Basketball: Cunningham sees future: Worthing coach's final role

(First Edition)

THE coaches of all three of the Budweiser League's leading clubs will be at Birmingham's National Indoor Arena tomorrow, writes Duncan Hooper. Mick Bett, of Thames Valley, squares up to Manchester Giants' Jeff Jones as the Tigers attempt to defend their title and prevent the trophy going to a club from the north of England for the first time in its six-year history.

But it is Worthing's player-coach, Alan Cunningham, who has the biggest team of all at the NIA. Cunningham leads a squad of up to 30 league players who will run a two-and-a-half hour coaching session for 800 boys and girls between the ages of 13 and 17.

As for the final, it was Worthing, sandwiched in the league between the leading Giants and Thames Valley, who dented the latter's confidence by beating them 85-73 in the league last weekend, shortly after Tigers' tallest player, Michael Obaseki, announced he was returning to the States following tomorrow's game. Bett does not plan to give Obaseki a major role. 'We must get used to playing without him.'