The Cutters juggernaut rolled on as the unbeaten streak reached a
MARS record 11-0-1 start to the season. Taking on the newly
uniformed Tranmere, the Cutters showed no mercy as they meticulously
dissected the defensive strategy of the boys is blue (light blue)
and thwarted their offensive plans for yet another comprehensive
wiping-of-the-floor 56-20 victory. This margin bettered the last
meeting of the two top of the league teams of 52-38, and concreted
its position as the top team on the ladder. The Cutters toughest
critic, MARS’ head referee was heard saying post game to a Tranmere
veteran "They are a very good team". Damn straight!
From the first tip-off, the Diamond Cutters dominated all areas
of the court. Shots were dropping from all positions on offence as
an unchallengeable lead was created before Tranmere even had a
chance to run down the court. Obviously, match fitness was not high
on the Tranmere coaching agenda before taking on the dominating
Cutters as they were outrun and tired quickly under the physical
pressure applied by the Diamond Cutters. Tranmere’s
lob-it-long-and-we’ll-see-how-it-goes approach was only effective in
ensuring the Cutters steals stats column was regularly ticking over
and shot taking guaranteed frequent and convincing blocks by all
involved.
A very disappointing crowd of only two loyal supporters saw
history rewritten as Cutters all-star centre Tim "Prayers have
finally been answered" Van der Bom scored an amazing 14, that’s
right, FOURTEEN points with absolute ease. Such was the defence of
Tranmere, Tim was always unchallenged and proved an obvious target
by the ball carrying wizards each time down the floor. Ben "Anything
you can do I can do better" Ferguson almost predicably landed 19,
Scott "I’m an individual, I wear what I want regardless" de Bruyn
hit 9, captain/coach Johan "Wow look at Tim’s stats!" Van Leeuwen
joined in with 8, Jason "I’m sick (really just celebrated the world
cup final a bit too much)" Wong had a suprising 4 pointer and David
"Hell’s Angel" Levene scraped onto the score card with two
points.
Taking out his first game MVP was Tim Van der Bom who was unable
to hold back the tears upon presentation of the trophy. His
tenacious defence and unprecedented scoring prowess made him the
obvious choice and was met with a standing ovation. Tim seemed to
have thanked everybody he has ever met or walked past on the street
and his speech had to be interrupted by backing music and escorted
off the stage by a pretty model.
A notable absentee was co-founder Kepler Schumann who was on
location in Japan to cover the Brazil-Germany final for
