Basketball: Bears bearing down on Tigers' tail: Holders face champions in League Trophy semi-finals

THE holders, Thames Valley Tigers, will play the Budweiser League Champions, Worthing Bears, in the semi-finals of the League Trophy, which is still without a sponsor, writes Duncan Hooper.

In the other semi-final Manchester Giants, beaten finalists in 1990 and 1991, play the outsiders, Leicester City Riders, the 1992 runners-up.

Of this quartet, only Tigers have ever won the trophy, in 1989 as well as last season, and reached the last four by eliminating Guildford. Worthing, bidding for their first final - at Birmingham's National Indoor Arena on 16 January - reached the last four by beating Birmingham Bullets 96-85 at the NIA on Thursday night.

Manchester qualified with a 105-72 win at Sunderland on Wednesday and have home advantage in the first leg of the semi-final on 8 December, as do Worthing. The second legs are on 15 December.

The National Junior Wheelchair Championships for disabled players are being held at the Ludwig Guttman Sports Centre, next to Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, this weekend. Admission is free and play starts at 9am.