The dramatic improvement in Thirsk saw them earn their second consecutive win to leap frog TU Lions B into sixth place with two games in hand. If they can win their next two, hey can potentially claim third place, which would be a massive change in fortunes to the side which were in freefall before December. Velocity remain in second place despite the Thunder loss. There is no change at the bottom of the D2 where Hartlepool Heat B sit after six losses from six games. Richmond and TU Lions B are only marginally better with 1 and 2 wins respectively.

Nunthorpe Velocity 82-96 Thirsk Thunder A cracking game was played between the second top and third bottom teams in Nunthorpe Velocity and Thirsk Thunder respectively. Velocity had only lost one game all season whilst their opponents were struggling with four losses from six games. The safe bets were therefore placed on Velocity, especially with the in form Ethiopian star Solomon Gebresalassie, however with Thirsk gaining an emphatic win recently over TU Lions B, they repeated their newfound form at Kings Academy School to overcome one of the favourites for the Championship, 82-96.

Nunthorpe started the better team with Gebresalassie and Phil Hale opening a nice lead through well worked lay ups. Thunder were wary of committing fouls, relying on their squad of only six players, they could ill afford to lose anymore due to foul trouble. Velocity continued to take advantage of this and finished the quarter with a 7 point lead with the scores at 28-21.

In the second quarter Thirsk raised their offence whilst remaining cautious on defence. A combination of several bad shot selections and poor misses by Velocity enabled Thunder to gain momentum and during the second and third quarters Thunder found it very difficult to miss! George Wright was in formidable form as he hit shot after shot towards a season high 44 points, his previous best being only 12 against Norton. The second quarter though was more a tale of poor offence for the home team as they only managed to score 13 points to the Thunder's 20 which brought the game to a tie, 41-41.

The excitement was not yet over with the third quarter producing the biggest score of the game, a massive 56 points with Thunder hitting 30 to take the lead for the first time 67-71.

Lewis Tovey operated just inside the key and was relishing the slack defence but it seemed the six players of Thirsk were more determined to win and just when they should be rally tired in the fourth quarter, they looked almost refreshed, again outscoring the Velocity 15-25 to claim a big 14 point victory, 82-96. The MVP was awarded to the hard working, top scoring young George Wright who hit 44 points and although one of the shorter players was head and shoulders above, on the night.

Scorers Velocity: Gebresalassie 27, Tovey L 22, Hale 15 Early 10 Thunder: Wright G 44, Wright R 24, Wakefield 13