PREVIEWS - OCTOBER 2007
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PREVIEWS - OCTOBER 2007 |
An occasional (but weekly if I get the time) look at the forthcoming weekend's matches in the EBL.
Preview information from clubs, and from EB, will be included, where available.
w/e 21st October 2007
NATIONAL TROPHY
Barkers (Tarring) Worthing Thunder have a busy weekend ahead of them with matches at home to London Leopards in the National Trophy on Saturday and a visit to London Westside in the 2nd Round of the National Cup on Sunday.
Fresh from their resounding win over the College of West Anglia Fury, Thunder will be further boosted this week by Ryan Marrast joining the line up following his ineligibility to play last weekend due to his licence application being caught up in the postal strike backlog.
With newly appointed head coach Chris Mayes resigning last week from his role due to personal differences within the team set up, his assistant Rob Newson took charge for the first time on Saturday and will be in charge for both games this weekend. However, assistant Daniel Jenner doesn't think this will affect the team and says: "the team have gelled really well and showed on Saturday that they can play really intense defence. Although both Rob and I are young, there is a lot of experience within the squad providing calm heads to lead the team on the floor, we should be in for a good season."
Leopards have made many changes during the summer, and have focussed on youth and have no American imports this year. As Jenner says: "They have some experience in the shape of Gareth Laws and Sam Salter who are both tough players, but the loss of Duncan Ogilvie to Manchester hurt them.
"They have a number of good young players, who will progress as the season goes on. Carl Latham Henry and Nathan Wilson appear to be the two that stand out at the moment, but others such as Deng Deng and Lukas Volskis are also capable of putting their hands up when required.
"They've made an indifferent start to the season, but I'm sure they will be going all out to topple us to kick start their season."
The action starts at the Leisure Centre at 8pm on Saturday, and tickets are priced at £7 adults, £5 juniors and £19 for a family ticket.
NATIONAL CUP
Sunday sees Worthing travel to London to play Third Division Westside, who perhaps surprisingly put out the Southampton Trailblazers in the first round. A home tie with Kent Crusaders awaits the winner of this tie and Thunder will be keen to show the gulf in standard between the leagues early on to prevent their opponents getting a sniff of victory.
Although not underestimating their lower league opponents, it will be a major shock were the current League and play-off champions not to get through.
London Leopards
return to
The Big Cats won the competition – basketball’s equivalent of the FA Cup – in the 2005/6 season, and will look to move into the last 16 with a victory against the EBL Division Three side.
Hackney have yet to start their league campaign, but they produced a minor surprise in the first round of the competition by beating last season’s division three runners up London Towers 96-87 on their own court.
The winner of the tie is at home in the third round against Division Two opposition, either Birmingham Athletics of BCU Wolverhampton, and with a home game in quarter-finals awaiting, there is plenty of incentive for Leopards to progress on Sunday.
The action
at
w/e 7th October 2007
PATRON'S CUP
The Body and Mind Kent Crusaders host Leicester Warriors this Saturday in their first group match of this years Patrons Cup. Crusaders have been drawn in a group alongside Leicester Warriors, Northampton Neptunes, Plymouth Raiders II, Tamar Valley Cannons and Cardiff Celts so a good start is essential.
Last year Crusaders missed out on a semi-final place by the smallest of margins. Despite an impressive 86-74 win over Taunton Tigers other results went against Kent seeing them eliminated on points difference. Had Crusaders beaten Taunton by 2 more points they would have progressed to the next round.
On the other hand Leicester come to Crusaders as defending champions having won their first major trophy in this competition last season. The Warriors overcame Bristol in the final 61-55 which was played at the Newcastle Arena. Leicester also had a solid season in Division 2 finishing mid-table with 11 wins and 11 losses.
This is Crusaders' first game against Division 2 opposition this year coach Mads Olsen said ”It will be good to test the new Crusaders squad against Division 2 opposition”. So it is good news that Olsen can name a full strength side with JP Dimandja, Matt Rosenthal and James Harris all returning from injury.
Olesen had this to say about the upcoming game ”The key players are our big men, who will be giving up size against the Warriors, but on the other hand should have the advantage of being quicker". With this being a rematch of Crusaders' 78-57 victory over the Warriors last season it promises to be an exciting game.
The game tips off this Saturday at 7:30pm at the Body and Mind Leisure Centre in Canterbury. Tickets are available on the door.