Back-to-back defeats for depleted Warwickshire Bears - The Leamington Observer

Back-to-back defeats for depleted Warwickshire Bears

Leamington Editorial 7th Apr, 2016 Updated: 28th Oct, 2016   0

TWO defeats in as many days has seen Warwickshire Bears’ second team drop down to fifth in the National League Third Division South & West.

It was always going to be a tough weekend for the Bears who could only field seven players for both games against Cornwall Cougars and Plymouth Storm.

First up was a long trip down to Newquay to face Cornwall Cougars and the Bears took an early lead before the Cougars stepped up their pressure to pull away from the opponents, but they were helped by a number of mistakes.

At the midway point the Bears re-grouped to get the scores closer but they were unable to stop the home side from adding to their score.




The fourth quarter saw the Bears made an eventful start with Liz Grinnell having to be stretchered off and she was taken to hospital following a nasty fall.

Once play re-started the incident seemed to put a dampener on the rest of the game and the Cougars ran out 36-19 winners, with Ben Haigh and Dan Gill taking the lion’s share of points with 41 and 40 respectively.


“Our thoughts are with Liz at the moment and hope she will be okay and it is just a precaution that she was taken to hospital,” said Bears coach Tom Masterson.

“It was always going to be a tough weekend with the limited amount of players available this weekend and it showed with the result today.”

Sunday’s game against Plymouth was going to be an even harder task for the Bears who were now down to six players following the injury to Liz Grinnell who was advised not to play after being released from hospital.

The Bears started the game by holding Plymouth well and keeping in reach of their score, but as the game progressed the more experienced and fresher Storm team took control of the game.

They pulled away from the visitors who were unlucky with a number of their shots rolling and spinning out of the basket.

Despite their dogged defence, the Bears were unable to make any in roads and fell to a 45-19 defeat.

“I was really proud of the team,” added. Masterson. “The score no way reflects on how well they played with the limited amount of players available to us.

“It was a big loss to lose Liz from the team, but we are really happy she is okay and will be back in action next week.

“Another major plus was Naomi Van-Hill who played her debut senior game and scored her first basket in the same game.

The Bears are in action again this Sunday in a home double-header against local rivals CWBA and then the second team take on Hampshire Hedgehogs.

Anyone interested in sponsoring the Bears or anyone interested in playing should email [email protected] or call 07946518354.

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