The Chiltern Ladies Basketball team had a successful season finishing as runners up in the Wessex League for the second year on the run and made it to the final of the Wessex League Cup Competition (also finishing runners up).

The Ladies team won 17 games during the season including a 13 game winning streak in the middle. They lost 7 and unfortunately one of these losses was the Cup Final game to Camberley Swifts, a team they had beaten twice during the season.

The team was joined by five new players this season: Emma Harris, Anya Higgins, Fatou Galsen, Jane Voledka and Louise Jackson. Emma and Anya joined in September and Fatou and Jane joined the club in the New Year. Emma played Junior National League for Chiltern Pumas and is a great outside shooter. Fatou, from Paris, is an au pair with a family in Wycombe and brings lots of experience and talent with her. Anya joined us from Milton Keynes and Jane is from Russia. Louise Jackson joined us from another team in the Wessex League, but unfortunately broke her collar bone early in the season and was unable to play for the rest of the season.

In addition to new senior players, junior Charlotte Penn was invited to join the senior squad and has played in a couple of games. She made a big impression by scoring 4 points in her debut against Farnborough GMAC Phantoms back in October.

At the start of the season the Ladies team had quite a few casual players who turned up for training, but did not commit to the team or club. Attendance by these players fizzled out a few weeks later and training mainly comprised of team players and juniors who stayed on from their earlier session.

Rod Cooke who has coached the Ladies team for a number of seasons announced his plan to retire as coach at the end of the season, and the Ladies team wish to take this opportunity to thank him for all his efforts that he has put into organising the team, running training sessions and coaching the team during games. Hopefully the team provided enough excitement during the season for him to retire with a smile on his face.

There were certainly some notable games, especially Alison Adamson’s winning shot in the dying seconds of the game against Camberley Swifts which wins the prize for excitement. It had been a close game with no team really dominating and Camberley out for revenge after Chiltern broke their unbeaten record in style with a 71 – 36 win when they came to High Wycombe. Camberley thought the game was theirs with a one point lead and less than five seconds remaining, but Alison had other ideas as she put up a long range base line shot that was a clean swish to take the game. A fantastic end to a great game with Adamson the hero of the day and in training that week we christened that baseline shot as “an Alison”.

In the last couple of seasons Chiltern Ladies have finished runners up in the Wessex League behind Aldworth Arrows and have never beaten them, until this season that is. Drawn against them in the Cup and facing them in the league the week before meant a tough couple of games. In the first meeting of the season, back in September, Chiltern had lost by 25 points and they knew just how tough Aldworth Arrows were.

They were relieved to see that Aldworth arrived to the first of their games without their main player, England star, Caroline Turner. Chiltern took complete advantage and dominated the game from start to finish after racing into a 17 – 8 first quarter lead. Chiltern maintained their cool and won with a convincing 46 -28 final score.

The second meeting with Aldworth Arrows was not so easy, this time with a place in the final of the Wessex League Cup at stake. Aldworth turned up with a full squad and Chiltern didn’t have it quite so easy. It was a close fought match but Chiltern dug deep and held on for a 54 – 49 victory taking them to the Cup Final and recording only their second victory over Aldworth Arrows in three seasons.

The Ladies team are looking forward to next season where they can hopefully build on their achievements of this season and perhaps bring home a trophy or two.