MAKE THAT FIVE!

 

 

It began in Hungary. Initially I was considering heading out to the town of Szolnok but money wise it turned out to be more trouble than it was worth. A few of the What's Bev crew did make it out there to cheer on TV leaving the rest of us having to rely on a dodgy online feed from a Hungarian sports channel. In the end, no one complained as GB won 91-82. I made it to GB's first home game in Newcastle though and the guys won both that and the following two games. Which made us the only team in Division A to be able to claim a 4-0 record. Still, even 4-0 in Division A doesn't garuntee you a spot in Eurobasket and everyone from Chris Finch on down knew we still had woprk to do.

Well, how does this sound? Return home from Birmingham on Sunday. Walk on Dartmoor with friends on Monday. Then back to Birmingham Tuesday for our second home game in three days! At least the routine would be familiar and I didn't have to get up so early this time! Talk about best laid plans. Arrive at St Davids in time to grab some lunch...and find that the train's been delayed by 22 minutes! So, I grab lunch and workout if there's any alternatives - only thing resembling at alternative is getting on a Cardiff bound train that'll arrive before my planned train and then change at Bristol...however thetrainline.com says that my planned train even with it's delay will beat the Cardiff train into Bristol. On top of that, once the Cardiff train arrives I take one look at it and decide that if I were to get on it, it would be liable to take me back through the timewarp from whence it came and the next basketball game I'd be watching would involve Larry Bird, Magic Johnson or their BBL contempories! I decided not to take my chances.

Eventually my planned train shows up and I have to give credit where credit's due - despite a further delay coming into Bristol they made a decent effort in making up for lost time! Get off at New Street, cab to Paragon, check in to the room next door to the one I had last time around, dump stuff, head back to reception to order cab to NIA. Arrive in Malthouse in time for scheduled 5pm meet. Slight problem, it was 5:30 and I was already a pint down before anyone else showed up!

When the crew did show up though, their commitment to the cause was evident. Talk was a mix of BBL, prospects of other people getting there in the Brumland rush hour and hopes for the match we were there to see. Of course we were hoping for a straightforwad win, Hungary were here off the back of a 1-3 record and weren't expected to provide much of a threat. On that note it was off to the arena, make sense of the insame looking queueing system, find seat, grab hot dog and chips and then return in time for the national anthems. Same part of the arena as I was last time round and more importantly a lot more active(though the Balldog pen turned out to have an offnight!)

Showtime. We found ourselvees opening the scoring with a three pointer. However after that it took a while for either side to grab another bucket. Of course it was GB that broke the gamewide drought and it was becoming obvious that Hungary had their work cut out. As they should do. Well our lead proceded to hit double digit though the visitors did make a reasonable effort of reigning us in but not before the game fell into another long scoreless period. Fine by us though, we were just happy to cruise to the buzzer. Nate Reinking was the main man doing the business for us off the back of 11 points already! We were leading 19-11 - so far so good.

In the 2nd quarter we picked up where we left off. The Hungarians just couldn't buy a bucket and we were just running a demo session for the first three minutes! Even once they'd found the bucket again it looked as though they weren't in a position to get anywhere close to us. Even then, they stopped hitting buckets for well over three minutes yet again and were pretty much at our mercy - and we didn't look like showing much of that. So far it looked like what we'd all been waiting for - a GB blowout, even if Hungary did start hitting shots again in the last few minutes. Nate was still our leading scorer at half time though he was taking his foot off the gas with 12 points while Luol Dengwas having a fairly quiet night but still backing him up on 7. We led 37-22 at the half.

In the third quarter though, the visitors had decided to attempt a comeback and were able to cut our lead back down to single figures. We responded by running the show for a minute or so and then seemed to be maintaining a steady gap. Slight problem though, the Hungarians replied and cut the gap down and and though we again look to step it up, next thing we know the gap is five with just under three minutes left in the period! OK, we pulled away again in the back end of the quarter but this game was clearly nowhere near won yet! Pops Mensah-Bonsu was now the man taking care of business for us on 13 points as we led 58-47 going into the final quarter.

That fourth quarter though was nothing short of a disaster. Initially it didn't look that bad, though the expected burial wasn't happening. Then suddenly, on our home court, it's GB that can't buy a bucket! It was like the Monstars had followed Bugs Bunny into town and nicked our guys skills! They were being outright smothered and the scoreboard says that Hungary are a posession away from taking the lead! Somehow we stop that from happening. A free throw goes in for GB. Then Hungary land a three pointer and we're tied at 64 with 1:39 left! Another GB free throw. Tick tick tick. Our main man bails us out with a 'massive' block. Tick tick tick. Another free throw. Jumper from Hungary...misses! Buzzer. Nate finishes on 17, Pops on 15, Luol on 13 with Dan Clark on 8. GB win 66-64, who cares about the manner of victory? Right?

Elsewhere, Macedonia faced the Ukraine in Skopje. Well the Ukraine looked like they were in the mood to mug their hosts early on, leading 7-2 with 6:00 left in the 1st but the home side turned it round before the end of the opening period. The second quarter was very messy but Macedonia had the better of the play and used it to edge ahead. After that, while the Ukraine never really looked like lying down, it was very much Macedonia that were controlling the match. Sure enough the hosts cruised to the finish. Bo McCalebb got them 18 points as they won 71-55. That leaves Great Britain top of Group B with a 5-0 record with the nearest competition being Macedonia on 4-1. Bottom line, we're still on course for Lithuania.

Well, the next stop was obviously the Malthouse and the rest of the crew turned up this time around(actually, they apparantly turned up last time round - I just didn't have a good enough look round). A brief cheer went up as our result showed up on Sky Sports News but other than that, the mood was mixed. 5-0 is 5-0 but that was clearly not the best way to win a basketball match and a much tougher test was to come as the team was off to Macedonia for their next game. Still, despite all that the other two groups were proving to be tighter than ours so some people were already making plans for Lithuania next year. Over 100 British basketball fans heading east on a chartered flight? Sounds awesome but I wasn't in a mood to count chickens.

As it was I turned out to be the last basketball fan standing in the Malthouse that night. That honour however was tempered by the fact that I didn't have as much money as I thought I had and the cash machine in the pub wasn't working. Walking in the general direction of base I eventually pop into the International Convention Centre which has a cash machine...which seriously ripped me off! I'll call that the price of stupidity. Anyway, finding a cab outside the ICC was easy and after that it was a case of get back to the Paragon and zzzzz.

Up at 7 slightly hungover, hit shower, grab my standard hotel hangover cure of bacon, sausage, hash browns, toast, apple juice and coffee. Get packed, check out, smooth run to New Street and this time round I did not have to hang around waiting for a train. Getting a seat wasn't a problem but somewhere along the line the ventilation system shut down and the air got seriously stuffy, the run from Bristol to Taunton seemed to take forever. Got to St Davids in one piece though, hopped on a sharpish train to Central...and found it to be one of rare occasions where ticket collections were in force, luckilly that journey cost peanuts. Returned home - knackered.

Three down, one to go.

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