Basketball: Dow's reign ends at Kings

THE Budweiser League have taken the Guildford Kings franchise from Barry Dow, the club's owner who ended last season owing money to his players as well as to the international federation, writes Duncan Hooper.

Dow said he decided to give up the franchise before the League pushed him. He said: 'I initiated it. I could not carry on the business at Guildford any longer because it lost too much money.'

But the League chairman, Kevin Routledge, said: 'The franchise has been taken away because of the state of the company running the club. The franchise to play at Guildford Spectrum has reverted to the League and we are negotiating with a number of interested parties.'

Routledge discounted the notion that a new franchise holder should pay off the debts. He said: 'It would be impossible to expect any new franchise to do that, it would be unfair and unrealistic.'