Game 6 has just concluded and the revengeful Sovereign Knights, after last weeks shock loss, have triumphed over the competitive Phoenix Basketball Team.

The Sovs were slightly shorter than usual with big man Ro absent, and deadeye Blondie (see player profile) unavailable with work commitments. The team was bolstered however with the recently signed Dan Scott, which gave him the opportunity to play his first game as a contracted player.

The game commenced with a Sovs outfit set to make amens for last week’s uncharacteristic loss. The team started out sensibly cutting and rotating the ball to create easy opportunities.

The points started to pile on for the Sovs with some hard efforts on defence by Dan and Matty in the starting guard positions, causing the Phoenix to turn the ball over countless times. This released the guards to play their free-flowing game quickly passing the ball to dissect the Phoenix defence.

Due to the Sovs getting on top of the Phoenix, a timeout was called by the opposition to slow the tempo… this simply resulted in the Sheedy coming out in Mark organising the offensive system. The pass and cut tactics worked instantly after the timeout with the Sovs putting on an additional 6 points to the scoreboard.

Whilst the gap was increasing a storm was brewing between Chunka and Phoenix’s No. 10 otherwise known as Agro. What started as healthy conversation turned a sour with Agro becoming distressed with the game, resulting in “unintentional” elbows being thrown.

The Sovs went into the half-time break with a decent lead, due to the hard work from the forwards (Azz, Chunka and Mark) down low limiting the scoring the opportunities and gathering the loose ball.

With the half-time break behind the lads the Sovs stepped on to the court with confidence expecting more of the same in the first half, this unfortunately was not the case. The Phoenix had restructured their defence and prevented the Sovs from continuing with their cut and pass initiative.

As the Phoenix started to slow the Sovs offence their (the Phoenix) confidence grew and resulted in consecutive plays being made to reduce the gap created by the Sovs earlier.

The Sovs regathered after not taking or making a shot for what seemed a good 5 minute period, and reapplied the defensive pressure that apparently restricted the Phoenix’s offence earlier.

The Sovs managed to hold off the Phoenix for the remainder of the game with some, what can only be described as “ugly” basketball, with relentless ball pressure and unimpressive passes.

The game concluded with a 33-27 win to the Sovs who tired in the later stages of the game, with many certain team members spending energy earlier in the week on cardiovascular training,

Adrian Robinson has just returned home from a hard days work at Maccas... and what a surpise his little boy Leo has come home with him.

AM - Hey Age! Are you ready to answer some questions for the fans out there?
AR - Yeah cool, what have you written about me?
AM - Nothing yet mate

AM - Uniform Number:
AR - 40

AM - Full Name:
AR - Adrian Luke Robinson

AM - Date of Birth:
AR - 12 March 1984

AM - Nicknames:
AR - Age, Blondie, Sexy
AM - Okay...

AM - Position:
AR - Forward/Guard (when Alex doesn't want to run)
AM - Cheers

AM - Signature Move:
AR - Sitting outside the 3 point line away from the action, waiting for a crisp pass into my palms and then WHAM! - I drop the shot in front of an approaching defender... nothing better.

AM - Likes:
AR - Sex, sex and more sex.

AM - Dislikes:
AR - No sex.

AM - Career Highlight:
AR - There is one specific game where I was on fire in D, we were playing a bunch of Refs in a game and this fat smart ass was on a fast break. I came from behind and blocked the living shit out of him, no foul... needless to say he didn't take it to the hoop again.
AM - I'm expecting to see a bit more of the same type of defence, without the fouls though!
AR - No probs, anything for the fans.

New Signings...

Late Saturday night the Sovereign Knights management aquired the services of scouting agency Lee Player Management Pty Ltd.

Spokesman Matt Lee of Lee Player Management Pty Ltd details that formal discussions were held late into the night with impressive ballers Peter Ham and Daniel Scott from the title winning Cunning Stunts franchise.

Information forwarded to Sovs management suggests that both players are very keen to play a role in the longevity of the Sovs franchise, which includes ambitions to win back to back flags one source said.

Matt Lee described both players as "important assets to any basketball franchise" with the players having a deverse set of skills and experience that would bolster both the offence and defence of the team.

Peter "Timmy" Ham was illustrated as the more experienced of the two, with sublime offensive skills and a jumper, which when it drops they don't stop dropping. Whilst Daniel Scott the younger of the pair will bring an all around A-Game to the floor, with an impressive knack to steal the ball and set up some appetising plays with team mates.

Both players however will soon be on extended periods of leave from Australia to attend numerous training camps in upper level leagues in America, Canada and Scotland.

"The contracts signed last night by both players is a huge win for the Sovs management team and will ensure that a full list of players is available for every game into the future. It is unsure at what capacity the two will play, whether it is of a fulltime or partime nature, but we are very happy here at the franchise to welcome them into the fold" a spokesman said.

Game 5 was played last night with a diminished Sovs outfit coming up against what looked a well-organised Two Swords team. Absences from starting guard – Matty, and starting forward – Chunkas put pressure on the thinner Sovs team in 30oc + temperatures at the Netball Centre.

Although Two Swords had 2 players on the bench, the game commenced in a snail like manner with neither team willing to run the court in the conditions.

This resulted in a rotation game being played by both teams, with Two Swords throwing some pin-point passes to pull to pull off some well thought out plays that the Sovs could only watch with dropped jaws at the simplicity of their execution.

With these delightful post up moves Two Swords began to grow in confidence and extend their lead on the Sovs who were still contesting every ball with generally sound defence.

As Two Swords began to break away on the scoreboard, Age put a highlight in for “play of the day” efforts for his mid air collision with the opposing guard in a 50/50 ball (being out of bounds) that would have surely put a slighter man in rehabilitation for a month – but yet they both got up and played on.

The Sovs went into the half time break considerably down, both on the scoreboard and mentally, as Two Swords had an answer to everything that was being thrown at them.

Strategists (Mark) decided to alter the style of the game into the second half having Ro start outside of the key, allowing the Widdison boys to post up and control the passing tempo.

This ingenious coaching move proved a success as more space was provided in the key for quicker rotation in and back out. With some crisp passes into the key and some strong post up moves from the boys the Sovs began to slowly bridge the gap with some physical play.

With some confidence back in the team, the Sovs started to press and reduce the gap, unfortunately Two Swords hung strong with their lead taken into the half time break.

It wasn’t until Ro fouled out that Two Swords got back on top with the extra man advantage, which they exploited well by drawing the Sovs out of the key and passing into the gaps.

In the later stages of the game some tasteful moves were made by the housemates (Age and Alex) with aggressive drives and brilliant dishes by Alex to set Age up for some easy points.

In the end the game has been put down as a learning experience, and one which the lads can draw confidence from later in the season as the Sovs outscored their opponents and controlled the game in the second half, but still went down 38-26 to the better opposition of the day.

Mark Widdison

I'm currently sitting at home on the net, and fortunately MJ has decided to come cruise the the open spaces of the net and partake in a little interview.

AM - Is there anything you want to say before we begin:

MW - Lets just say I've got a lot of pictures of myself, and I see this web page as a great opportunity to spread my good looks on the web.
AM - Right, well lets begin.

AM - Uniform Number:
MW - 23 (with matching sweat band)

AM - Full Name:
MW - Mark Jonathon Widdison

AM - Date of Birth:
MW - 3 May 1979

AM - Time for another pic do you think:
MW - Of course, more the merrier!

AM - Nicknames:
MW - Woody, MJ, Markass, Sheedy
AM - Oh, and 'Tickets'
MW - Yeah

AM - Position:
MW - Commando...
AM - Basketball
MW - Forward

AM - Signature Move:
MW - Dr. J tributed baseline reversal drive (as seen in previous game)
AM - Smooth

AM - Likes:
MW - Top Deck (chocolate), 4 day weeks and Johnnie Walker

AM - Dislikes:
MW - Car Accidents, 5 day weeks and people who serve cold meat.
AM - Note to self, don't serve cold meat...


AM - Career Highlight:
MW - Ah, that's easy. It would have to be the time I was coaching the Sovereign Under 16 Boys basketball team.
AM - Go on.
MW - From memory I was coaching Matty's older brother (Craig) and we managed to go through the whole seaon and clinch the Grand Final, piece of cake.
AM - Just like we are going to do this season:
MW - Don't get ahead of yourself young man.

AM - All the best with the season.
MW - Cheers, look forward to reading the page.

Game 4 of the regular season concluded last night, which saw the Sovereign Knights square up to Version 2.

The Sovs welcomed back the Widdison Brothers (Azz and Mark) into the fold after their extended break up north in Queensland.

The game began with a relentless pace, which surprised the lads and resulted in some very unattractive basketball being played by both teams.

Things begun to look rosier for the Sovs as Yeti (please see player profile) began to light up the court board with some lovely full court efforts that poured on 8 quick points.

The team soon realised (after being up 12-4) that Version 2 were not much chip, and didn’t deserve to score, let alone have the ball. So the Sovs began to press, and press they did, continually stealing the ball and running the court with some precision behind-the-back passes that put the opposition in a daze.

Ro again was crashing the boards, fiercely ripping the ball down on the offensive end and throwing it up for a couple of evens. Although the boards were coming down there was an apparent inverse relation with Crash’s (Ro's) foul count that was rising quickly.

A timeout was called at an appropriate time just as everyone was reaching for the mirage on the side of the court, due to everyone working the D harder than a dog with a bone.

It was much of the same after the timeout, apart from the personnel change. To put it simply the Sovs were dominating every facet of the game from calling the plays to doing up their shoelaces.

Into the second half saw the “Ol Sovs Brigade” (Mark and Chunka) dominate offence, pulling moves that you wouldn’t see in a NBA highlights package… including Shaq styled post ups from Chunka and Dr. J tributed baseline reversal cuts from Mark. Needless to say, they had it all!

As the Sovs energy levels were draining, so were the players from Version 2 including their star player “Fatso” who was surely only minutes away from a cardiac arrest. But out of all this was one shinning star, Azz, the only one really contesting the ball with relentless pressure, forcing steals and causing more heartache for the Sovs – as we had to run.

Final Scores 51-21, with the Sovs concluding, “I sure hope we play them again”… and we do fellas, expect to see Version 2 in the last round of the season (Round 15).

Matt Lee

I'm currently relaxing with the super star guard Matty Lee over a couple of frothies, it's midday, but we couldn't fathom anything better to do on a public holiday.

So on to the Player Profile...

AM - Uniform Number:
ML - 15 (preferred Number 11)

AM - Full Name:
ML - Matthew Phillip Lee (please note double letters in each name)

AM - Date of Birth:
ML - 23 May 1985

AM - Nicknames:
ML - Matty, Yeti or Black Magic

AM - Position:
ML - Guard, but just let me have the oppurtunity to rip the boards down


AM - Signature Move:
ML - Drive starting from the 3 point line, past a keenly placed screen for the reverse lay up... Scoring and drawing the foul (as he picks up the basketball and pretends to dunk on me).

AM - Likes:
ML - Basketball, Squash, Footy, Wrestling, Beer and Hot Girls

AM - Dislikes:
ML - Arrogance, Cats and Ugly Bitches

Just as I'm about to rap up the questionnare Matty suggests "what about a career highlight question".

AM - Career Highlight:
ML - It would have to be the time I won back to back Grand Final MVP awards.
AM - You just wanted to boast.
ML - Yep, it was a proud moment for me, I can't explain it I had the hot hand for both years, and I dedicate my performance to my team mates who did the right thing by continually feeding me the ball.

AM - All the best for the 2006 season, and lets hope we continue our performance in the guard positons.
ML - Cheers, you don't need to worry about my performance.

Sovereign Knights!

It has been decided that this blogger will now become a blow by blow account of the 2006 C Grade Basketball season for the Sovereign Knights.

The blogger by the end of the season will hopefully contain player profiles, league standings, statistics, team and action pictures along with game reviews.

So where did it all begin? The call came sometime ago. on a hot Sunday's afternoon, with Age and I trying to beat the summers heat in front of a fan playing Ricky Ponting's Cricket.

It was Azz (Team Manager) suggesting that we should "get the team back together and play some basketball this season."Azz could hear Age in the background becoming rather excited saying "Who is it? Is it Azz? Tell him to come over."

Upon Azz's arrival we got to thinking, who should be on the team? and we managed to nut out a team of 8 that could win a championship, the team being Mark, Chunka, Age, Azz, Matty, Ro, Simon and Me (Alex).

The day has long gone and now the Sovs are toe deep into the C Grade season. The team currently stands at 2-1 with the championship burning in the teams eyes.

Last Wednesday's game saw the Sovs up against cross town rivals Drummond Street. The Drummond Street boys for no apparent reason were wearing St. Patricks unifroms.

Yet, this didn't worry the Sovs we came out pumped in the 28oc+ temperature at the Stadium. However, the Sovs were carrying a couple of injuries and illnesses into the game with Chunka - Shoulder, Dan (fill in) - Knee and Alex - with a cold.

The game started well with some delightul driving, divine rotation and superb shot-making by starting guards Matty and Dan. With this the Sovs went into the lead 16-0 leaving the St. Pats boys in the dust.

Matty and Dan lifted the tempo and treated the Patties Offence and Defence with contempt stealing the ball, running the court and finishing with some no look passes and alley's.

An exuberant Pete (fill in) came in with a weary Alex at the 14 minute mark of the first half. With the change in personnel the tempo slowed a little but the subs worked together to create some open oppurtunites for themeselves and managed to even run the court.

The Patties began to scare late in the first half with some timely steals from poor inbound passes and disastrous dribbling, they managed to put on 9 straight points into the half time break and closed the gap to 21-16.

The Rout continued though as the Sovs didn't let up in the second half as big men Ro and Chunka started to dominate the key with some huge offensive and defensive boards. Man mountain Ro tore down 7 boards in the second half and released Chunka on numerous occasions for inspiring coast to coast plays.

The game was capped off with a confidence grown Age drowning 3 straight 3 pointers, it didn't end there for blondie though... he sucked it up and then continued to steal the ball from a drained Patties outfit and teamed up well with Dan playing guard in the back court.

The game ended with an impressive win to the Sovs 40-21.As at 2 March 2006 the Sovs are sitting in sixth place, and look forward to playing Version 2 at 8.50 next week.

For further details on the game times and season standings please see

http://www.ballaratbasketball.com/results/main.html

arh, i want to stop this runny nose!

well after an exhausting weekend on the bottle up north (queensland) for a mates wedding, i have come down with the usual symptoms of a head cold.

thus, i have taken two days off work to gather my antibodies and tackle this thing head on.

how am i treating this head cold... ah just with the usual round of acupunture from Dr. Greg Horgan, accompanied with lashings of tea (straight with one sugar) and the famous housewives lemon and honey combination.

if anyone is in need of an excellent acupunturist in the ballarat, then check greg out at
http://www.eastwesttherapies.com.au

if anyone has any ideas or interesting remedies to treat the common head cold, please feel free to inform me... so that the suffering stops!

Cheers

AJ

welcome... and the history of me

lets get started then shall we?

perhaps a little bit about me...

name: alexander james makings
birth date: 1 january 1984
birth place: ballarat, victoria

this initial journal entry has been created due to a requirement in a university course that i am currently enrolled in. should i find this an exciting pass time i may very well continue to add to my journal and share my limited life experiece with the world (all 22 years of it).

what do i look like well just scroll down and you will see a picture of me at my 21st birthday with my father and my god-father.

Cheers

AJ