New House Night Hawks basketball team pictured wearing their new Brighton kit in red and shooting shirts from the Classic Teamwear range.

The Night Hawks Basketball team returned to Holland for a second year, Andrew Martin gives his account of the event.

The Night Hawks from the New House Basketball Club returned for a second year to the Youth Friendship Games – Holland determined to improve on last years performance.

The boys , 1 of which is an under 15 , 4 are under 16 , 3 under 17 and two under 18 , were the only English team and competed in the 15-19 year age group .
The Team played in Group A for the opening stages against Fast Breakers SA – USA , Club 2000 – Netherlands , Basketball Provins - France and The Royal Kingz – Netherlands .

The first match of the tournament was played against Club 2000 of the Netherlands who the Night Hawks played in the opening round of last year’s competition. Only the top two teams of each five team group would qualify for the top A and B groups and the Night Hawks knew that they would have to win at least three games in the opening round to progress to the higher level of the competition .
Despite a very close game the Night Hawks were always chasing the game and could never manage to close on Club 2000 who eventually ran out winners by a 5 point margin .

Night Hawks 64 v 26 Basketball Provins
The Night Hawks second game was against French team Basketball Provins , who had also lost their first game. The Night Hawks came out strongly and opened an early lead which they never gave up and despite really unbearable hot temperatures within the sports hall maintained a high level of intensity to run out worthy winners .

Night Hawks 30 v 28 The Royal Kingz
Day two saw the Night Hawks play both of their games in the afternoon and the sports halls were once again unbearable hot and uncomfortable to sit down in , let alone compete in two full length games of basketball . After one close defeat and one win the previous day the Nigh Hawks looked to continue their good form when they faced The Royal Kingz from the Netherlands , a team who compete in the Dutch under 20 league and are very well drilled by their coach . The Royal Kingz edged into the lead early in the game and continued to put pressure on the Night Hawks to eventually have a 10 point lead going into the final quarter of the game . The Night Hawks never gave up , continued to play hard and much to the disbelief of The Royal Kingz team came back from the 10 point deficit to go 4 points up with less than a minute remaining . The final seconds were full of tension as Night Hawks lost possession of the ball and the Kingz scored to go within 2 points but the final hooter blew and the Night Hawks recorded their second win of the competition .

Night Hawks 34 v 36 Fast Breakers USA
Last years experience had taught the Night Hawks that when you play any American team , you have to be up for the challenge , the players play hard , the coaches coach hard and any American supporters in the crowd support hard and they once again they did not disappoint .
The Night Hawks started the slower of the two teams and were chasing the game from the initial tip but always remained in contention and matched the Americans for commitment and ability .The Night Hawks missed a few attempts at scoring in the second half and in the final quarter the game looked to be going the way of the Fast Breakers , as once again the Night Hawks were down by 10 points . Defence was stepped up and on two occasions the Fast breakers failed to beat the shot clock and the ball was turned over , much to the annoyance of the vocal Fast Breaker coach who also started to challenge most decisions made by the officials. The Night Hawks continued their fight back and with their very vocal supporters found themselves within 4 points going into the final three minutes. The sports hall suddenly resounded with the chants USA ! , USA ! as two further American teams entered the hall and stepped up the support for their team , which drowned out the Night Hawks supporters. Undeterred the Night Hawks went point for point with the opponents until , with 75 seconds left on the running clock the Fast Break coach played out the game by making substitution after substitution without the ball touching the court . It was a disappointing end to a fantastic game of basketball .
The loss placed the Night Hawks third in their group and now went into the C and D groups for the second stage of the competition and played against And2 – Netherlands , The Weasels – Belgium and once again The Royal Kingz – Netherlands .

Night Hawks 16 v 24 The Royal Kingz
The coach for the Royal Kingz was really disappointed having lost to the Night Hawks in the opening stage of the competition and really fired his team up for the re-match . Both teams started the game equally and with the now familiarity of the opposition the game was very tight with both teams canceling each other out on many occasions .
Once again the heat in the hall was unbearably hot and now playing the fifth game in three days , energy on both teams was sapped , however both teams put on a strong performance , with each wanting the win , as only the top two teams in the league would play in the play off game .
The Night Hawks missed good scoring opportunities and The Royal Kingz eventually ran out the winners with a final score which does not show how tight the game was .

Night Hawks 66 v 27 And2
Day four of the competition placed the Night Hawks against And2 , who had only narrowly lost to the The Royal Kingz the day before . Once again , despite the intense heat , the Night Hawks maintained their tempo of basketball to soon take control of this game from the start and eventually ran out comfortable winners .

Night Hawks 25 v 39 The Weasels
The Weasels had defeated the Royal Kingz earlier that day so the Night Hawks needed to win this game in order to finish higher in the league table than the Royal Kingz and progress to the final payoff game. Both teams started the game cautiously but the Weasels edged into the lead passing the ball effectively and driving to the basket. The Belgium team were a strong , tight unit and deserved to finish the winners of this game , with once again the final score not showing how tight the game was and how hard the Belgium team had to fight for their victory .

Night Hawks Basketball Team
Although the players were disappointed not to reach the final play off position , they are absolutely delighted to have won three games and only marginally lost two games and have shown that they can compete at this level against teams from Europe and America.

The Night Hawks would like to thank the Youth Opportunities Fund , Opies of Sittingbourne and New House Youth Centre for their support.
Anyone interested in being involved with New House Basketball Club ( Sittingbourne – Kent ) for the new season please call Andrew Martin on 07813 682992 or email newhousebasketballclub@blueyonder.co.uk

The team that represented New House are:
Back Row, James Farish-Carradice – Team Coach , Ibrahim Omer , Thomas Fryer , Ryan Palmer , Kalil Irving , Sam Eden , Kevin Tait – Team Manager .
Front Row , Simon Martin , Philip Moore , Jason Sears , David Tait , William Ashworth.

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