Second Division Congleton brought a very tall team to Holmes Chapel for this pre season friendly played in excellent spirit throughout.

Hornets immediately showed they had no rustiness and a lot of players were making statements that they want to be considered in next season’s starting positions. 7 players scored in Q1 and also put into practice some of the defensive patterns from the training court. Tom Lee and Neil Hawkins opened with Outside shots and Sam Barnard then scored with a spin move from the low post. Guy Johnson grabbed a rebound to return and Danny Wareham wriggled though a tight defence to score close in. Sam Bithell Opened his account with a superbly worked 3 pointer and Andrew Rushton sparked controversy by missing a free throw (forgiven as he did hit all of his next 8). Hornets lead 18-7.

Q2 signaled a big change with the hornets employing a full court press and a zone defence. This rattled Congleton with Sam, Tush and Kwaku Gueye all scoring off turnover ball. Praise has to be made for Congleton here though as they stuck to their task and started to find gaps in the hornet defence to drive though and also to hit outside shots. Only a 3 point gain for Holmes Chapel in this quarter 39-25 at Half Time.

Hornets now showed they had worked on their defence and shut out Congleton for 6 minutes. Tom grabbed 2 trade mark 3 pointers and Guy was everywhere scoring a rebound off his own missed shot and taking rebounds at both ends. Barney Limped out with an Ankle injury but replacements kept on the pressure and held Congleton to just 3 scores in the quarter. 61-32 going into the last.

Q4 saw more open play with Tush taking advantage of a tiring defence and John Whelan scoring off a very impressive drive. Hornets lost some of their team discipline and only managed 2 scores in the last 4 minutes to remind Coach Pickard that there is still work to do in the off season.

Top Scorer - Tush 22 points
MVP: Nobody played badly - 3 court the eye: Tush 8 from 9 free throws is brilliant, Guy super rebounding effort, Sam - brilliant shooting
Best Basket: Guy passes to Kwaku and cuts the back door, receives a perfectly weighted pass and finishes ring high.
Must improve: Zone Defence and Team work in dying stages.