Tees Schools League in association with Game Time & Decorative Concrete Solutions, specialists in imprinted concrete paving.

Nunthorpe Lions were left with mixed emotions as Newlands Ninjas cancelled their Y8 County Cup 1/4 Final game, awarding the win to Nunthorpe. Nunthorpe were looking forward to playing the game, just as much as the opportunity to progress to the semi final and a lot of people were looking forward to witnessing two of the best young players in the area going head to head.

Dan Brown, 13 of Nunthorpe Lions has been one of the players of the season and is the current leading scorer in all divisions of the Tees Schools League. For Newlands, 12 year old Patrick O'Connor has not had the opportunity to make an impact on this season due to cancelled games and withdrawal of teams.

Nunthorpe have enjoyed a fantastic season especially in Y8 but also in Y10 and U14 Girls. In fact the Lions have only lost 1 game all season out of 15 fixtures. This loss came via a 17-20 loss to Grangefield in an U14 Girls league game. Lions Head Coach Darren Bunn is understandably proud of all his players and is already looking forward to next season.

Mr Bunn plans to tune up his basketball knowledge by participating in some local league training sessions and gaining some coaching advice from Game Time. Mr Bunn added "Basketball this year has been thoroughly enjoyable. I am on the Game Time site almost every day and its the same for our young players who look forward to seeing the results and keeping track of what is happening around the League."

The positive effect basketball is having at the school is also reaching parents with many attending the school's games and due to popular demand for tickets to the Presentation Evening, Nunthorpe are having to book a third table!

Nunthorpe will now eagerly await the outcome of the Macmillan v Kings game for their semi final opponents. Both Academies have had a tough season but have come on leaps and bounds thanks to the good work and training by Sean Ord at Kings and Fraser McDowall at Macmillan.

Macmillan Academy are similar to Nunthorpe in the way they have fully embraced basketball this year and have over 40 young pupils training every week. This dramatic rise in popularity has been aided by the press coverage and attention for schools basketball provided by Game Time but ultimately down to the dedication and efforts of Mr McDowall and science teacher Rob Bryson. Mr Bryson used to play National League basketball and has signed for Tees United Lions for next seasons campaign in the local league.

Mr McDowall and Mr Bryson provide an injection of enthusiasm and knowledge to the budding starts at Macmillan, who have also benefited from some expert coaching sessions from Game Time. Mr McDowall added "At the start of the year our school didn't even play basketball and now its one of our most popular sports. Game Time's promotion is a massing factor and all the kids follow the results and news from the league. Even though we are young and struggling, its good to see them getting so much enjoyment."

Macmillan won the previous league meeting earlier in the season but with a score line of 20-28 the winner of this fixture is too close to call.