Sporting Digest: Basketball

GUILDFORD KINGS will start their European Champion Clubs Cup Pool A programme at home to Mechelen, of Belgium, on 28 October. Sixteen teams in two pools play each other home and away, with the final round of matches on 24 February. The top four from each pool qualify for the quarter-finals, with the 'Final Four' in Tel Aviv from 19-21 April.

CHARLES BARKLEY, the member of the United States 'Dream Team' who collapsed in training with the Phoenix Suns at the weekend, hopes to play again this Friday. Barkley, the National Basketball Association's Most Valuable Player last season, complained of numbness in his legs.

EUROPEAN CHAMPION CLUBS CUP Guildford Kings' Pool A fixtures (home ties in capitals): 28 Oct: MECHELEN (Bel); 4 Nov: Olympiakos (Gre); 24 Nov: LIMOGES (Fr); 2 Dec: Bayer Leverkusen (Ger); 8 Dec: BARCELONA (Sp); 16 Dec: REAL MADRID (Sp); 6 Jan 1994: Benetton Treviso (It); 12 Jan: Mechelen; 19 Jan: OLYMPIAKOS; 26 Jan: Limoges; 3 Feb: BAYER LEVERKUSEN; 10 Feb: Barcelona; 17 Feb: Real Madrid; 24 Feb: BENETTON TREVISO.