^{IN T' NET}

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

HOME; Diary - May; Diary - June; Diary- July; Diary- August; Diary - September; Diary - October; Diary - November;

Diary - December; Diary - January; Diary - February

31/03/04

Every year I tend to forget quite how manic the month of March is ... until we get to the end of it, and realise how absolutely knackered I feel!

By the end of February I'd watched just 22 matches this season, in five months, but in the past four weeks I've seen a further nineteen - and commentated on thirteen of them.

The first weekend in March set the tone, with visits to three venues in as many days - and they weren't even in the same part of the country. I was up in Newcastle on the Friday night, for the Eagles game against the Rocks, then down to Worcester on Saturday to watch the Men's Trophy and Patron's Cup Finals, and then, having driven past Nottingham on my way home on Saturday night, down to the Jesse Boot Wildcats' Arena on the Sunday morning to commentate on the Under-20 Cup Final, Women's Trophy Final and Men's Shield Final.

I had meant to comment on the two sets of Finals at the time, but with all that travel, not to mention fitting in the results' service and updating the website overnight in between, I didn't even get time to finish the match reports let alone do anything extra.

I found Worcester very pleasant, and the staff at the University College Sports' Centre were the most helpful and accommodating I've ever come across. Having let them know that I was coming down, they'd made sure that there was somewhere for me to watch the games where I had access to a power point for my laptop, and afterwards even allowed me to use the computer in their office to update the Fixtures Live results!

The two games were very different, but equally entertaining, and very well presented, although was a little disappointed in the size of the main hall. The distance from the endline to the wall was closer than I'd expected, and with a row of chairs there was even less room for a player going out of court. I seem to recall that Derbyshire Arrows were refused admission to the (then) NBL Conference a couple of years ago on precisely those grounds, and I suspect that Worcester may well run into similar objections this year. A pity, as they're a very ambitious, and very friendly, club.

Sunday's Finals were all excellent games, and the Jesse Boot Wildcats' Arena (staging the event for the second year running) is the ideal venue. Just the right size, in terms of seating, and (as you'd expect from a purpose built venue) plenty of "run-off" space all around the court.

Just about had time to get my breath back from that, and it was back up to Newcastle on the Wednesday night, to commentate on the game against the Bears.

Then on to the Saturday, and at least I didn't have far to travel for the BBL Trophy Final at the Hallam FM Arena in Sheffield.

I like the idea of putting on a couple of support games, to make the promotion a fuller one ... especially as it meant that I got to do the microphone for the "Universities Challenge" between English Select and Celtic Select. It was really good to see both teams including players who are involved in the Leagues, from teams as diverse as Sheffield, Newcastle, London United and Loughborough. What was disappointing, though, was the poor impression of the Women's game that came across from the first game, with London Sting turning up with just six players! I've written about the Trophy Final elsewhere (in Reports), but it was certainly one to remember, with a controversial ending, and Chester lifting the title for the fourth consecutive season.

I had a whole six days then until my next visit to Newcastle - but that turned out to be more than a little eventful (as the Diary entry below suggests). Looking back, I've only just realised that the time, at the end of February, when I missed my train after misjudging the time it took to get to the station, it was the game when Thames Valley were the visitors ... then for their second visit they were delayed, and I missed it again. I think I'll give their games a miss next year!

Incidentally, it turns out that Steve Ellis, the referee who had offered me a lift home on that occasion, hadn't forgotten at all. While I was waiting in the foyer he was on the phone to the League arguing over whether (as they insisted, for safety reasons after a very long day) he should stay overnight before driving back home. By the time he'd lost the (very long) argument, I'd given up and gone - and he wouldn't have been able to take me anyway.

I did have a day to semi-recover before being in Manchester at 10.30 on Sunday morning, for the Sureshot Finals, but things are never that simple. That weekend was the final one of the regular season for all the Cadet, Junior and Under-20 teams, as well as EBL Division 2 Women, and Division 3 Men. So, the results' service wasn't as straightforward as usual, as I had to double check the League Tables, and occasionally cross-check with the results for the season, to ensure that the placings were accurate and the pairings for the play-offs were set up accurately. So instead of getting to bed at the usual weekend time of two in the morning, it was four o'clock on both Saturday and Sunday.

Even so, the Cadet and Junior Cup Finals were an event I wouldn't have missed (it was the eighth year that I've done the commentary for them), and Manchester's Amaechi Centre makes a great venue.

Three clubs deserve a special mention. Solent Stars, despite the distance, had the largest group of supporters there (to cheer on their teams in the Cadet Men's and Junior Women's Finals), even outnumbering the "home" Manchester fans. Manchester, though, excelled themselves, with teams in both Cadet and Junior Men's events, and the Cadet Women's Final, and an excellent all-round organisation of the event. Finally, of course, there are the phenomenal Ellesmere Port Panthers, who once again went home loaded with silverware, having won both Cadet (for the third year) and Junior (for the second) Women's Cups.

Finally, this last weekend, Newcastle had two home games - one on the Friday night, and one on the Sunday afternoon, and I'm pleased to report that I caught the train with no problems on both occasions!

So, a pretty busy month (and no time, unfortunately, to have kept the website as up to date as usual), but it's the sort of schedule that makes the game all that more exciting.

Anyway, only two more Eagles' games, the RAF Final Fours at Cosford, the Division 2 Women, Division 3 Men's and under-13 and under-15 Passarelle Finals, and the Championship Weekend in Birmingham ... and then what the hell do I do for the next five months ... ? I have a feeling that my 12-year-old labrador is going to have a real culture shock after a winter lazing about in front of the fire!

20/03/04

You know those days which end with the feeling that you'd have been better off staying in bed? Well, yesterday was just such a day for quite a few people!

It didn't feel that way for me in the morning, when Dan Routledge, from BBL, phoned me to warn me to set off early for Newcastle, as an accident had closed the A1 at Catterick "for eight hours or more". I merely felt very self-satisfied that I've taken to travelling by train on those journeys these days - little realising that the A1 was about to have its revenge on me for deserting it.

I began to get an inkling that the day wasn't going to go all that smoothly when I went to catch the 2:30pm train, with the intention of watching East Durham's local derby against Northumbria which was on as support game to the Eagles' match. Not only was the train already running 20 minutes late, due to speed restrictions as a result of the strong winds, but the train due half an hour earlier had been cancelled altogether, so that when my train did arrive it was already full, with two sets of passengers, and I ended up having to stand, in the vestibule between carriages. At least you couldn't fall over ... we were packed in far too closely for that.

Only a nifty piece of footwork at York, where I spotted a seat that had just been vacated by an alighting passenger, saved me from spending the whole journey in vertical mode, but of course the speed restrictions were still in force, and by the time we reached Newcastle the delay had grown to 40 minutes, and I'd missed the first quarter of the East Durham game.

"At least", I consoled myself, "I'm in plenty of time for the Eagles' match", realising that if I'd caught my usual 4:00pm train I could have been struggling to be there in time to be set up on the microphone and ready for that game.

I didn't yet realise how much "plenty of time" I still had!

Even when told, at seven o'clock, that there would be a delay to the tip off, as Thames Valley were still "just short of Thirsk", none of us realised just how long that delay was to be.

For the couple of hours, occasional updates on the Tigers' whereabouts seemed to suggest that they were either tacking up country, against the wind, or even occasionally being blown backwards!

It was unfortunate for the huge crowd (well over 3,000 again) that we weren't able to tell them immediately how long the delay would be. If they (and we) had known it would be at least two hours, they'd have been able to make an informed decision about whether to stick it out or to leave there and then. As it was, I was hugely impressed by the patience of the fans as we gave them regular updates on (as far as we knew!) the visitors' whereabouts. It was nine o'clock before any of them began to filter out, in increasing numbers.

Keeping them entertained was, of course, a huge job, and the cheerleaders must have got through a whole season's repertoire of routines in one evening, while the number of on-court competitions must have been been some sort of record, too. As for me, my voice was already suffering well before the game started.

My smugness at having avoided the road chaos by using the train began to evaporate at the same time as the crowd, as the realisation sank in that by the time the game had been played I'd have missed the last train home, but I was mightily relieved when one of the match officials (who had taken six hours for his journey from Birmingham) agreed to drop me at Doncaster on his return journey.

The Tigers finally arrived at around 9:45, and the cheer, from the remaining crowd, which greeted them when they took the court must have exceeded the level they get at home games - though I suspect that the latter is not tinged with such heavy irony.

The match itself is detailed elsewhere, and when it finally finished at ten to midnight, the overwhelming feeling was one of relief that at last it was all over. The biggest worry, in the closing stages, had been that the visitors might complete their comeback to force overtime. That would have provided a wonderful quiz question for future generations ... "which BBL game in 2004 was held on two days?".

So, as the teams and officials trooped of to get changed, I quickly packed away my equipment, phoned the result and brief report through to the League, and went to the back door of the Arena to await my lift home.

And to wait ... and wait ... and wait. Eventually, at a quarter to one, with the building now deserted apart from myself, the crew dismantling the court ready for the next day's event, and the night-porter, we came to the only possible conclusion ... he'd somehow left the building unnoticed and forgotten he'd offered me a lift!

At least, following my experience last month when I'd missed the last train, I knew what to expect this time, and the hour in the all-night pizza-parlour, the slow-train to Leeds, and the connection to Doncaster seemed almost routine.

I even managed to find the energy, from somewhere, to get the match report online before finally crawling into bed at half past seven. Oh well, at least I've got a full day to get my breath back before driving over to Manchester for the Sureshot Finals tomorrow. I wonder if the roads will be open by then?