To the Essex Sports Arena! For a Valentine’s Day themed mid-table clash between the Rebels and Derby Trailblazers! Except there wasn’t a lot of love lost between the two teams.
Derby arrived with a short bench - just eight players lining up for the team introductions. The Rebs were giving a debut to new signing Isaac Temilola.
We took up our usual seats behind the home bench. Five minutes later and an army of ankle biters sat behind us. Oh dear. It was a birthday celebration trip for one of the enthusiastic young fellas. We decided to shuffle along to the next block.
Partners for the game day was the local Robin Cancer Trust. There was no shortage in takers for the raffle set up by the Rebs. Toby from the RCT gave an inspiring speech to the busy Arena ahead of tip off.
There’s no polite way of putting this: Derby were BRUTES. They are a very physical imposing team that isn’t afraid to make the most of their extra muscle on court. Rebs tried to counteract this with pace.
The home team trailed 18-21 at the first buzzer. They did well to catch up at the start of the second, but were still chasing the game 39-44 at the break.
Somehow the home team managed to pull ahead 56-48 at one stage in the third. A time out from Derby managed to stabilise the game, as they went ahead 65-69 at the end of the third. The final score of 91-83 in favour of the away team seemed about fair.
