British Basketball League (BBL) Fixtures To Be Announced O..

The fixtures for the forthcoming 2007/08 British Basketball League
(BBL) season are to be announced on Thursday 5th July, detailing the
fixtures for the BBL Championship and BBL Trophy competitions.

With three new clubs joining Britain's top flight, there have been
slight changes to both the Championship and the Trophy. In league
action, the clubs will play a thirty-six game season in which they
meet each of their counterparts on three occasions; the top eight of
the thirteen teams will qualify for the BBL Championship Playoffs.
Meanwhile the teams will be separated into four groups for the BBL
Trophy, in which they will face their group rivals both home and away
with the top teams in each group progressing to the semi-finals.

Thursday will be a symbolic day in the development of the Birmingham
Panthers, Everton Tigers, and PAWS London Capital as they learn of
their opening fixtures in the BBL since joining the league this
summer. Whilst the Poujoulat Heat Guildford will be eager to learn of
their curtain-raising fixtures as they set out to defend their BBL
Championship title, and the Kularoos Plymouth Raiders will find out
where the defence of the BBL Trophy will begin for them.

The Heat will be the busiest of all teams as they compete not just on
the domestic front, but also in the ULEB Cup, which adds a minimum of
ten games to their season. That includes home and away ties against
DKV Joventut Badalona (Spain) and Alba Berlin (Germany).

There are also exciting new derby fixtures to look forward to. In the
Northwest the BiG Storage Cheshire Jets and Everton Tigers will look
instantly for the dates on which they face one another; whilst London
United and PAWS London Capital will battle it out over the season for
bragging rights in England's capital. Meanwhile, in the Midlands, the
DMU Leicester Riders represent the East, the Birmingham Panthers
represent the West, and the Worcester Wolves represent the South.

The UK's two northern-most teams, the Springfield Honda Newcastle
Eagles and Scottish Phoenix Honda Rocks, have developed an intense
rivalry that will continue into the new campaign. The Eagles and
Rocks have contested each of the last two BBL Championship Playoff
Finals and will likely provide some exciting clashes in the season
ahead.

The Sheffield Sharks slugged it out with the Heat and the Eagles for
Championship glory for much of last season; they will look to compete
for honours again and will look out for the dates of those big games.
Elsewhere, the Marshall MK Lions will be looking for a fast start over
their opening games after returning their entire squad from last
season.