League leaders Burnley hosted second place Preston on Friday 15th February and a fiercely defensive game ensued with Preston maintaining an early 10 point cushion, which Burnley could not quite recover from.

In spite of this setback, Burnley took a depleted squad to the south Manchester region on Monday 18th to play Chorlton Jedi and were not expecting a fight on their hands. Burnley’s Crockford found form, hitting two three-pointers leaving Burnley up 14-13 in the first quarter.

Hyland hit a three-pointer in the second with Kirk, Madej, Sinclair and Cronin contributing to the offence and Burnley capitalising on defence to out-score the home side 13-5 with the half-time score at 27-18.

The Jedi rallied in the second half, clamping down on Dave Bolt, who wasn’t allowed his usual flair, but point guard Cronin , who had been counselled by his Mother in law to keep his head performed brilliantly at both ends of the court, with the score 42-36 going into the final quarter.

The Jedi clawed their way back into the game, edging ahead in the final minutes, but Cronin, Bolt and Hyland converted their high-percentage shots to hammer out the win 56-53.