@ Ledbury Leisure Centre (sports hall @ JMHS)
LEADONITES U17s Vs WORCESTER WOLVES U17s (1:15pm tip-off)
With 2017 almost at a close Leadonites U17s will take to the court for their first match of the season when they entertain Worcester Wolves U17s of the YBL. Having had such a successful 2016/17 season the current seniors came close to dissolution over the summer and then had the ignominy of having to withdraw from the YBL WMFS Trophy in September. But the Seniors training group, now in their last season with Leadonites youth programme, have nine players to select from with seven returnees and two newbies, though one player is unavailable after an autumn broken arm.
For their part, Worcester Wolves are five games into their YBL U17 South Division regular season sitting fourth out of seven teams with a current record of 2 wins and 3 loses; having lost 59-47 away to Frankley Falcons last time out. This match comes ahead of the following week's tough home match with WBA D-Squad who are on a run of two wins from two. Wolves head coach, Gareth Dalley is no stranger to Leadonites having been the training session assessor for Leadonites head coach, Matthew Chalkley, when he was undertaking the level 2 coaching award. Gareth also filled in as a coach, at short notice, for a Leadonites intramural friendly match a couple of seasons ago.
LEADONITES U15s Vs STROUD SHARKS U15s (3:15pm tip-off)
Stroud Sharks have been proud members of the Basketball England National League Regional Conference set up for some years but are now on a break from those competitions. They are no strangers to Leadonites with the two clubs having played each other at various age groups last season, and this, at Gloucestershire College's Glozball CVLs. In fact many of the players competing in Saturday's friendly will be familiar with each other with last season's U14s Glozball CVL. It was against Stroud Sharks that last season's U14s Leadonites team got their first win of the campaign in what was otherwise a tough (3-21) losing season. But the Sharks won out with an overall series record of three wins and just that one defeat against Leadonites.
Game 1: (04/02/2017) Stroud Sharks 24 - 8 Leadonites (ht: 16-2)
Game 2: (24/02/2017) Stroud Sharks 8 - 10 Leadonites (ht: 8-4)
Game 3: (01/03/2017) Stroud Sharks 16 - 13 Leadonites (ht: 5-6)
Game 4: (29/04/2017) Stroud Sharks 22 - 9 Leadonites (ht: 8-7)
This will be an interesting contest with Leadonites U15s, now under the stewardship of head coach Ian Robb and his assistant, Rich Davis, currently on course for the YBL end of season play-offs.
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