Basketball: Leopards ladies earn international call-ups

08 July 2010

FOUR members of the Leopards' ladies squad have been called up for England under-18s European Championship team.

Point guard Rosie Hynes will be joined by shooting guard Maisie Elston, forward Christina Gaskin and centre Jamilla Thompson in Michael Ball's squad, who will look to become the first England junior team to win promotion from Division B.

The tournament is in Timisoara, Romania and starts on July 29. Their opponents in the opening group stage will be Bulgaria, Finland, Scotland and Estonia.

The England team travelled to Luxembourg last month, winning all three games against their hosts, and also had a four-day training camp in Harpenden, where they played practice games against under-16s boys' team Solent and Ipswich.

Fellow Leopards player Ella Clark has been left out of the squad, and looks likely to be named in the Great Britain under-20 team instead.

Meanwhile, Leopards' fixtures at Brentwood have been thrown into confusion following the withdrawal of Taunton Tigers and London Mets from Division One.

Both teams quit due to financial problems, leaving the top flight of the England Basketball League with only 11 teams, and several gaps in the Big Cats' fixture list.

"It's frustrating that we thought we'd got the maximum number of games at Brentwood and had arranged double headers with the women's and B team, but now we've effectively got to start again," said general manager Dave Ryan.

"I think seven teams have done this in as many seasons since we joined the EBL. They pay their deposit in March, but when it comes to paying the full fees in June, they pull out.

"A lot of time has been wasted, and instead of promoting next season's games, we're now having to reorganise our fixture list.