Many a true Lancastrian would rather be stricken with a bout of influenza than be required to cross the border into the land of the Yorkies. Poor Charli Wroe and Lia Vourliotis had to endure both last Sunday. Lia was nearly better, Charli wasn’t when we invaded Thrybergh to face a talented Hatfield side who, like Mystics U14s had already qualified for the last 16 round of the play-offs.

Charli’s pre-match coughing fit and the fact that I’ve seen more colour in a pint of milk, persuaded me not to start with her and to use her as one takes nasty medicine- in small doses. Nia Molloy was, therefore, given the unenviable task of marking the opposition’s excellent play-maker, A Racjan and what an outstanding job the ever-improving Nia made of it.

Against significantly taller opponents, Lily Hayes, Kizzy Spence and Emily Wood were initially detailed to compete on the boards. (Back not bill.) All 3 did remarkably well and gave up no second chance points. Due to her defensive expertise and ability to read the game, I asked Olivia Forster to do her best to subdue the player who top-scored for Hatfield when we played them earlier in the season. Olivia’s best turned out to be more than good enough.

I’m not a worrier but I was worried (= contradiction!) that the combination of being without a far from fully fit Charli, of having had no game last week and just one game in three weeks would have an initial impact upon our performance in an away fixture against a strong top 4 side. I was even more worried 10 minutes into the contest! Defensively, we were sound as a pound. Offensively, we were only worth a few pence. Our finishing throughout the first quarter was as efficient as a solar torch.

6-14 down and looking as out of sorts as an asthmatic without an inhaler, I toyed with the idea of singing the Billy Ocean classic, ‘When the going gets tough,’ to the girls. I decided not to for two reasons – I don’t know the words and my voice makes a similar noise to that of someone’s nails scraping across a blackboard. Instead, I re-assured them that Hatfield were playing as well as they good while we had yet to settle but we were still in the game. If we upped our defensive intensity a notch and did the simple things better on offense, we would be fine. We did both.

Each of the 8 Mystics who saw court time in the second quarter- the 5 starters plus Charli, Daisy Bryan, who, despite being 2 years young at this age-group, provided the stability and calmness we needed and Lily Gilronan who excelled in a most impressive debut – deserve enormous credit for steadying the ship and sending us on a scintillating 13-0 run during which Olivia and Emily hit top gear offensively. Everyone was now fully clued in to Hatfield’s preferred method of attack and how to counter it. This resulted in numerous 24 second calls from the 2 impressive referees and meant that we were good enough to transform an 8 point deficit into a 6 point lead at 25-19 by half-time.

As one can glean from how things had gone up to now, this was never going to be a game which saw a merry-go-round of substitutions – Hatfield employed just 6 players until the very last minute – but after the break, I did manage to use the 4 Mystics who had yet to appear and all 4 did well for us. 3 of the 4 – Esha Nayar, Eleni Vourliotis and Jo Vourliotis  are young enough to play at u14 level next season. All 3 have shown that once they have served their apprenticeship, as most first year National League players do, they have the potential to make major contributions next season. On this occasion, Esha and Eleni showed just how much their individual and team defence has improved recently with faultless displays in this discipline. Jo is more inclined to catch the eye on offense and she showed some nice touches once again. The other member of the quartet, Lia Vourliotis was as diligent as ever and fitted in competently in the latter stages to help seal a deserved victory. The selfless attitude of these 4 committed players will be duly rewarded in games to come.

To restrict a team with the scoring potential of Hatfield to less than 40 is no mean achievement. To do so using all 12 available Mystics is even more impressive. Well played everyone. Many thanks to my assistant James and our brilliant team managers, Sam and Carys for all their assistance and to all parents/supporters/taxi drivers for all you do for our team.

Jim

The Manchester Mystics U12s held a four team tournament on Sunday afternoon at the Amaechi Basketball Centre. There were two Mystics teams and a team from Sheffield and a team from Northants taking part.

Due to a visiting team pulling out of the tournament, the Mystics were split into two equal ability teams of seven players, Manchester Blue (Daisy who missed the first game, Elizandra, Ciara, Maisie, Rae, Ruby, Paige and Ferne) and Manchester Red (Emily, Carina, Izzy, Bella, Maria and Kady).

Despite this the players had some great performances and showed tremendous spirit and their commitment was outstanding.

Teams played four 7 minute quarters, with a five minute half time, with stopping clock and one time out per half per team, otherwise normal basketball rules applied.

Results:

12:30pm

Court 1: Manchester Blue 42-35 Northants

Court 2: Manchester Red 36-21 Sheffield

1:50pm

Court 1: Manchester Blue 41-30 Sheffield

Court 2: Manchester Red 41-27 Northants

3:10pm

Court 1: Manchester Blue 31-30 Manchester Red

Court 2: Sheffield 20-19 Northants

We would like to thank both Sheffield and Northants for participating in the tournament.

Many thanks to all the parents for their support with table duties, preparing food for the visiting teams and taking care of kit.

Lancashire Spinners could be a reasonable name for a NW folk group as well as a thriving basketball club. Thankfully. there was no such music playing last Sunday when we arrived at Elton High School’s pristine new sports hall where it is twice as warm as the old one which doubled as an igloo.

A victory would enhance Mystics U14s prospects of a home tie in the last 16 round of the play-offs in early April. It duly arrived thanks to an excellent first half display, during which Charli Wroe and Olivia Forster were outstanding.

Blessed with a squad of 13 players who all display superb attitudes and commitment, when we are faced with opposition we are expected to beat, I like to offer 1 or 2 places in the first 5 as a reward to those who don’t normally start. Esha Nayar started in the previous game and did well. This time, the honour to accompany Charli, Olivia and Lily Hayes was bestowed upon cousins Eleni Vourliotis and Jo Vourliotis. They did not let themselves, or anyone else, down.

This new combination looked at home (even though we were playing away) defensively but a bit like everyone on a cruise – all at sea – on offense. This was hardly surprising given that we had no game the previous week, this particular 5 had rarely, if ever, played together and 3 of the 5 are a year young. With the score at 4-4, I introduced regular starters Emily Wood and Nia Molloy. We immediately sprung to life like a 5 star mattress with 14 unanswered points in under 5 minutes.

We were equally dominant throughout the whole of the second quarter which meant that the outcome was in little doubt by half time at 43-13 with all 12 Mystics having shown their true worth. (In diamonds, not lire.) This huge lead persuaded me to largely ignore the formidable services of Charli and Olivia for much of the remaining 20 minutes in order to give others the opportunity to do what the sun does. (Shine.)

We didn’t find it as difficult as trying to eat soup with a fork but did find it hard going without them, only winning the third quarter 11-10 and the fourth 16-15. We suffered from a lack of movement and poor finishing on offense while defensively, our relatively small line-up struggled to keep 6ft +++ Rebecca Smith off the offensive boards. She scored 18 of her 22 points in the second half.

That said, there was still plenty to admire from our perspective. Lily and the super-athletic Kizzy Spence stood out for their exceptional defensive rebounding, Eleni, Nia, Esha and Lia Vourliotis showed a pleasing ever-increasing ability to play help defence without fouling unnecessarily while Emily and Zara Masadeh-Tate did most of the scoring. 2 of our youngest players, Jo and Daisy Bryan again held their own at both ends of the court and with 7 players returning to play at this age group next season, the future looks brighter than any citrus fruit.

Unfortunately, we are again without a game next week which is hardly good preparation for the week after that when we travel abroad to South Yorkshire to play fellow play-off contenders, Hatfield.

Jim.

Thanks to James and Sam for their help on the day and to all supporters for getting behind our team.

I’ve gone for a slightly different approach for this week’s report on Mystics U14 at Tameside Royals. Instead of labelling players by name, I’m using letters. This means that instead of doing housework, DIY or gardening, you can spend your valuable leisure time matching the letter to a player. If this goes well, I’ll probably branch out into doing party games!

Several Mystics arrived carrying niggles as well as their bags but such is their commitment that each one was resolved to play their part for their team. Player A is experiencing dental problems but she ignored those to open the scoring and be a part of a near faultless team effort in the first quarter. B is hampered (not the Christmas variety) with more deformed fingers than a crushed box of Cadbury’s biscuits. Even so, she rebounded like a demon at every opportunity. C also turned up with dodgy digits yet played the game of her life in the first half, drawing gasps from the crowd with her athleticism.

D has to monitor herself constantly but once again put this aside to give her all and show what a good passer she is. E has been unwell for longer than I can remember (which could be as little as 5 minutes ago) but you would never know it by watching her play. She made a nuisance of herself- in a good way – at both ends of the court and is almost back to her best. F has a poorly back but did not let that stop her doing all she could to make a positive contribution. Her attitude is exemplary.

G gave us her usual assistance thanks to her thoughtful posting up and ability to go right or left. H again played with a maturity way beyond her years and shot more accurately than Wyatt Earp. I (not me, the letter) had to work hard to counter the aggressive double team thrown at her. Almost inevitably, her undoubted class and ability ensured that she did so to devastating effect.

J has more energy than a pack of Duracell batteries and today she showed her ex-team mates what they are missing with an excellent all-round performance. K once more proved what an intelligent player she is. (That narrows it down!) Her decision making, passing and defensive rebounding were as good as ever. Our team is blessed with more than our fair share of talented individuals who can turn a game on its head. Suffice to say that L did so in this encounter with an incredible display.

So what did all this add up to? Tameside’s best moment in the first quarter came very early when they equalised at 2-2. The next 9 minutes for them was like my house when I took the last apple and orange out with me to come to the game – fruitless! Our team played at a level that bordered on faultless and some of the passing had to be seen to be believed. It resulted in a 23-2 lead after 10 minutes. Our dominance extended into the second quarter so that by half-time we led 49-12.

With 12 Mystics to try to cater for (which sounds like a large dinner party), I used more subs than our enemies did in World War 2 for the rest of the game. Consequently, we understandably lost much of our fluency during the third period and Tameside did well to take advantage, showing commendable resilience to only lose the quarter 16-15. I stayed with my revolving door policy in the fourth. It could have resulted in a repeat of our players not knowing whether they were coming or going but to their credit, our less experienced members equipped themselves admirably to win the final quarter 18-8.

Thanks to James, Sam and Carys for all they do and thanks also to our wonderful band of supporters who are always there for us.

Jim

Sometimes stating the obvious makes the person who stated it easy to ridicule. For example, when a Dutch former manager of Manchester United made the deeply profound comment that whoever scores the most goals wins the game, most people who heard him must have wondered why no one else had ever thought of it. (As well as thinking he was speaking double Dutch!) On other occasions, hopefully, stating the obvious can emphasise a valid point. Here goes. Basketball is a team game. I say this, not to distinguish it from badminton but because the concept of team is a major reason why Mystics U14 I came out on top of the scintillating encounter with a powerful City of Leeds Gold at the tastefully named Carnegie Arena last Saturday.

Leeds have several very skilful individuals, plenty of fleet-footed players and bags of scoring potential. This enabled them to score 62 points against us. Mystics also have several very skilful players but also have mental toughness, a willingness to share the ball and look for the simplest thing to get the job done as well as a commendable team spirit. This enabled us to score 80 points against them. Here endeth the lesson!

There were, of course, highlights – the outstanding defensive contributions of Olivia Forster and Kizzy Spence, the rebounding of Eleni Vourliotis and Esha Nayar, Charli Wroe’s eye-catching, tireless display, Nia Molloy’s shooting, the offensive movement of Emily Wood and the passing of Lily Hayes. That said, this was essentially a victory achieved thanks to positive input from all 11 available team members so well done, also, to Jo Vourliotis, Daisy Bryan and Zara Masadeh-Tate for playing their part in helping us to a thoroughly deserved victory against tough opponents. An honourable mention should also go to our 12th player, Lia Vourliotis who crossed the border into foreign territory (Yorkshire!) despite injury to be part of her team.

Many thanks to my assistant coach James, to team managers, Sam and Carys and to all parents/relatives/fan club members for you terrific support. Tameside Royals next!

Jim

Having not bounced, thrown or kicked a ball (or an opponent) for 3 weeks due to annual festivities, Mystics U14 I were back in action at Stockport’s Ball Hall last Saturday. With all 12 Mystics ready, willing and able, my biggest headache wasn’t caused by a hangover but how to give each of them the court time their thoroughly positive attitudes deserve. More by luck than judgement, all 12 had sufficient minutes to show their worth.

Indeed, 5 of them – Kizzy Spence, Olivia Forster, Lily Hayes, Charli Wroe and Emily Wood – excelled offensively to score in double figures while 3 – Esha Nayar, Eleni Vourliotis and Zara Masadeh-Tate – gave us valuable rebounding strength to compliment the usual enthusiasm and boundless energy we have come to rely upon from Nia Molloy, Lia and Jo Vourliotis and Daisy Bryan. Their contributions were particularly effective in our attempts to curb Stockport’s lively offense.

As is often the case following a lengthy lay up, sorry, lay off (plus too much chocolate), we took longer than normal to find our cutting edge. Offensively, in the initial stages, we failed to do total justice to the opportunities provided by the superb passing of Lily, Charli and Olivia and we really should have ended the first quarter in a stronger position than the 18-8 we managed.

Stockport battled hard in the second period during which the 2 Lily’s (Hayes for Mystics and Gilronan for Stockport) blossomed. (No report is complete without a flower-related pun.) Our help defence remained as patchy as a Friesian cow but we still contrived to go into the half-time break 37-18 to the good with Kizzy looking sharp at both ends (which makes her sound like a very dangerous sword!) Her decision-making was also much-improved, particularly in terms of when to share the ball and when not to take on the rest of the world single-handed.

Prior to the resumption, we discussed ways of upping our defensive intensity. No sooner said than done! The girls immediately turned theory into practice, conceding just 8 points in the second half with everyone playing their part. Our finishing was also more clinical which resulted in 53 points over the 20 minutes. This was a very useful run-out for us as we prepare for an important clash at Leeds on Saturday.

Thanks to everyone for your help and support.

Jim