Sileby Athletic ease to 4-1 Group B win
IN the MDH Teamwear Trophy Group A, a brace from Josh Topliss gave Leicester Rangers a 2-1 win away at Leicester Athletico United, Omar Aden replying for Athletico.
In Group B Sileby Athletic beat Iqra FC 4-1, Luke Savage (2), Ali Tierney and Connor Sexton for the Aths, Jordon Owen for Iqra. Houghton Rangers won 4-0 away at Loughborough United, Arjuna Govia (2), Joe Keaveny and James Moore with the Houghton goals. St. Patricks won 3-0 away at Narborough Foxes, Danny Cocks, Sam Higgins and Eden McKenna with the Narborough goals.
Group C saw Old Aylestone 2013 win 5-1 away at FC Coalville,
Emerson Black-Chambers (3), Nathan Rutter and James Keogh for Old Aylestone, Luke Wainwright for Coalville. A Devon Jackman strike gave AFC Andrews a 1-0 win at home to Shepshed Amateurs.
Cobbin Trophy Group A goals from Cameron Grieff (3), Ira Castor, Jamie White, Ben Mason, Jack Langton, Max Spencer and Tristan Maxted gave Glen Villa a 9-1 win at home against Woodhouse Imperial, Craig Tebbs with the Woodhouse reply.
Athletic Sparta won 3-2 away at Northfield Emerald Development, Steve Pywell (2) and Jan Tacar for Sparta, Goncarlo Santos hitting both the Northfield goals.
In Group B Shepshed Amateurs Reserves beat Welford Victoria 6-2, Sam Martindale (4), Andy Hobson and Duane Earp for Shepshed, Will Oldham and Ray Winters for Welford Victoria. Glenfield Town Reserves drew 1-1 with Mountsorrel FC, Joe Storer for Glenfield, Harry Thorne for Mountsorrel.
In Group C Fleckney Athletic Reserves won 4-0 away at Loughborough United Reserves, Bailey Kitchen, Ryan Ellingworth, Cameron Lawrence and an own goal for Fleckney. Dunton & Broughton United Reserves won 3-1 away at Broughton Rangers, Kyle Tompkins, Curtis Radbourne and Brandon Dennis for United, Dan Flint replying for the Rangers.
In Group D Goals from Tristan Pulford (2), Loz AlHariri, Connor Martin, Jack Tormey, George Hardwick, Ben Collington, Zac Jackson and Patrick Hood gave Sutton Bonington Reserves a 9-2 win against Woodhouse Imperial Reserves, Alex Hind and Stu Brookes for Woodhouse. Barlestone St. Giles Reserves played out a goalless draw with Asfordby FC Development.
In Group E Brookside Athletic beat Allexton & New Parks Reserves 4-2, Michel
Noga (2), Karl Duncan and Talvin Shankar for Brookside, Chay O’Neill and Pele Molyneux for Allexton. Magna 73 Reserves won 6-1 at home against Birstall Old Boys, Alex Bates, Kaiyle Williams, Jake Skinner, Callum Knight, Sam Shenton and Jack Oliver for Magna, Adam King for Birstall.
In Group F A brace from Lewis Halford gave Whetstone Athletic Reserves a 2-0 win at home to LocalLinkz and Jamie Bottomley also bagged a brace as St. Patricks Reserves won 2-1 away at Leicester Bharat Daman.
LOUGHBOROUGH University is to play a key role in the launch of British Wheelchair Basketball’s inaugural Women’s Premier League.
Launched on Tuesday, The British Wheelchair Basketball Women’s Premier League will be the first of its kind for women’s wheelchair basketball in the world, and the very first professional para-sport league in the UK.
The introduction of the league is a game-changing moment for the sport and will attract the world’s best wheelchair basketball players, signposting the UK as a destination for high level, quality competition for aspiring female talent. The first season will run from December 2021 to May 2022.
The creation of the Women’s Premier League is integral to British Wheelchair Basketball’s 12-year strategy, which set out bold targets of delivering a Professional Domestic League, developing a worldclass high-performance system and doubling participation in the sport.
To meet this ambition, British Wheelchair Basketball unveiled four High-Performance Partnerships which will will each be home to a Women’s Premier League team.
Loughborough Uni is one of the four partnerships alongside Cardiff Metropolitan University, the University of East London and the University of Worcester.
The High-Performance Partnerships will be centres of excellence for wheelchair basketball in the UK for both men and women. These Partnerships will develop and nurture wheelchair basketball talent, acting as hubs to incubate and develop future elite athletes and increase access to the Paralympic talent pathways across the UK.
Lisa Pearce, British Wheelchair Basketball’s Chief Executive, said: “I am absolutely delighted to be announcing the creation of British Wheelchair Basketball’s Women’s Premier League and our new High-Performance Partnerships. The league will provide incredible opportunities for elite female talent, both in the UK and internationally and we expect the teams to attract the best players in the world.
“We have selected four fantastic universities to become the first British Wheelchair Basketball HighPerformance Partnerships and these hubs will be absolutely central to the sport as we work to deliver our World Class Performance Programme strategy. They will nurture talent and facilitate the opportunity for world-class athletes to adopt a dual career approach.
“Today is an important moment in achieving our big ambitions for the sport and working with the universities is central to raising the profile of the sport, building new audiences and creating more opportunities for people to play across all levels.”
Great Britain’s Wheelchair Basketball player, Amy Conroy, added: “The introduction of the Women’s Premier League is massive for the sport and for us as players. Historically there has been a bit of a gap in elite level competition for female players so I’m absolutely thrilled that British Wheelchair Basketball are ensuring we have equal opportunity to develop and flourish.
“The sport is fast-paced and high-octane, and I can’t wait for more people to be able to watch us in action. I hope that it will also challenge misconceptions about disability sport and inspire more people to try wheelchair basketball for themselves.”
The High-Performance Partnerships are now recruiting elite players for their Women’s Premier League teams and their university BUCS teams.
Nik Diaper, Head of Para Sport at Loughborough University, said: “To be awarded the HighPerformance Partnership is testament to the vision, hard work, and dedication we have to Para sport at Loughborough University. The new Lightning team will undoubtedly attract some of the country’s top female sporting talent and we’re looking forward to seeing what we can achieve.”