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