IN T' NET

An occasional Basketball Diary ... (from Yorkshire, in case tha'd not noticed)

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26/10/06

"As a mature (in age) player, coach and parent, I sometimes wonder why we as basketball supporters, sometimes question why the sport is not taking off as fast as we would like it. We continually go on about development at junior level and how the future of the game depends upon attracting new youngsters into the game. However, why do we so often shoot ourselves in the foot?

"We encourage new teams into the National League setup, which albeit is a  competitive situation, but surely isn't it the responsibility of both coaches to provide an environment in which both teams develop in some way?

"Baglan Ballers are a new team to the National League, and as newcomers naturally play in the conference leagues (development leagues). The game against Tamar was a Cup match and naturally competitive, but what good does it do either of these teams to be beaten by such a margin? What did the Tamar coach achieve from this scoreline?

"I hope that this team do not lose faith in themselves and end up as some other teams and withdrawing from the league as a result of this, and possibly other such future matches against teams with a similar attitude.

"I also feel disappointed in Pawprint for publicising their defeat in your news column. I wonder how many readers had a cheap laugh at their expense."

The last comment is a reference to the headline that I put on the main index page, after the weekend, "I bet that Baglan Ballers were glad of the problems with the Results' Service ... they lost by 144 points!", and I'll readily put my hand up and admit to going for the cheap shot. Grovelling (well, nearly) apologies are duly offered to Baglan.

I sincerely hope that I didn't add too much to their feeling of demoralisation that they must surely have felt after the game. I don't deliberately set out to upset people (well, not always ... and only when I know them personally), but sometimes my sense of fair play goes AWOL at the wrong moment.

What I would advise anyone connected with Baglan to do, if they're feeling particularly distressed by the result, is to look back at past seasons' Under-18 and Under-16 results, in our Archive section, and I think they'll find that the teams that did soldier on, despite losing heavily week by week, did see to learn positively from the experience, as their results in later seasons show.

I hope they'll be able to do the same, and to look back on last weekend, and on the whole of this season, as a valuable "no pain, no gain" learning experience. then, when they look down from the upper reaches of a league table, they can turn to Pawprint and say, with some satisfaction, "Ballers to you, pal !"

14/10/06

So it appears to have been with the most recent withdrawal from the EBL. It wasn't until was rechecking this weekends fixtures that I discovered that Tees Valley Mohawks II (who perhaps served notice when they defaulted on their Shield game last week) have suddenly disappeared from the schedule (and I'm sure they were still there on Monday, when I first cross-checked the fixtures).

That set me thinking about the long-term viability of "nursery" teams. Of the seven teams which have pulled out of the Men's EBL since the composition of this season's divisions was first announced, four have been second teams - Reading, Aston, Solent and, now, Tees Valley.

There are still nine second teams remaining, but a 30% failure rate seems remarkably high.

Not that all second teams are doomed to failure; indeed there have been some very successful ones. The best example of that is the present Manchester Magic club, whose genesis came about when Manchester Giants cut their second team adrift without financial support in mid season. Giants II became "Manchester Attitude", under new management, and they evolved into what is now the most successful multi-team club in the country ... having outlived the original parent club!

Another second team doing well is London Towers II, although that's already a misnomer, as there is currently no Towers I. I know that the latter have only taken "a year's sabbatical", but even as a euphemism that phrase has begun to wear rather thin recently!

I had to make the long trek over to see my stepmother in North Wales yesterday, as she was receiving a visit from the rather grandly titled Lord Chancellor's Visitor. He's a representative from the nearly as grandly titled Public Guardianship Office (soon to be reorganised, and renamed the Office of Public Guardianship ... and we though basketball had an identity crisis!). Actually his job is simply to ensure that we're doing as much as we can to make sure that my stepmother is receiving all the care and consideration that can be given, and the meeting turned out to be very non-threatening, with a very pleasant, helpful, and far-less-grand-than-his-title bloke.

Not that that made the journey over there any easier. It's only 120 miles from Doncaster to Ruthin, in North Wales, but the motorways run past the bottlenecks of Sheffield and Manchester, while the roads in between and at the end are best described as scenic. Add to that the fact that three inconsiderate drivers had decided to entwine their vehicles into a modern sculpture in the middle lane of the M60, near Manchester Airport, and the journey took a little over four hours!

Since I'm due in the North-East tonight (Saturday) it seemed daft to drive all the way back to Doncaster and then all the way up the A1 today, so I cut across country to the Yorkshire Dales. I'm sure those roads were pretty scenic as well ... or would have been, were it not for the dark, and the fog! So that was another 140 miles - and another four hours.

At least I'm now pleasantly settled at out caravan, and can have a pleasant (weather permitting) stroll during the day, and it should only take me an hour from here to Spennymoor ... unless there are any more modern sculptors on the loose.

07/10/06

That follows the handful of postponements last week, but the surprising thing is that most of those are still flagged on the EB website as "postponed". Why do I think that's surprising? Well, from past experience, the main reason, at this stage of the season, for a game not taking place is when one of the teams has not had its registrations processed in time.

That won't apply to all of last week's matches that were called off (nor all of this week's), as other things can go wrong, such as unavailability of home court, but looking at the names of some of the clubs involved I would be very surprised if a number of them didn't end up as "20-0" defaults..

A number of readers suggested possible names for him, including "Hoops" and, of course, "Pawprint".

As it happens, my ten year old daughter (who is under the impression that he's her dog) had already decided on a name for him - "Bailey". No, don't ask ...!

Anyway, he's not yet been able to fulfil his primary purpose, of helping me to walk off the beer-gut that I've so carefully been cultivating over the past forty years. When we bought him he still hadn't had his inoculations, so until a week after he's had his booster jabs he's not allowed out to anywhere where there may have been other dogs.

Fortunately our back garden's big enough for him to get plenty of exercise ... though he's not yet quite mastered what to do with a basketball!