The Kularoos Plymouth Raiders are delighted to announce that they will be competing in the newly created South West Championship this season. The other teams involved are Division One teams Taunton Tigers and Bristol Academy.

The Raiders moved quickly to plug the gaps in their schedule created by the loss of the London United home games due to the unfortunate withdrawal of the London team from the BBL this year.

Raiders are now scheduled to play at home against Bristol Academy on Sunday 18^th November, and Taunton Tigers on Wednesday 23^rd January. Taunton and Bristol will then play a game to determine who finishes first, second and third in the competition. The winners will win a trophy and have the bragging rights of who is the Champion of the South West.

“I would say on paper, we’re probably the favourites for the competition, but Taunton and Bristol will be no easy push over,” said Raiders Chief Executive at the announcement of the competition structure. “Both teams were promoted from Division 2 this summer, but Bristol have recruited some fantastic players and actually will challenge the top couple of teams in Division 1 for what will be quite a close season. Taunton were in the Division 2 playoff final at the end of last season and were a really solid and well drilled team. I’m expecting them to be the same again this year - no real ‘stars’ but a great team ethic which makes them hard to overcome.

The Bristol game will have a little extra spice by the fact that ex Raider Danny James now runs the Bristol basketball academy, and will be returning to the Pavilions for the first time in a competitive fixture.

“We’re really upbeat about this competition, it’s in no way a downgrading of the fixture, and gives the club more silverware to shoot for,” added Briggs. “After this season, we’re all keen to build on this move and incorporate the game as a pre season competition. It also allows us as a club to keep building on our aim of developing basketball across the South West.”