Opening day always carries a lot of pressure. Even more so when a strong squad such as this has been put together and expectations are high for success to follow. We were playing a slightly unknown quantity in A Nabbs. One which had a promotion from Division One with signs of real ruthlessness but also inconsistency. We were also struggling for numbers with the dreaded Friday night away game in Manchester, as well as a handful of injuries and illnesses to contend with. However, we had eight, and as is our luck with this team: an eight where the drop off from 1-8 was minimal. We are confident that very few teams, if any, will be able to compare with the depth of our squad at this level but it comes with a responsibility to use it, show it and utilise it.

We made a strong start after an extremely long warm up period (thanks to issues with them finding table officials) and immediately showed a key component of our identity: the fast break. The surprise was the identity of the key leader in feasting on opportunities they offered us early on: Danny Farnell. The boy no longer just bangs around inside, he can really shift! We had problems to solve and contend with however. They had a very capable wing who was determined to take over the game and proved himself very difficult to stop with his blend of outside shooting and aggressive drives to the basket. He was making them tick and we searched for a way to slow him. The answer this time came in the form of Craig Wright's smothering defence, backed up capably by Lincoln and also others beginning to ramp up our help defence.

From here, Zak began to show flashes of his offence, driving ruthlessly on weak match ups from them and kicking out to shooters, of which Diddy had a very efficient night from three, recording four in total from improved spacing and inbound plays beginning to run more smoothly. We had periods where things dried up somewhat and we can do better taking care of the ball at times, but there was a lot of promise. We also looked much more dominant on the boards than we have so far in pre-season. We dominated that area which helped control the game against an athletic but inexperienced opposition frontcourt, led particularly by Paulino, back to his dominant best with 17 rebounds, and 10 from Zak.

There is a long way to go before we hit our potential, but it was a very positive start that showed real flashes of our potential as a team.

Pts: Diddy 16, Danny 15, Pauli 13, Zak 11
Reb: Pauli 17, Zak 10, Danny 6
Asts: Lincoln 8, Zak 6, Ewan 4
Stl: Diddy 5