Basketball: National set-up criticised

Scotland’s under-17 girls have blitzed the Auld Enemy by winning the English Inter-Regional Tournament in Nottingham with a series of four overwhelming wins, beating North-East 129-21 and South-East 74-31 in their pool before taking care of Yorks 65-34 in the semi-final and East Midlands by a whopping 76-16 in the final.

But not everyone is happy about it.

The Scottish team included four Polonia Phoenix players, Hilary Wood, Claire Paxton, Nikki Forde and Katy Brown, but no Edinburgh Kool Kats players as they were away on a club tour to England.

Kats coach Brian Findlay explained: “We don’t believe it’s appropriate for Scotland to be playing in an English Regional tournament.”

Findlay’s objections are believed to be twofold – the level of opposition was clearly not strong enough and the Scottish National team should not be treated as a region of England.

Given present funding however, where else do they get any chance to play?