HAWKS SINK CLAWS INTO TIGERS TO TAKE POINTS

Tamworth Tigers almost pulled off one of their best wins for many a year but were
beaten 65-61 by Aylesford Hawks in a gripping contest at The Rawlett Centre.
The Warwick side are on a good run with just one defeat so far in their 50th campaign, but they
have been robbed of the services of their leading scorer Ricky Fennell who has a serious knee
injury. They also travelled to Tamworth with some players arriving late due to motorway
congestion, and took on the improving Tigers who are certainly earning their stripes since their
promotion to Division One. And it was the home side who dominated the early stages, racing into
a 23-11 lead as Hawks struggled to find their range.
They did eventually get going and had reduced the deficit to one at 25-24 by half-time before
Tigers roared away with four three-pointers in the third quarter. Back came the Hawks who were
now beginning to fly but their play became a little ragged as a flurry of fouls gave Tigers freeshooting
opportunities from the line. However, the home side were flagging and had their own
problems with leader Lukasz Bolda in foul trouble.
He departed with his full allocation of five just inside the final quarter, when Hawks found their
match-winner in George Pool who brought groans of admiration from the Tigers’ bench with a
quartet of triples himself to put Hawks two up. Man of the match Calvin Moore pushed one
through the hoop to ease Hawks ahead inside the last minute and they hung on the take home
three more precious points with Moore leading on 22 and Pool adding 21 whilst it could have been
so different if Bolda, who led Tigers on 28 had stayed around a little longer.
One unwanted record was bound to go as Tile Hill Trojans 2 finally manage break their losing
sequence when they hosted also winless JM Grizzles from Warwick. Trojans had doubled their
opponents’ total at 32-16 before half-time and after a poor third quarter from both sides, Grizzlies
looked as if they could upset the apple cart as they closed to 46-43, but Trojans hit the next three
baskets and that was that. former Grizzlies junior Ben Linnett sparkled with 19 points for Trojans
with Ricky Kular hitting a purple patch in the middle to lead Grizzlies total on 9.
Coventry College were held by Ernesford Eagles for a while, but the league’s leading scorer Vaidas
Cerkunovas put paid to any thoughts Eagles had of landing the points as he added another 38 to
his impressive season’s tally as College took it 73-57, despite 24 from Ben Clarke at the other end.
The showdown between Arden and Trojans 1 was called off when the Griffins’ court was made
unavailable at St Peters, so Trojans 3 took advantage by having veteran Trevor Robinson available
for their home game against Westwood Rhinos in Division Two. Trojans won 54-49 as Robinson
chipped in 15 points, but was bettered by Mike Buckley’s 16, this being matched by Rhinos’ James
Todd as Rhinos just fell short after a good fight-back in the final quarter.

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