Basketball: Dunning quits the Towers

MARK DUNNING, the London Towers coach, left the fifth-placed Budweiser League team yesterday, less than one week after the departure of his counterpart, Jeff Jones, from the leaders Manchester Giants, writes Duncan Hooper.

Dunning's assistant, Charlie Bannerman, will take over as coach until the end of the season. Unrest between Jones and some of his players, which also saw the guard Joe Hillman temporarily going back to America, was at the root of his decision. Dunning's problems in the past have usually been with management rather than players - he also left Thames Valley and Hemel Hempstead under similar circumstances earlier in his career.