Basketball is back – and Worthing are out to rock the Thunderdome

Thunder’s final pre-season games were, if judged by results, very successful.

Back to winning form after last year's truncated format, the new look squad had a good start to proceedings, boding well for the league and cup campaign ahead of them.

With several of last season’s faces not returning the new guys will be pleased with the way things turned out.

Lining up for Thunder this season are the returning Hafeez Abdul (now in his third season at the Thunderdome), Tom Ward (incredibly in his 10th season), Ish Fontaine (in his 5th season) and Clay Wright (in his 2nd season) – and all are familiar faces.

They are joined by big man Daniel Johnson from Newcastle Eagles, Luke Moore from local rivals Sussex Bears, twins Tyler and John Fairburn and – making his debut last weekend – Tola Okiki from Newcastle University.

It was Tola and DJT who made the difference from the previous weekend’s game against Loughborough.

Other names have yet to be announced by the club.

Last Saturday saw wins for Thunder (112-65) and Crawley Storm (93-84) over London United and Bognor GSD to progress to Sunday’s final two games.

In the baking hot Thunderdome Bognor defeated London and, in the final, Thunder came out top against Crawley in an entertaining game – 103-91 the score.

Scoring stats were not kept, but these will be available when the competitive season starts.

This weekend sees Thunder’s quest for the Kitking Trophy get under way.

They are away to Reading Rockets on Saturday, tipping at 2pm, and at home to Barking Abbey on Sunday, tipping at 5pm.

The Thunderdome’s doors open at 4pm on Sunday so make sure you arrive early to ensure your seat.

You’ll be able to follow Worthing Thunder’s fortunes this season in the Worthing Herald and on our sussexworld.co.uk website.

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