Erks 1 came into this game hoping to get their first win of the new year. After a narrow defeat to Cardinals and a disappointing loss to Hainault, this was a game Erks felt that they had a chance to prevail. Spitfires came in with a changed line up looking to avenge the loss that Erks had dealt them.

From the tip the game was fast paced, with both teams missing early opportunities. Butler connected on a lay up for the visitors and Robin French came down and hit from 3 point land to get Erks of the mark.

Dela Agbolegbe seemed to find space to get to the basket all night and spent most of his night picking himself of the floor and heading to the free throw line. He connected on one out of two three throws and followed with a lay up on the next play.

Coach Ernest called a timeout to tighten up his team defensively. This seemed to work on as they went on the offensive seemingly scoring at will, with Alelade scoring 6 of the spitfires 9 unanswered points to end the 1st Quarter 15 - 8.

With not enough production on either end of the court, Coach Morvan entered the game. Spitfires continued there scoring spree at the start of the 2nd quarter a furthermore 6 unanswered points. From this point on Coach Morvan instructed his team not to allow no more easy baskets. This resulted in Spitfires shooting 8 free throws for the remainder of the quarter and only connecting on 2.

Erks however managed to get some form of offense into gear, with Irf, Julian and Dela both finding there way to the basket. With both teams in foul trouble, Robin and Dela forced there way in and were rewarded with trips to the free throw line and connected from there.

With Spitfires up by 7 at the half, Coach Morvan was looking to try and force some turnover and get some more out of the offensive end.

At the start of the 3rd Spitfires came out of the blocks quickly changing there defense to zone in a bid to stop some of the dribble penetration and make Erks take the outside shot. This wasn't exactly successful as Sean Hutchinson found his way to inside to score 7 3rd quarter points and force his way to the free throw line. Irf also hit from outside as Erks tried to keep in the game.

Spitfires were working their offence well. They moved the ball and created a lot of open shots including and massive and 1 dunk from former Erk Junior Steve(?) Campbell. Spitfires still couldn't hit their free throws but got massive boosts from Lewis and Garcia on the offensive boards as they used their considerable height advantage to force in the offensive tips. They ended of the quarter with another massive dunk from Alelade on the break.

Erks came out in the 4th down by 18 and now playing for pride and Coach Morvan told the team that everyone would be rotated. The Erks young guns stepped out on the court with something to prove, and did not disappoint as they forced turnover after turnover and ran the break with some success, Terry Reeve feeding passes to Toby Kallar for the lay up and Coach Morvan from downtown, Andrew French pulling off a circus shot and a three from Robin French meant that deficit was now cut. Spitfires sensing that there zone wasn't totally successful switched back to man and went back to running the break for the easy buckets.

There was a danger of Spitfires running away with the game, but two huge blocks from Dela and Julian gave some defensive momentum back to the Erks and with Dela creating gaps to make it to the bucket and win trips to the free throw line, Sean seemed to float past defenders as he notched up 6 points.

Both teams traded blows right to the end with Spitfires hitting a couple of below the belt shots to Dela late in the 4th as he continued to make it to the basket and draw some unneeded contact.

Despite attempts from the Erks to slow them down, Spitfires managed to maintain the double digit lead throughout the 4th and carry on for the win.

It was a physical but good spirited game, with both teams turning up to play and doing some credit to their respective coaches.

The next "home" game for Erks 1 is against Forest and takes place on Thursday 26th February at Forest. Tip off is 20.00.

Erks scorers:
R. French 8, A. French 2, I. Hussain 5, T. Kallar 3, J. Morvan 5, M. Bamidale 2, S. Hutchinson 15, D. Agbolegbe 22, T. Reeve.