were awarded 20-0 to their opponents.

I thought the idea of the Premier Leagues was to bring together those clubs which had virtually faultless records not only on court, but more importantly with their organisation?

It seems that talented local players Taryn Algar and Jason Shakespeare are among three Hull players who have departed inland to play Division 1 'ball, with Sheffield (ex-Derbyshire) Arrows.

That could give cause for concern to the Hull fans, but I also hear that Graham Cullingworth, who has experience of every division in the League, with Doncaster Panthers and Eagles, has been asked to team up with Kevin Penny at Hull, to become player-Assistant-Coach.

09/08/03

On Thursday I took the first full-day off since my wife and daughter broke up for the Summer holidays. Spent an excellent day out, at the open-air Tramway Village in Derbyshire, and when we got home, in mid-evening, I thought "I'll just check if I've had any e-mails".

Any? Only seventeen ... most of which were Fixture Lists! Final, confirmed fixtures for all the EBL senior divisions, and the Pool stages of the Men's Trophy, the draws for the Women's Cup, Women's Trophy and Men's Shield, and the provisional fixtures for all the Junior Men's, Junior Women's, Cadet Men's and Cadet Women's Leagues!

Anyway, I'm gradually ploughing through them, and the links to the relevant pages are gradually appearing on the Index page. Slightly slower than usual, though, as I'm trying to do the fixture pages on "Fixtures Live" at the same time.

With any luck, I may get them nearly finished by the middle of next week, when I'm off on holiday!

They began with a good victory over Sweden, but it turns out that they are the weakest team in the competition, who are still waiting for their first win, after four matches. Defeats by Estonia and Latvia followed, and finishing in the top three began to look remote.

Then came today's game against Germany, and a magnificent performance which snatched an overtime victory. Tied 73-all at the end of normal time, the English lads outscored their opponents 16-9 in the extra period, to revive their hopes of qualifying. Joshua Smart (19), Ben Eaves (18), Andre Rankine (17), Jack Minister (14) and Richard McNutt (11) all hit double figures.

They still face an uphill task, though, as they must now beat undefeated Pool leaders Finland, tomorrow, to have any chance of progressing. Even then they would have an agonising wait for the result of the final game of the day. If Latvia were to beat host-nation Estonia in that game, then England would slip through, in third place. A win for Estonia would put England out regardless of any heroics against the Finns.

05/08/03

Plymouth Raiders fixture list (released today, to coincide with E.B.'s release of the Final Division One fixtures) confirms that they are competing in the BBL Trophy, which begins with Pools of three teams.

Since Teesside Mohawks are also competing in that competition, that means that there will only be ten BBL teams entered.

I understand that a formal announcement from BBL is finally expected in the next couple of days.

A story in the "Birmingham Evening Mail" today reveals that Birmingham Bullets have been locked out from Aston Events Centre! It appears that Bullets' owner Craig Bown has fallen out with Birmingham Community Sports Ltd., the owners of the Centre, who queried his handling of the venue.

I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that (like the Leopards) the Bullets have had a court order against them over failure to pay for Basketball Equipment?

They could always save money next season by printing their match-programme as an insert in the "Big Issue".

04/08/03

The move has been in the planning stage for quite a while, and should certainly go a long way towards easing the Association's financial problems as well as providing a huge improvement in working environment for the staff.

I'm particularly pleased about the move, as Sheffield's only just down the road from here, so I shall be able to pop in if the need arises! Good job I didn't mention that before ... it might have put them off the idea.

Anyway, I always felt that "48 Bradford Road" never had quite the same ring to it as it's predecessor as Association HQ,  "Calomax House" (even if the latter was corrupted to "Calamity House" in the pages of "Pawprint" at the time). So, what do you think the new Headquarters should be called? Submit your (printable) suggestions, and we'll run a feature on them.

03/08/03

Nor have they appeared in FIBA's own website, since the second day's went up, although there are plenty of Junior Qualification results there. We'll publish the latest ones as soon as we have them.

"Pawprint" will still be involved in this, and will be posting EBL results onto the Fixtures Live website as they become available. You'll find that their website gives the opportunity to view a host of regularly updated information, from latest results and fixtures, through past weeks' results, to full fixtures for the season.

We're using the European Qualifiers for a "practice-run", and you can access those fixtures results and tables either on Pawprint, or on Fixtures Live. You can even access Fixtures Live through Pawprint, which gives you the opportunity to check their results/tables while at the same time accessing other features on Pawprint. Once all EBL fixtures are posted (and we're working on that at the moment) you'll also be able to access them as Fixtures Live embedded in the official EB website.

However, we have updated the "Services" section of the website, and this is probably a good time to remind you that if you're planning for the season ahead, the sections on Match Announcing and Fund-Raising Gamecards may well be of interest to you.

Watch this space!