Tickets are now available for our 2008/9 season awards evening.

As last year, the event is being held at the Folkestone Rugby Club, starting at 7.30pm on Friday 17th July.

Tickets, which include a full barbeque, are £15 each, or £5 for juniors. Wives and children are welcome; just ask Paul, Nick, Matt or Lorraine if you'd like to attend.

We have managed to come up with awards for just about everybody, but we need your votes for the MVP, Defensive MVP and Clubman trophies, so if you haven't had a voting slip yet, ask Paul, and give him your votes asap.

And remember to bring a raffle prize with you on the night.

12th July - Sports Open Day at Pent Valley Leisure Centre.

We need volunteers to help with a display to showcase both the club and the sport, and hopefully attract some new members.

17th July - Club Awards Evening

You know the score - loads of food and drink, awards for everyone and trophies for the best. Details on tickets to follow.

22nd July - Club Annual General Meeting

7pm at FSC (before training). Make sure you come along: you won't necessarily be roped into the committee, but we do need your input and any ideas or suggestions you have will be discussed.

Remember - this Sunday sees the finals of the Adrian Cook Cup and the Adams Plate at Pent Valley Leisure Centre.

The B team will be on court at 12.30 against Ashford Outlaws, followed by the Ladies final and then the A team v UKC at 4pm.

We haven't had many takers for the trip to Wimereux on the weekend of 6th and 7th June for their bi-annual tournament. We are taking one mens and one ladies team. Matt has all the details and costs so if you want to be included, make sure you contact him quickly.

To keep you all in suspense about who was the top scorer, who got the most fouls, etc, I won't be publishing any more statistics until the club's annual awards presentation evening, so you'll have to buy a ticket if you want to find out if you're top (or bottom) of any categories!

We will be announcing soon where and when the evening will be held, but in the meantime you need to think about who your vote for the A & B team MVP and Defensive MVP, as well as the Clubman award, will be going to. Remember, if you have played for both teams (as most of us have) you get to vote for each team's award.

The latest EBBA newsletter is out.

Click on the edition you want to view:

We have been invited by our old friend Guy to take one mens and one ladies team to Wimereux on the weekend of 6th and 7th June for their bi-annual tournament.

More details will follow, but if you're available and would like to play, let Matt or Paul know asap.

The East Kent League have re-introduced their end of season awards evening (they must have heard how good the Saints evening is!).

It is being held at The Pfizers Social Club in Sandwich on Friday 22nd May, allcomers are welcome and I am reliably informed that entrance is free!

The Adrian Cook Cup and Adams Plate finals have been switched to Pent Valley Leisure Centre. The B team will be on court at 12 noon against Ashford Outlaws, followed by the Ladies final and then the A team v UKC at 4pm.

England Basketball have been asked to find extras for a 'major' new film.

The Casting Collective are looking for Male and Female basketball players to 'Body Double' actors on a major new feature film. Applicants will need to be able to play basketball to a relatively high standard. The people who get selected would be paid on the FAA pay scale receiving a basic daily rate, holiday pay and travel.

Interested applicants must fit within certain physical criteria of the five roles to be filled:

Two Women's Roles: 5'5"- 5'9", White, between 18-40 years old
Three Men's Roles: 5'11"- 6'7", White, between 18-40 years old

Interested applicants must contact Laura at the Casting Collective on laura@castingcollective.co.uk by Monday 13 April to be ready for an interview next week. Please include a photo of yourself, your contact details, and your vital statistics with the email message.

Good Luck!

The latest league tables are out and believe it or not Saints B are joint leaders of Division 2, despite their 1-6 record! I'm not sure this will last, but at the moment if you look at the standings you will see that both men's teams and the Flames ladies team are all sitting in second spot.

Saints A are still heading the fair play tables as well:

The B team have reached the final of the Adams Plate competition, meaning that Folkestone teams will be contesting two finals on 17th May.

Both games are to be played at the Folkestone Sports Centre on the final day of the season - if you're not playing please come and watch.

Nick has arranged two junior matches against Greenwich under 12s and under 14s on Saturday 21st March at 3.30pm.

We need volunteers to help him run this event, so if you can spare a couple of hours to do some refereeing or table officiating, please get in touch with him: nalloyd@tiscali.co.uk.

Remember, we need to help the youngsters as they are the future of the club!

Congratulations to the A team who handed Whitstable their first loss in 4 years when they won their cup semi final yesterday.

With just six fit players they won 62-61 to book a place in the final on 17th May.

Now the B team just have to beat Christchurch in the Adams Plate semi on 22nd March .....

The draw for the quarter finals of the East Kent Knockout Cup has been made:

UKC v Ashford Outlaws

Saints B v Dover Pirates

Herne Bay A v Saints A

Christchurch v Whitstable

The games are scheduled for next week

As both Folkestone teams will be playing on Wednesday, the B team will need help with table officials for their home game. If you aren't playing for any reason, please get in touch with Matt and offer to assist with either the scoresheet or the clock.

Although last year's challenge fell by the wayside after our website went down, I have once again set up a fantasy league for the forthcoming NBA season.

For those who haven't played before, you have $35m to spend on 2 guards, 2 forwards, 1 centre and a sixth man. These players then earn you points based on their actual performances. You are given 2 trades a week, which accumulate if you don't use them. Players' value will fluctuate depending on their popularity, so you need to use your trades to increase your salary cap as well as to earn points. You can read the full rules here.

If you are interested just click here to sign up. Then create a team, pick your six players and go to 'Join an Existing League'. There you will find the Folkestone Saints Challenge; to join just use the password 'saints'.

The game is free to play and the season starts on 28th October.

Be advised : Folkestone Flames have had to switch their opening game to the Folkestone Sports Centre on 8th October, so next Wednesday's training session will be held at Pent Valley Leisure Centre, from 8pm.

If you don't know where this is, click on this link: www.thevlc.co.uk/index.php?page=Find_Us

The new fixture list is out: Saints A open at Whitstable on Sunday 12th October, and the B Team's first game is against new entry Thanet Rhinos in Ramsgate the following Sunday.

I will be updating the fixtures page over the next few days, so keep an eye on what's going on.

The league has been split into two divisions this year:

Div I: Saints A, Whitstable, UKC, Tenterden Tornados, Ashford Outlaws, Herne Bay A & Pfizer Lions.

Div II: Saints B, Dover Pirates, Ashford Giants, Thanet Rhinos, Romney Rockets, Herne Bay B & Christchurch

This has a few implications, the main one being fewer league games, which in turn leaves free court time for training and/or friendly matches. Secondly, there won't be any clashing of A and B team matches, so there will be no excuses for not turning up to help with the table when you are not playing. And finally, for the first time since 1999, teams are going to be promoted and relegated. The rules allow for Division I's bottom two teams to drop into the second division and the winners and runners up in Division II to replace them next season. So be warned, every match will be critical and the results may end up influencing where you will be playing next year!

We have been given a schedule of training courses aimed at volunteers and members of sports clubs, organised by the Kent Sports Development Unit.

There is quite a range of evening and day courses, in things like coaching, first aid, writing press releases and even mental toughness! Have a look through the prospectus to see if there is anything you would like to do, let Paul, Matt or Lorraine know and we will book you in and pay the course fees.

With the new season fast approaching, it is time for anyone wishing to play competitive basketball to register as a member of the club.

The annual membership is still £46 for seniors and £32 for juniors and is payable upon registration. Of course, if you played for the B Team last year, your membership is paid for by East Kent Basketball as a reward for finishing top of the Fair Play League!

Membership application forms will begin to be handed out next week, or alternatively you can click on Senior Form (for over 18s) or Junior Form (for 18 & under) to download whichever you need.

Your membership includes registration with England Basketball which gets you all sorts of benefits, such as insurance cover (in case you get flattened by a PK elbow) and discounts on merchandise. Click here for details.

Please get your forms and annual subscriptions in quickly: if you're not registered, you won't be able to play....

On Saturday evening at 8.30pm, all teams competing in the Tournament are invited to a barbeque at the Folkestone Rugby Club.

Tickets are £10 a head and anyone who came to the club's awards evening will tell you that the food alone is well worth the cost of admission. You can pay on the door, but please confirm your attendance with Matt beforehand.

Please make sure you come, even if you can't play during the day, and remember that we are the hosts, so please do what you can to make our guests welcome (even if some of them do play for Whitstable!)

By now, all club members should be aware of the Folkestone Saints 55th Anniversary International Tournament being held at Folkestone Sports Centre over the weekend of 6th & 7th September.

Two french teams, Europale Wimereux and Entente des 2 Caps, are coming over to challenge Whitstable, Sevenoaks and our two men's teams; three ladies teams are competing against Folkestone Flames and our under 14s juniors are playing as well.

Whilst we have plenty of people willing to play, we need volunteers to help with the running of the event. Over the two days, on two courts, we have a total of 18 games to get through. So that's 36 opportunities to referee, 18 opportunities to scorekeep, 18 opportunities to timekeep, and countless other opportunites to help things go smoothly.

The first games start at midday Saturday, so please turn up in good time and help set things up: the more people there are to help, the less each of us will have to do.

So far Matt has organised and prepared everything for this event single handed, so let's all do a bit next weekend to help him make it a success.

(and remember - if we look after them properly, we may get invited over to again France next year!)

In association with East Kent Basketball and Kent Crusaders, we are launching a Central Venue League in 2008/9 for U14's and U16's

U14's will be playing out of Folkestone Sports Centre on the last Saturday of each month.

U16's will be playing out of Body & Mind Canterbury before the senior Men's games.

The league is intended as a development junior league providing competition in a fun and friendly environment for players not currently having the opportunity to take part in competitive team basketball.

To help this initiative succeed we need club members to volunteer to help with refereeing and table official duties.

Please let Nick or Lorraine know which dates you can help.

If you want to enter a team, you can download details here.

I think (fingers crossed) that the website is finally working properly again.

I apologise for the long delay; we had some major problems with the hosting of the site, and as a result a lot of the more recent files were lost.

Much of what is now visible on the site is somewhat out of date, but I am going to try to update it as fast as I can, so please bear with me.

The message board is working and ready to take your comments, so please use it.

Finally, if anyone wants to offer any help in running the site, please get in touch with me.

PK

The club's AGM was held on 14th May and some of the decisions made are as follows:

Paul and Bob were retained as Chairman and Treasurer respectively, Lorraine Dagger was elected Secretary (to be assisted by outgoing secretary, Matt) and Pete Major and Joe Pound put themselves forward as Press Officers. Zach Maasbach took on the role of club coach, while Pete agreed to help Nick Lloyd coach the juniors, with the aim of having both under 12 and under 14 CVL teams next year.

The most significant change to come out of the meeting was the agreement to merge with the Folkestone Flames Ladies team. It was felt that pooling our resources would benefit both organisations and create a sound base for our future development plans. The next step in this process will be to locate and arrange a court where both squads can share a 3 hour session.

Other business discussed included recruiting new members, sharing the table officiating duties, a presentation evening, a 3 on 3 tournament, summer friendly games, organising a Central Venue League and hosting an international pre-season tournament. Watch the website for more details.

I'm away on holiday shortly, so the website won't be updated for a couple of weeks.

To keep you going, here are a few more Google videos, including the full length version of the Nike ad from further down this page....

Freestyle #1

Freestyle #2

Freestyle #3

720 Dunk

Nike Full Version

Another Nike Ad

THERE IS NO TRAINING THIS SUNDAY (6TH AUGUST)

With the summer holidays still taking their toll on numbers attending training sessions, the start of Sunday training has been put back to 3rd September, 6-8pm.

Please remember that we need a decent number of players to cover the cost of hiring the court, so please come along to as many sessions as you can. Also bear in mind that the training is much more beneficial (and enjoyable) if a lot of players attend!

I have finally updated the stats pages with all the scoresheets I have (although I know there are still some out there that I haven't seen - including the one from the Adams Plate final), and am pleased to announce that my award for the most total fouls at the prizegiving evening was incorrect; the scoresheets I have had since then mean that Ross Cooper is now officially the top fouler at the club!

A summary of some of the main categories:

A spreadsheet showing all team summaries can be viewed here.

We have had one more vote for Folkestone Sinners and the suggestion of Folkestone Hearts, reflecting the town's connection with William Harvey (although Folkestone Blood might sound a bit more macho!) and Richard reminds us of the original names used: Connaught and Beavers.

The search for a B team name continues ...

The deadline for entering teams for the new season is fast approaching, so time is running out for the team formerly known as "the B Team" to come up with a new name.

As you know, we are dropping the A and B tags and instead need a second nickname to sit alongside Saints. Whilst there are loads of alternatives, we have yet to reach a consensus, so I have listed some of the possibilities and would ask anyone with any comments, suggestions or preferences to email saintsbasketball@hotmail.co.uk urgently.

Not being a local, I'm not sure what Folkestone is famous for, so perhaps somebody can come up with more meaningful suggestions than the Folkestone Fish or the Folkestone Seagulls.

Alternatively, we could have a Saints-related name like 'Patrons', 'Halos', 'Angels', 'Paragons', 'Wings' or even revert to the old-style 'Cherubs'. Similarly, we could opt for a Saints antonym, possibly 'Devils', 'Demons', 'Fiends', 'Sprites' or the leading vote-getter so far (with two nominations) 'Sinners'.

Given that there aren't many rhyming options (the Folkestone Faints doesn't really work), perhaps you'd prefer the more fashionable Saintz with a z. How about the sentimental Folkestone Hermits after the team''s late founder Arthur Hermitage or the Folkestone Bees (for obvious reasons)?

Or something else entirely..

The South East region won the Under 17 Womens Inter-Regional Tournament held in Sheffield between 30th June and 2nd July.

All 10 Regions took part in this tournament, to celebrate the FIBA Year of Women's Basketball, and the South East beat the East 68-31 to win the title.

Well done to everyone involved.

Congratulations to everyone who achieved an award at the annual prizegiving. You can see the photos here, but if you have any other pictures worth publishing please e-mail them.

Remember this is your website, so if you have anything you want to publish (old photos, newspaper cuttings, links, news, etc) just email me or bring them along on a Wednesday night and I will deal with them and return them to you.

Another level 2 coaching award course has been arranged.

This is the standard level of coaching qualification for all club coaches at local level. The award gives a general overview of all aspects of basketball, and a basic introduction to sports coaching.

Full details and application form can be viewed here.

For those of you who didn't attend the club's AGM on Wednesday, here is a summary of the main points:

Matt Bushall has been elected Club Secretary - thanks Matt - contact details to follow.

We won't be entering a team in the Medway league next season. Instead we will use the extra court time to hone the talents of a revitalised senior squad. This new A team will consist of players willing to make a committment to hard training with a view to becoming the dominant force in East Kent and returning to the Medway League in 2007/8. The B team will then become the squad for those who can't devote 100% of their time to playing but enjoy a bit of regular court time. We anticipate that each team may well be a mix of junior and senior players.

These changes have prompted a need for a name change. The A and B tags will be dropped: the senior team will remain Folketsone Saints, but we need a name for the second squad. Please email any suggestions to saintsbasketball@hotmail.co.uk.

In view of the shortage of table officials, from next season everybody will be included on a table rota. If you're not qualified to do the scoresheet, you will be asked to run the scoreboard or the new 24 second clock. In future this duty will be a mandatory condition of club membership, although with the number of people involved, each person shouldn't have to do more than two or three games throughout the season.

You are reminded that qualified table officials are paid £5 per match and qualification at one of the club's regular courses only costs £15. The league is also in need of referees; if you want to get involved please let us know.

There are a number of summer tournaments going on, and plenty of interest in playing. But those people who want to play need to organise entry themselves. Your committee will help, but don't approach Paul or Matt asking if we are entering a team, instead approach them once you have a team and ask for help with the entry forms (which are usually available from the website anyway).

To keep the press happy and the website up to date, each team needs someone to take responsibility for sending me the scoresheets after each game. Anyone is welcome to write a match report as well; just email me the text and I will get it published.

Finally, Sunday training resumes on 6th August, 6-8pm.

See you all at the club prizegiving, 7pm Friday 30th June at Folkestone Rugby Club.

The East Kent League tables have been updated; go to the standings page. Although Whitstable have been confirmed as champions, these are not the final standings as the league are still missing the scoresheets for Saints A v Pfizer and Saints B v Pfizer! If anyone has a copy of these (or any other scoresheets), please call me (01233 640166).

The latest Fair Play League positions are listed below.Again this is provisional, subject to the missing scoresheets being included.

Just trying out an idea with some video clips. I haven't worked out how to embed them in the website yet, but you might find some of these entertaining ....

Lebron finds his range

You think she's gonna dunk ...

Nike #1

Nike #2

Nike #3

No, you cover him

In the skate park

Duke beats Kentucky

The final standings for the East Kent CVL are in and can be seen on the standings page; congratulations to the unbeaten Saints under 16's!

The latest newsletter for the under 12's competition is out.

Click the issue you want to view:

Issue 4.

Issue 3.

Issue 1.