The Lancashire Spinners have accepted a forfeit from Basketball England for its league trip to the Amaechi Centre and Manchester Magic after being unable to reschedule the game originally set for Feb. 20.
General Manager Ken Masser has explained the club’s decision in an open letter:
“To our fans,
I would like to apologise to our fans, who eagerly anticipated a return trip to Manchester Magic. In February, our game with Manchester was postponed as Magic were playing in a Cup Final the following day. Due to the hectic scheduling already there hasn’t proved to be a weekend date available for the game to be played as both teams have had multiple double-headers. We have been offered two dates by Manchester to play the game in the final week of the season: the Tuesday or Wednesday of the week commencing Mar. 21.
However, as many of you are aware, we are immensely proud to offer significant opportunities to young British players, and at times our commitment to giving these young men experience has been our priority. Half of our playing squad, and our coach Neal Hopkins, represent Myerscough College and we value those young players a great deal.
Myerscough have made it to the final of the Elite Academy Basketball League being held next Wednesday (Mar. 23). These five young men have worked tremendously hard to reach the pinnacle of the college game and the coverage and exposure they get from the competition is invaluable for their future career and international team aspirations. We are 100% committed to nurturing young British talent and we do not feel it is in their best interests to play competitive games on Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday. This kind of physical workload is just too much especially at the end of a very long and compactly scheduled season. Neither is it fair to ask them to play Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday prior to the EABL final on the Wednesday from a performance perspective. There are no other available dates for us to play Manchester and therefore we have made the decision to forfeit the game in the interests of these young players health, well-being and future aspiration.
I can only apologise to the fans and to Manchester Magic that the game will not be played. There are occasionally times when we have to make difficult decisions and this has certainly been one of them. We have never forfeited a game since the club began in Division 4 of the National League and we hope to never do it again. All the players are fit and healthy and available so there is no question of trying to avoid the game, but we simply feel that we must prioritise the health and future of our young team. We will not compromise their best interests and well-being irrespective of the pressures to do so.
I hope that other teams will stand with us to try and resolve these scheduling issues in future seasons as we seek to collectively give more opportunities and support to developing British Basketball’s future stars.”
Hopefully we will get the chance to play Manchester in this year’s playoffs and give the fans of both clubs a game to remember.
Sincerely,
Ken Masser
General Manager”
Allen Gunn
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