A hard fought contest with both teams looking like early season shooting practice is needed. MBC ralied from a poor start to take an 8 point lead mid way through Q2. But the Hornets stuck to their basics and slowly worked away in the low posts to run out winners.

Sometimes you don't have all the eggs you want, and sometimes the eggs aren't big enough and sometimes some of the eggs are a bit too old and the omelette you thought you were making looks like scrambled eggs - but hey tastes great anyway and is really quite satisfying!

Holmes Chapel started their season against Manchester Basketball club with a win that reflected the hard work put in during the close season. The Hornets team list looked very different from last year with a lot of ex players missing and Guy Johnson and James Howard making their debuts, in the MABL, against a well drilled and physically strong team.

The Hornets started strongly with Jon and Sam landing 3s and quickly opened up an 8 point lead only to then watch a series of well placed shots all miss as the opposition found their range and claw back the lead. both teams looked a little rusty and a hard fought quarter saw the Hornets trail by 1 point in the end.

Quarter 2 was very low scoring as both teams locked their defences shut and squandered shots that should have been landed. MBC opened an 8 point lead and a timeout was called by the Hornets to steady the ship and the Hornets were sent back with instruction to attack at the low posts. Guy and John now helped the Hornets to half time trailing by just 2 points. Tush Lead the attack at the start of the 3rd as the Home team finally found their shooting range and steadily opened a lead with John find great consistency in the low post. The Hornets defence held strong and all the blocking and rebounding practice really started to pay off as MBC were denied any second chances after missing.

A lead of 6 was taken into Q4 and a quarter score of 16-8 would suggest that the Hornets squeezed the life out of MBC. But the scoreline doesn't show how hard MBC worked to make the whole quarter nervous for Gregg and some of the Hornet play was naive under pressure - however the Hornets are now only 17 games away from a 100% season!

Special Mention for James who playing in his first senior match showed great temperament against strong defence and his athleticism will be an asset to the team this year.

http://www.holmeschapelbasketball.co.uk/match_reports/MBC_03-10-2007.php