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Albury 2001 Weekend

New South Wales and Victorian basketball teams at the Wodonga Basketball Stadium. 
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As has been the tradition since 1996, the Queen's Birthday June long weekend saw the annual clash between the New South Wales and Victorian basketball teams in Wodonga, Victoria. Since its inception five years ago, the weekend has grown into a mini-convention and is the second biggest meeting of the SSPA each year. Many of the people attending also take the Friday off to make it a four day weekend

This was the case for most of the New South Wales group. Nearly all of us arrived at the Lake Hume Resort Friday evening. After dinner, the rest of the night was spent partying until the early hours of Saturday morning for some.

On Saturday was a wine tour for those who were interested. Some of us decided instead to travel in to Albury and spent the day there looking around the shops and even tried out some ten pin bowling. Back at the resort we stared boarding the buses for the Thurgoona Golf Club for the night's dinner & dancing. Unlike the previous night, Saturday night would end early for most from New South Wales as a curfew and a limit on drinking put in place by the coach saw most in bed at a respectable hour.

Sunday morning saw us travel to the Wodonga Basketball Stadium. New South Wales, coached by Shane Belgre had 13 players whilst Victoria, coached by Leon Lilly had 8. The game started well for New South Wales and we lead by 20-4 at quarter-time. Victoria picked up their scoring after that but were unable to come back from the early deficit. The final score was 64-29. This is the fourth successive game won by NSW and the first time since the basketball started between the sides that NSW has won more games (6-5).

After the game everyone went next door for lunch and drinks at the tavern. Later, back at the resort we had the rest of the afternoon off and some of us decided to relax in the Resort's spa. Sunday evening saw the presentation of the awards to the two teams. For Victoria, Mark Geaghan was named MVP and Helen Killeen was given the Coach's Award. Allan Shipley was given MVP for NSW and Alex Simak the Coach's Award. After the speeches the rest of the evening was once again spent partying.

After breakfast the next morning we all packed and said our good-byes then began the long journey home. It had been another great June long weekend, thanks largely to the organisational efforts of Leanne Besant again!

Michael Blair

(Reproduced from the SSPA Journal, Issue No. 165, June-July 2001, p. 5.) 

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