Northumbria Police Ladies Basketball Section Report

The forces women’s basketball competed in the PSUK Basketball Championships in Birmingham last weekend. The team played against the best police teams in the UK. Northumbria got off to a strong start defeating Wiltshire and Hertfordshire 48-16 and West Midlands 41-15. After a further win against Police Scotland SPRA saw them qualified top of their group progressing to the semi-finals. In a tough match Northumbria fought back from 7 points down in the third quarter and went on to defeat Devon and Cornwall 49- 47.  The final game was a hard fought match against Police Scotland Edinburgh,  where after a few untimely injuries saw the team unable to match the other teams scoring.

This was the first time in 15 years of competing in the tournament that Northumbria had made it to the finals and to take silver medals against such tough competition is an amazing achievement. Also three players, Fiona Kilpatrick, Abigail Shields and Kerry Melville were also selected for the Police GB team, with Kerry Melville also being named to the tournament’s starting 5 MVP team.

Captain Fiona Kilpatrick said “Every member of the team played a huge part in being home the silver medal, lets go for gold in 2024”

The team is always on the look out for new players. If you have every played organised basketball, either school or local league, or national league level, no matter how many years ago we would love to hear from you. Or if you are a beginner to basketball we can help arrange training sessions with a local team for development. All enquiries to coach Tom Calvert 750.