On the prowl with the Leopards

There are days when your schedule is empty and other days when you somehow wish you could either divide yourself in three or be able to move from location to location instantly using a "Beam me up Scotty" technique. Saturday 23rd February was such a day.

The Dons were away at Dagenham & Redbridge in a vital League 2 clash, the 40th Anniversary of the Grren Party celebrations were taking place at the Spring Conference in Nottingham and Essex Leopards Basketball team were in the National Trophy Trophy in the less than palatial surroundings of the Braunstone Leisure Centre, Leicester.

Our days away in Wells ruled out attending the Spring Conference, and I was down to be on match report duty at Dagenham, but fortunately a replacement was found and therefore at 1pm I was at the Brentwood Centre to board the coach to Leicester.

Leopards is like a family, there's now about a hard core of 10 supporters who have followed the Club from the old regime days at the London Arena through to the new reincarnation at Brentwood and other venues around Essex.

The game itself was tight. Leopards pulled away but they were reeled back in by some exceptional three point shooting from the Teeside Mohawks. As the final minute began to unwind, the Mohawks were left with the final possession with the scores even. Would Leopards foul early, in the hope that foul shots would be missed, and give them the final shot. No, instead they let Mohawks engineer the final play, fortunate the pressure of the moment meant that the move broke down and so the game went to overtime.

Cometh the hour, cometh the player with the greatest experience. Robert Youngblood, Leopards Player-Coach, a man who led Leopards to the team's greatest successes in the days at London Arena. He had seen it and done it, but now he had to replicate it. On the Leopards first two possessions they went inside to 'Blood, he backed up his defender and scored with turn around jump shots. The early lead in overtime is vital and was it proved as the Big Cats cane home 99-91.

Leopards lifted the Trophy, our fourth trophy in 13 months. In some ways this was the hardest trophy to win. Last season we were the best team in the league, our US players were to quote a phrase a "cut above". This season , new era, new players, new coach. It made the win all the more satisfying.