IN T' NET
An occasional Basketball Diary ... (from Yorkshire, in case tha'd not noticed)
HOME; Archive 2006-7; June 07;
Correct me if I'm wrong (and I'm sure you would) but isn't it less than two months since EB and the BBL signed a new five-year deal? And didn't you get the impression that relations between the two bodies were as positive as they've been for a long while?
So, how come that the BBL Cup Final and the National Men's and Women's Cup Finals are not only no longer to be played as part of the same promotion, but are to be played, at different venues, just thirty miles apart, on the same day?
When the original fixture lists were published all these Finals were provisionally scheduled for the same day, Sunday 13th January, and I'm sure I wasn't alone in assuming that they would once again all be part of the same major event.
Then, however, a little while after the start of the season, came the announcement that the BBL version of the Cup Final was to be played at the NIA, supported, not by the EB Cup Finals, but by a BBL Trophy Pool game and the BBL 3-point shooting competition.
Now we learn (though with apparently no formal announcement or fanfare, just an advert on the front page of the EB website) that those EB Finals are to be played on the same day, at the Moorways Centre, Derby, with the Men's National Cup Final tipping off just half an hour before the BBL version down the road in Birmingham.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not criticising the choice of Moorways as a venue. I was in Derby when they hosted the Women's Trophy and Men's Shield Finals last year, and they did an excellent job, and the seating capacity is probably about right (at least since Plymouth and their travelling fans left the EBL). In fact, having not missed a National Cup Final for 32 years I definitely intend to be at Derby for this season's event ... but, of course, that deprives me of the chance of going to the BBL one. Many others, who are fans of the game rather than of a specific team, will doubtless find themselves in the same predicament.
So, how did we reach this situation, just a couple of months since EB and BBL stated that "... the management of the two organisations will meet on a regular basis to discuss matters of policy and common interest whilst also looking at ways in which the two organisations can work in tandem in the delivery of the sport"? If they worked in tandem on this one, at least one of the wheels has fallen off!
I know that there were concerns on both sides about the working of the previous, join Finals, arrangements. From the BBL point of view, the EB teams didn't really deliver in terms of inciting masses of additional fans to turn up, while I've heard EBL Division 1 clubs complaining that they felt under-valued, and that they'd been treated accordingly.
I don't know, then, whether the split was the well known mutual agreement, or whether one party made a decision and the other was left to make their own arrangements (and often that what "mutual agreement" really means, anyway).
Whatever the background, the outcome is ridiculous.
Where is Mallin when we really need him?
I had a quiet chuckle last week, when I noticed the details of a postponed game that had been rearranged..
According to the definitive fixture list on the EB website, the Under-16 Women's Midlands Conference match between Hinckley and Bosworth and City of Sheffield Hatters will now tip-off, on 9th December, at 12.15am! I wonder what time the Sheffield lasses expect to get home?
Seeing that reminded me that there's a much more regular error that appears not only on the EB site, but just about every other one as well. I'm talking about the number of fixtures (mainly in the Youth competitions) which are scheduled to commence at "12.00pm".
What time of day is 12.00pm? It's clearly meant to indicate mid-day, but is that accurate? No, I would argue that it couldn't be less accurate.
What does "pm" mean? Well, it's short for "post meridian" ... which translates as "after midday". So, a mid-day tip off can't take place "pm", can it? So, that must mean, then, that these fixtures should be listed as starting at 12.00am, doesn't it? Er ... no. The same argument applies here, as "am" stands for "ante meridian", or "before midday" .. So, a mid-day tip off can't take place "am" either!
No, mid-day is neither "am" nor "pm", it's neither after itself nor before itself ... it's just mid-day, or, put more simply, "noon".
So what do 12.00pm and 12.00am mean?
I would suggest that they both mean the same as each other ... midnight. Thinking about it, 12.00midnight will be "post" today's meridian, but "ante" tomorrow's. So either notation will do.
Here endeth today's lesson ...
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