CITY of Birmingham Rockets captain Martyn Gayle looks back at last weekend’s defeat to unbeaten Hemel Storm in what became a tight contest – and highlights the club’s February half-term Community Basketball Camps.
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HEMEL came here with their 100 per cent record last weekend, and sadly, they kept it, but what I can say is that we gave a good fight.
They have some exceptional players, but they won by just four points in the end. We tried to keep it close, but they had a 10-point cushion for a lot of the game – and we just couldn’t get through and penetrate. We couldn’t get enough scores.
Hemel had control of the game, but we kept them on their toes. They’re unbeaten for a reason. They’re the best team in the league, in my opinion. But it was a learning curve for a lot of us as well.
They have a big budget, I don’t know the numbers exactly, but they also have a lot of links with universities, so they get guys in that way. It’s a good thing that they’ve got going on there and they’ve had it for a number of years. They know what they’re doing, they’re a professional outfit.
But took some positives from the game though, it was good to play against the best team in the league, and we took our lesson from it.
🚀 We pushed the league leaders all the way but it wasn’t to be this evening.
👏 Thank you all for your support this evening!
Join us for our next home games, with both our men’s and women’s teams again in action, in two weeks time!
🎫 https://t.co/YkCww6NvPb#WeAreRockets pic.twitter.com/ElcDXJyjd8
— City of Birmingham Rockets (@cobrockets) February 1, 2025
We go to Loughborough Riders tonight (Saturday) and I’m hopeful. I’m excited for it. I think we can go there and disrupt what they do, and then hopefully come out with the win.
We’ve been training well, but since before Christmas, we’ve, we’ve turned it up a notch and it’s shown in some of the games that we played. Now it’s time to just put it all together and come out with some wins so we can push for the play-offs.
All week, Coach Smith’s been encouraging. He’s been telling us about our good points and how to improve our worst points. There’s still good stuff coming from the coach and the staff.
Away from the league games, the club are doing a lot in the community.
This half-term, the February half-term Rockets Community Basketball Camps are being held. There are two camps this half-term, open to players of all ability levels aged 4-16.
🏀 Spaces are going quickly on our February half-term Rockets Community Basketball Camps!
We are running two camps this half-term, open to players of all ability levels aged 4-16!
⛹️ Keep the baller in your life active and engaged this half-term! pic.twitter.com/1O7DGaSai7
— City of Birmingham Rockets (@cobrockets) February 6, 2025
This is a thing for us. We need to push the kind of the amount of kids that are involved in the sport.
We need to push the amount of kids that stay in the sport and not just come and participate just one time. We give them Easter sessions too as well as at half term. So they can come, they can see if they like the sport. Be around the guys, socialise and, importantly, stay off the streets.
As we know, we’ve got issues with gang culture and knife crime right now. So this is a good place for parents, their loved ones and their kids, where they can go and be somewhere safe and hopefully enjoy the game of basketball and get themselves doing some type of fitness.
In the background there’s all this stuff going on. We want to continue doing it and making a difference in the region and in the city that we all love.
