Basketball at the Phoenix

As we won our Phoenix tournament several weeks ago, it meant that we qualified for the Champions tournament. 

There were some fantastic teams there - some even had actual basketball kits! 

We had a big squad, so there was lots of team changes and substitutions, but whoever was on the court gave it their all. The first match was against Childer Thorton and it was a tense and tight affair. They were a strong team and dominated at times, but we had our chances. It ended in a 2 -0 defeat. 

Then, it was Little Bollington, whose number 8 seemed to be the stand out player. Harry did a man marking job on him and kept him relatively quiet. But they had too much quality in the end and snatched a 2 - 0 victory. Two defeats, but they were close matches. 

Then, we played Our Ladys. It was a game we totally dominated and we had found our form. Emily was a deadly as ever and opened the scoring. Our Ladys pulled one back to make the scores 4 - 2, but Oliver ran the clock down and we had our first win. 

Our last game was agaisnt Upton Heath. Both teams were well matched. We had chances but gifted them possession back with simple mistakes. We were punished with a late basket, making it another 2 - 0 defeat. 

Fourth overall which was a decent achievement. considering 36 teams started the process. There were some terrific performances - Emily was deadly once again and Oliver, Jonnie and Harry were a constant threat with their dribbling. Alex and Oliver showed good handling a distribution and had their chances and Amelia was as tenacious as ever in her defending. The future also looks bright as George shone in this tournament, Arabella was fearless and James showed touches of class with his dribbling. So let's hope we can go one better next year.