Kularoos Plymouth Raiders head coach Gary Stronach spent most of bank holiday Monday in Derriford Hospital. Stronach came down with a mystery illness late last week, and for a while it looked doubtful that he would even be able to coach in the BBL Playoff Semi Final on Saturday.

“I’ve spoken to Gary this morning,” said Raiders Chief Executive Dave Briggs. “He’s still not well at all and he’s lost 15 pounds over the last few days. He came home yesterday morning and went straight to Derriford Hospital. They saw him immediately and did some tests which they’re waiting for the results from now. They had him on a drip for quite a while in the afternoon, trying to rehydrate him because he has lost so much weight.

Briggs added “A lot of people thought it was just a bug or a simple cold virus that he’d picked up, but it’s a lot more serious than that. For it to happen right before the biggest weekend in the Raiders’ 25 year history is a real sickener for Gary personally and everyone connected to the Raiders. He doesn’t really remember very much about the weekend – he can remember a few little things, but a lot of it is just a blur. He’s home now, resting and waiting to hear the results of the tests he underwent yesterday.”

Meanwhile, the Raiders would like to say a huge thank you to the 300 or so Plymouth fans who traveled to Birmingham to support the team over the weekend. “We know this would have been an expensive weekend for a lot of families that traveled up to support the team,” said Briggs, “and we’re really grateful to them all for coming with us. If it went on noise generated by fans alone, we’d have been favourites to win it all! It would have been marvelous to come back with the playoff title, but this is only our 4^th season in the league. We’ve come a long long way in a short space of time and there are teams that have been in the BBL a lot longer than us that would love to be where we are now. The fans this season have been absolutely fantastic, and hopefully they came home on Monday a little happier after seeing a great performance in the 3^rd/4^th position game.”