Bouncing for victory
Army steals title from fly boys after nine years

Leigh Wilson, A Fd Bty, dribbles around his RAAF opponent during the game that resulted in the Army boys stealing the title from RAAF for the first time in nine years. Photo by Bill Cunneen, Service newspapers

By Lt Michael Wicks

THE Army boys showed Air Force how to play basketball at the recent 2003 NSW Inter-service Basketball Competition, beating the fly boys 65-58 and stealing the title for the first time in nine years.

The competition was held at Randwick Barracks in early August and consisted of a double round robin between the three services.

This was the 49th year an inter-service competition has been held in NSW with each service fielding a men’s and women’s team this year. As always, because of the work of the organisers Tassie Horvat, Peter Wade and Donna Edge, it turned out to be a very competitive and successful tournament.

In the men’s competition all sides were missing some key players but this only resulted in levelling out the competition.

The Army and RAAF fought a tough battle, with both their encounters fiery. In the first game, the Army held a 13 point lead mid way through the second half when the Army’s two most experienced players, Michael Wicks and Aaron Marsh, were fouled out of the game.

This left RAAF captain/coach Busta Robertson with a 10-inch height and 30kg weight advantage over the remaining Army players and he was able to pull the RAAF back into the game and enjoy a 64–57 overtime victory.

The return match was the last men’s game and the winner would take out the competition. The lead continuously changed throughout the game and at half time the Army held onto a one-point lead.

The Army slowly extended their lead towards the end of the second half and held an eight-point advantage with five minutes remaining. Busta Robertson again led by example and drained two three-pointers from the corner and several foul shots to close the gap to two points with two minutes left.

However, the Army’s experienced pair of Wicks and Marsh, and some hard work on the offensive rebounds by Dan Quigley, saw the Army home 65-58 – an impressive victory.

The women’s competition was equally as close between the RAAF and Navy. The Army, however, struggled to field a team.

Even though the Army had one of the best female players in the ADF, Wendy Keogh, personnel from Randwick Barracks, who had never played basketball before, were asked to play the day prior. In addition, they lost Wendy to injury early in their second game. The remaining Army players continued to play with all the girls contributing and improving throughout the competition.

The first game between the RAAF and Navy women was competitive but the RAAF held a slender lead throughout the game and, led by Heather Edwards, was able to win 47-43.

The second game was as fiercely contested and probably the most exciting game of the competition to watch. With five seconds remaining, Heather Edwards launched a desperate 3-pointer at the buzzer to try and steal the game. The shot bounced off the ring and the Navy won 44-42.

Because the Army was not able to field a team in their last game, an unfair result was created in the for and against points tally to determine the overall winner. Therefore the women’s trophy for 2003 was shared between the Navy and RAAF, which is testament to their two hard-fought encounters.

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