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| Female AGC (red) Vs APTC (blue) | |
The Inter Corps Basketball Championships for 2006 took place at Grantham last week and saw fierce competition taking place between teams from REME, RLC, RE, RA, AGC, R SIGS and APTC.
This year’s Division One winners were the Royal Artillery with runners up the Royal Logistic Corps. Division Two was won by the RLC with Royal Signals runners up.
The Adjutant General’s Corps won the Women's Division against a hard working Royal Signals team, despite the absence of key players, which is a reflection of their strength.
Normally all divisions consist of seven Teams but the low number of Women's and Division Two Teams, four in each, coupled with the absence of Infantry, AMS, and RAC is a reflection of the current high numbers of service personnel on Operations. Despite this the tournament attracted over 150 players and 30 referees and table officials from the participating corps. |
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| AGC (blue) Vs R. Signals (white) | |
Team selection for the SHAPE International Military Basketball Tournament. at the end of November also took place at the Corps Championships.
Army Basketball also welcomed a new sponsor to the event, M & E Group Ltd who are recruitment specialists for military projects that need the skills of former soldiers. The Army Sport Control Board also gives a grant to the game. Sponsorship allows the army team to participate in civilian competitions around the country and overseas.
Basketball is unusual in that it was invented by one man, Canadian physical education teacher Dr James Naismith, in 1891. He was asked to come up with an idea for an indoor sport to keep students at Springfield College in Massachusetts fit during the harsh New England winters, and put together the 13 rules that form the basis of modern basketball.
Since then its popularity has spread around the world, leading to the creation of the International Basketball Federation in Switzerland in 1932. |
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| REME (red) Vs R. Signals (white) | |
Army Basketball started in 1939 and was formally ratified in 1944 with the first inter unit tournament taking place at Aldershot in 1946 after the end of the war.
The Aldershot Warriors were formed in 1962 with the aim of playing in civilian competitions including at national level. These players also represented the Army and had major successes during the sixties.
From 1971 to the present basketball has been played in the army at all levels with the ‘Warriors’ name and logo being adopted for the Army Squad in 1996, since then they have gone from strength to strength.
It is a fast game with an appeal that is truly global, with school children and adults playing across the world from Europe to Asia.
Shots can be made by either throwing the ball from a distance in a high arc into the hoop, or getting under the basket and jumping up with the ball to spectacularly ‘slam dunk’ it down into the hoop. |
