BUCS Premier North-The Season So Far

By Joe Fitzpatrick

So far the 2010/2011 BUCS Premier North season has been arguably the most interesting and competitive to date.

Leeds Carnegie began their season in the true style of reigning National Champions…with four consecutive defeats by an average margin of over 20 points, thus signalling the end of their three season monopoly of Premier North Championships. Newly promoted Durham appear creditable suitors for the vacant title, showing no signs of being content with simply avoiding relegation Dave Elderkin’s team have adjusted to life in the top division effortlessly and go into Christmas break in top position. If Durham can navigate safely past Leeds Carnegie and Edinburgh in their next two fixtures the title may well be decided on the last day of the season at the University of Worcester.

However that is a considerable if, the wounded animal that is Carnegie have the potential to be the fly in the ointment for both Worcester and Durham and although they only have a chance of retaining their title in the realms of mathematics, Matt Newby’s team can still have a massive affect on the league at both ends as they attempt to snatch 3^rd spot from Northumbria- their remaining three fixtures are against title contenders Durham and Worcester and relegation candidates Loughborough.

As Worcester have a game in hand on Durham, currently an eight point advantage over them in the head to head as well as home court advantage on the last day of the season one could be forgiven for labelling them favourites. However Worcester love a ‘slip-up’, in previous seasons it has come in the form of the extremely weak University of Birmingham, and for a BBL affiliated team this year’s loss against Northumbria has to be deemed as an upset at best. Therefore with four games remaining they have certainly enough scope to shoot themselves in the foot, although paradoxically the strength of three of the teams they have yet to play may ensure this is not the case as historically Worcester’s ‘slip-ups’ have occurred against lowly opposition. Their away fixture at Carnegie is perhaps the one Worcester need to be most weary of, yes they did rout Leeds at home by 30 points but Carnegie are a different beast on their own court and by this time they will have their leading scorer in the form of American Adrian Fenyn back.

At this point of the season the conference has broken down into three, two team mini-battles; the aforementioned Durham and Worcester for the championship; Carnegie and Northumbria for 3^rd position; and Lougborough and Edinburgh for survival.

After watching Northumbria face Leeds Carnegie there is no doubt that Leeds are by far the better team and for the Tyne side University to have beaten them by 32 points is unbelievable. Leeds have already corrected this absurdity by smashing Northumbria by 42 points at home. Northumbria still appear favourites for 3^rd spot however, not only are they three points ahead of Carnegie but their remaining three fixtures include the bottom two sides, whereas Leeds’ include the top two.

In the relegation battle it would seem that Edinburgh have the upper hand- they are equal on points with Loughborough yet have played one game less. Both teams have only won one game so far and survival could well be achieved by simply doubling this, an occurrence that will take place for one of these teams when they face off against each other in the next fixture. Edinburgh will have to overturn a nine point deficit from the reverse meeting however they do have home court advantage and it is a long way from Loughborough to the Scottish capital.