England Beat The Bulgarians

As part of their preparation for their match against Croatia in the European Championship Semi Final Round on Wednesday 23rd February at the NEC, Birmingham, 7.30 p.m., England arranged two behind closed door friendly matches against Bulgaria. In last night’s match, a tough physical encounter saw England come out on top 80 – 72 with man-of-the-match Steve Bucknall of the London Towers top scoring on 17 points England led 40 – 30 at the break and the match proved a very useful exercise for coach Laszlo Nemeth who said: “This was just the type of game and opposition I was looking for prior to the game on Wednesday. There are a number of things we need to work on and I hope to use the second Bulgaria game for just that.” England play Bulgaria again tonight (Monday) at the NEC, Birmingham (6.30 p.m.), again behind closed doors. Full scorers for England last night were: Steve Bucknall 17 Roger Huggins 14 Andy Gardiner 11 Delme Herriman 10 Kojo Bonsu 9 Stephen Barnes 8 Silas Cheung 5 Ray Carter 3 Chris Haslam 3 Two squad players who did not participate last night were Steve Hansell, who links up with the team from Greece today, and Andy Betts who was nursing a minor injury. Elsewhere on the International scene the England Cadet (Under 16) Women’s Team played their annual Dobbing Cup match against Scotland over the weekend at the Telewest Arena in Newcastle. Unfortunately for the hosts, the Scots came away with an impressive 94 – 84 victory however England avenged that defeat 24 hours later beating their visitors 53 – 51 in a friendly International encounter. Further details from Mark Hannen on 0113 236 1020 Date of Issue: 21st February 2000