DIARY

Diary - May; Diary - June; Diary- July; Diary- August

29/09/03

The highly-successful Ellesmere Port team (winners of the Sureshot Cadet and Junior Cups and the RAF Cadet Women's Championship), who had considered participating in this season's Division Two, have stepped in to take over Liverpool's fixtures - a move which includes playing senior home matches at Liverpool's Greenbank Sports Centre.

The step up will certainly not only help the division as a whole, by restoring some of its credibility, but should benefit the Ellesmere Port youngsters, by giving them some much stiffer competition.

That said, coach Jim McGinn will have to ensure that if and when they suffer heavy defeats (something to which they are most certainly unaccustomed) it doesn't destroy their confidence. Unfortunately one of their key players, Lauren Thomas-Johnson, already plays senior 'ball for Manchester Mystics, and the Panthers' opening game, at a strong Nottingham Wildcats, resulted in a convincing 42 point home victory.

I suspect that this may have been partly to do with the lateness of the decision to admit them to the competition, and the resulting lack of preparation time for this standard of opposition. October, though, will be a key month for the youngsters. They play host to the Rhondda Rebels this coming Sunday (though they know what to expect, having lost to the Rebels in last season's Cup), but later in the month they will have the chance to measure themselves more realistically, at UWIC, and at home to Ipswich.

The other thing that concerns me, though, is how they will manage to fit in these games alongside their Junior and Cadet commitments. I know that the reason that Jim chose not to enter Division 2 was that he felt that the difficulties of fitting in so many games, with effectively the same core of players, would prove impossible without the full cooperation and flexibility of all his opponents - something which he felt may not be forthcoming.

Looking at their senior fixtures, five of them clash with Junior Women's matches, and and seven with Cadet games. It's one thing to double-up Junior and Cadet fixtures on the same day, but senior games are another matter entirely, and I wonder how they'll cope with this congestion.

That said, I salute their bravery in taking on such a difficult task, and wish them well. I'm sure that if anyone can squeeze a gallon into a pint pot it'll be Jim McGinn - I'm just sorry he doesn't work behind the bar of my local!

I'm now not so much pleased as absolutely gobsmacked. The increase in traffic over this first full results' weekend has put the M25 at rush-hour to shame, with three days of record visits, and twice as many people logging in on Sunday as on the previous best day!

As a result, we've suddenly shot past the 4,000 mark for the month ... and still counting.

I begin to feel we've finally arrived - but the downside is that I'm going to have to ensure that I keep the information flowing, to keep the customers happy. As my Dad has always told me, "If they called it work, you wouldn't do it".

26/09/03

At least FL is now ready to go, for the first (nearly) full EBL weekend of the season. All senior fixtures now have venues and tip-offs (with the exception of a handful for which either we don't yet have details, or we're waiting for the venue to be "applied" to the home team), as have the Junior and Cadet Men's Premier divisions. The other Junior and Cadet divisions have complete details up until the end of October, and I'm hoping to finish them off this weekend, while Cliff has completed the BAM and Passarelle.

As the season progresses, FL are planning to enhance the results' service, with provision to give the top three scorers in each match for each senior team, though uploading that information will have to take second place to recording the match scores.

In the meantime, if you can't wait until you get to your computer to find the results and tables, why not sign up for FL's "results and tables by SMS" service? Just £10 buys you the results and table for the division of your choice every match day for the full season.

Last weekend, for instance, not only were several Junior and Cadet Cup games postponed, as some clubs still had not licensed their players, and other teams realised too late and either voided the game or failed to turn up, but it turns out that Brighton Bears, who took an on-court victory from Waltham Forest, were unlicensed, and so it's Waltham who go through to the next round, 20-0.

Now I hesitate to suggest that the same malaise has spread to the senior teams, but it seems coincidental that we already have two postponements for this weekend, in Division 3 Men -  Derby v. Walsall in the North and Bognor v. Brighton Cougars in the South.

22/09/03

It's only just over a year ago that the Bears were celebrating their victory over Bristol in the NBL 2 (now renamed EBL3), and their demise is yet another blow to the stability of the League. May we take the opportunity of wishing all their players, and administrators, well, and hope that the former, at least, will not be lost to the game.

Unfortunately it now looks as though this season is shaping up to mimic previous years in terms of pre-season drop outs.

The Junior withdrawals are particularly significant for the Sureshot Junior Men's Cup. Wolverhampton had already received a bye into the First Round, following the earlier withdrawal of Solihull II, where they were due to face leeds Tigers. Now the Yorkshire outfit, who had a Preliminary Round walkover when York couldn't raise a registered team, have reached Round 2 without touching a ball!

It's a similar story for London Towers, who had a bye into Round 1 and were due to visit Ware. They, too, are straight through to the last sixteen.

21/09/03

I understand that Steve Hansell, who played last season for Larissa in Greece, has been playing for them in pre-season games. If the Bullets have persuaded the England International to return to his roots (I believe he began his career in Birmingham) it not only strengthens them considerably, but also shows that they are paying more than just lip service to the ideal of giving English talent a high profile within the club.

The posting of results on Fixtures Live seemed to go smoothly, although it's a good job there weren't any Cadet Men's League fixtures ... I'd omitted to enter the matches for the Cadet Premier North and South! Ooops!

With the new user-friendly access-page they've introduced (just listing the EB national competitions, so you don't have to trawl through variations of "Little Whinging Sunday Veterans' League" to find what you want), it should provide an excellent new resource for clubs and fans alike. As the system develops, we hope that clubs themselves will begin to make an input, with reports, stats etc.

Unfortunately, less surprising than some of the results was the fact that sixteen of the thirty-nine results from Sureshot Cup games have still not been phoned in. Doesn't make us look very good when people log onto one of the results' sites (FL or Pawprint) and find so many missing.  

19/09/03

After discussion among themselves, suggestions were put to EB, involving the restructuring of the Women's Leagues, to enable the Division 1 clubs to play alongside those from Division 2 in the early part of the season, with the competition splitting into two divisions again later in the season.

Understandably, just a week away from the official start of the league campaign, first reactions from headquarters were not favourable, as it was felt that there simply wasn't time for a restructuring to take place at this stage.

However, so great is seen to be the threat to the women's game, that proposals to alter the Leagues have now been put out to the Division 2 clubs for consultation, with the request for consideration carrying the full authority of CEO Keith Mair.

There are two suggestions for possible reorganisation:

So, the North would be increased from 11 to 13 teams, and the South from 8 (nine until Worthing pulled out) to 12.

There would be a full round of home and away fixtures within each section, at the end of which the top three in each would play off for the Division 1 title, and the next four in each would enter the knock-out crossover stage of the Division 2 championship.

There would be a full round of home and away fixtures within each section, following which the top two in each would go into the Division 1 play-offs, and the others would play-off for the Division 2 title.

Obviously neither suggestion is ideal ... but both are preferable to the prospect of the slow death of of the top teams, and it's clear that that is the likely alternative.

Division 2 clubs have been asked for immediate replies with their comments / support, and the clubs have been told that any rescheduling of the season would require "the support of all the Division 2 teams".

If that phrase is taken literally, it would mean that just one of the nineteen would have an effective veto. However, the very fact that Keith has even considered such changes at this stage should alert everyone to the seriousness of the situation. As the letter to clubs explains, while recognising, and regretting, the problems for both clubs and EB staff, the Association is "... keen to facilitate matches for as many female players as possible".

Since clubs are asked to respond "with the interests of all women's basketball in mind", I, for one, hope that they take the hint!

With member clubs keen to play as many games as possible in a season, for financial reasons as much as anything, and having already lost four games each (two each at home and away) with the demise of the Leopards, it was not unexpected for them to attempt to fill the void left by their decision to not enter the National Cup on England Basketball's terms.

Interestingly, the story released from BBL makes no mention of that other competition (except implicitly, with Mike Smith's comment that "The BBL Cup will enable the BBL member clubs to play in four tournaments as they normally do each season").

So we now have a plethora of Cups (will there be enough interest in the all for them to runneth over, I wonder?) with the BBL Cup, the BBL Trophy, the EB National Cup, the EB National Trophy, the Patron's Cup and the National Shield. If we carry on at this rate we'll end up with enough competitions to enable every club to win something.

Of course, though this, too, hasn't been mentioned, having their own knock-out competition to fall back on puts the BBL in an interesting negotiating position over next year's National Cup!

It's suggested that Black Country Bears (EBL Division 2) may be reconsidering their participation this season. Bob Beaumont has already lost his coach from last season, and also veteran Tony Simms, while other players also appear to be less than keen to play for the club this season, and have been trying out elsewhere.

Apparently, Bob has been pumping a lot of his own money into the club and the suggestion is that he may have decided that enough is enough.

This is yet another story that I sincerely hope is ill-founded - I should miss Bob's unique style of match reports!

The season tips off tomorrow!.

All the fixtures, from EBL Division 1 Men right through to RAF BAM and EB Passarelle (thanks to Cliff Fulbrook of Solent for the latter) are now posted on Fixtures Live, so you can check out the whole season for any (or every) division.

One thing we are still working on is posting venues for all matches, but that should be completed within the next few days.

In the meantime, I'd be grateful if club secretaries can check their fixtures for errors and omissions (open the FL page for your division, and click on the name of your team) and let me know if anything needs altering.

Then we can all sit back and enjoy the season.

15/09/03

Having been in the position of being involved with a club which failed to make it to the start line (three times, actually!) I can empathise strongly with those involved, and know how devastating the sudden, lethal surprises that bring about such withdrawals can be.

I have no intention, therefore, of theorising about why specific clubs have withdrawn, nor of pontificating about the clubs themselves.

It is, though, very disappointing, for the game itself, to lose two more previously successful clubs, both in the Women's EBL. Liverpool had been accepted into Division 1, after making quite an impact in Div. 2 North in the second half of last season, while Worthing Magic have been regular, genuine contenders for honours in Div. 2 South for several years.

While these two are the high-profile casualties, there is also quite a crop of "Youth" teams which didn't make it to the starting gate. York Vikings are out of Under-20 North (and Cup), Solihull Dakotas have withdrawn their second teams from both the Junior and Cadet Midlands Conferences, the Cadet Midlands Conference will also be without Leicester Cannons, and Cadet Women's South have lost Kingston Wildcats. Meanwhile, Biddick School have given their opponents, Preston, an immediate passge into the next round of the Cadet Men's Cup (though they've stayed in the Cadet North Conference).

In the Passarelle competitions, Spelthorne Atoms have dropped out from both under-15 and under-13 South, and are joined at the exit from the under-15s by Brentwood Fire.

All very familiar, I'm afraid, and very depressing. Even more depressing for me this year ... as I've now got to trawl through the matches already posted on Fixtures Live and delete the ones involving any of those teams - and that has to be done painstakingly one match at a time!

In the Junior Women's League it turns out that Sheffield Hatters are participating after all, with my claim to the contrary being based simply on not having spotted their name in the fixture list! Oops. I'll leave you to imagine what Betty Cadona had to say about that when our paths crossed the other day.

As for Doncaster Panthers, I hadn't missed seeing their name in the Cadet Women's fixtures, they really were missing. However, it seems that there was a communication glitch between Doncaster and Leeds (probably too hot for the carrier pigeons this summer!), and after a good deal of pleading by Des Naylor, the Panthers have been admitted, late, into Cadet Women North.

I don't yet know their fixture schedule (and I imagine it'll be pretty difficult to fit their games into the largest of the three Cadet Women's divisions), but will post them as soon as they're available.

On the other hand, of course, the Cup seems far too firmly fixed to allow for any leeway, and it looks as though the Finalists for the last three years (and winners in the first of those appearances) will be missing from that competition. The only way that Doncaster could be accommodated would be either to ask one of the Northern teams who currently have a bye to the second round whether they'd be prepared to play a first round game (and I doubt if Stockport, Ellesmere Port or Manchester would leap at the chance), or to give Doncaster the place vacated by Kingston's withdrawal ... which would really please Brighton Bears, the visitors in that game!

14/09/03

"Having read your diary entry today I was left angered by the comments made regarding our re-arranged fixture with Stoke. As you will no doubt be able to gather from the attachments to this e-mail this fixture has been scheduled to be re-arranged since the 16th of July, with all parties concerned being kept informed of the progress at all times.

"You do not have to be a 'Rocket Scientist' to realise that you have made comments whilst not being in full possession of all the facts. I wait in eager anticipation to see if you are as ready to print the TRUTH on your web pages as you are your self opinionated views.

"During the course of the season if you have any queries regarding South Nottingham College please feel free to contact me to avoid anymore 'misunderstandings'.

"Finally, I must congratulate you on your web site, of which I am a regular visitor, hence the speed of this reply."

Thanks for putting me straight, John, and I'm certainly always willing to print corrections to any errors that creep in from time to time. In fact I'll be the first to poke fun at myself for cock-ups ... as witness the fiasco over my Mike Smith "resignation" story early in the summer!

So, apologies to John, and SNC, for besmirching their good name - and well done to them for spotting the fixture problem well in advance.

The bit in the diary I do stand by, though, is the belief that there will be other clubs who do realise at short notice that they don't have a team near the beginning and end of terms, and postpone at short notice.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the rapid approach of the season, when I can start talking about real stories ... like basketball games!

14/09/03

When the provisional fixture lists were issued, back in the middle of the close-season, I noticed that there were several matches with which I felt there might be problems. These involved University or College teams (mainly in Div. 3 Men or Div. 2 Women) at the beginning and end of terms, when we know that in past seasons the players have not been available. I actually marked many of these doubtful fixtures with a question mark in the fixture matrixes.

I would have thought that the clubs themselves would have the best idea of when their players would and would not be around, and indeed one or two of these have been changed before the publication of the "final" fixture lists. Not all, however, and already we've had one late amendment (Stoke v. SNC) when the visitors realised they can't put a team together on 27th September.

It's hardly rocket science (in fact it's not even GCSE science!) to know in advance that if your players aren't there you can't fulfil a fixture, but I wait with interest to see if all the matches scheduled for that first weekend, and for the weekends of 20th December and 3rd January take place on those days!

Instead of the Brave New World style management-speak of past years ("I hear what you say, but we need to put that on the back burner ..." the antipodean "call a spade a bloody shovel" approach of new CEO Keith Mair appeals to someone who has lived most of his life in Yorkshire.

You could count the platitudes on the fingers of no hands, and although the situation that EB is in is no less difficult at least we were left with the feeling that it's a problem that we all face together, and I'm sure that that contributed hugely to the fact that it was a very uncontroversial and well-mannered meeting, which was over within an hour.

09/09/03

It's quite a slow process, as each competition has to be set up first with the competing teams, and then each fixture entered individually, with date, venue and time (where known).

As a result I'm still just finishing off the senior competitions, and making a start on the Junior ones, but it should all be finished in plenty of time for the big tip off later this month.

Once the season does begin, not only will fixtures and results be readily available on Fixtures Live, but there will be the opportunity to subscribe to their Results by Text service, whereby you can arrange to have any (or all!) division's results and table sent direct to your mobile phone. Watch out for further details.

If you want to see which divisions' fixtures are already online at Fixtures Live, go to Matches\fixtureslive where the divisions which are highlighted to have a link are the ones already completed. It'll also give you some idea of how much we still have to do before the season starts!

The reason that it's growing is that more clubs, outside the BBL, have begun to submit information. Plymouth and Solent have long recognised the importance of keeping the basketball public informed, while London United have recently become more proactive. Now, with Worcester and ambitious newcomers Kings Lynn also sending in material, I hope that other clubs will take note and follow suit.

07/09/03

The offices are in the brand new building that houses the English Institute of Sport, and the building and it's facilities are both first class.

Set in the Attercliffe area, between the Hallam FM Arena and the Don Valley Stadium, the premises display the best that modern materials and design can offer.

Inside it is bright and spacious, with facilities for indoor athletics, among other sports, and at least two sports halls - one with three basketball courts and one with one court and spectator provision.

It's this latter court that will be used by Sheffield Hatters and City of Sheffield Arrows for their matches this season, and it looks set to become a popular venue as far as the fans are concerned.

The suite of offices occupied by EB are in a prime position - on the first floor, overlooking the main entrance (immediately behind the glass in the picture on the right).

It's certainly a vast improvement on the depressing conditions in which staff had to work at Stanningley Road in Leeds, and the move looks to me like a huge success story.

I'm sure that those attending next Saturday's Annual General Meeting will at least be impressed by their surroundings.