| Glasgow Rocks | 86 |
| Guildford Heat | 75 |
.jpg)
"When I saw that the Five-Thirty Show on STV and the Sun newspaper were running a competition for “Scotlands Number One Sports Fan”, I thought it would be great fun to enter. All you had to do was write and tell them, why you thought you were Scotlands No1 Sports fan. My entry was based on my love of basketball and the Scottish Rocks, and the main points I put in my entry included such things as …
• I have been interested in basketball since primary five and I am now in third year. I got into basketball when 2 Rocks players (Ted Berry and Stewart McKay) came to teach us basketball for 6 weeks as part of the HITS scheme (Health Initiative Through Sport). At the end of the 6 weeks, we were given free tickets, and I went to my first ever Scottish Rocks match – and was hooked!
• I have hardly missed a home game since season 2002/2003, and even when I’ve been on crutches or in a wheelchair because of my knee problems – I still manage along.
• I played for a local team – The Paisley Pistons. I only stopped playing my basketball because I injured my knee and couldn’t play, then my band practise got in the way of training
• I have a signed ball for almost every season I have been supporting the Rocks.
• And of course, just how wonderful the Rocks were as a team and how great they are with their fans.
The competition itself was split into 4 categories – Under 16 Male & Female, and Over 16 Male & Female. A couple of weeks ago I got a phone call from STV telling me I had won the Under 16 Female category … I was shocked, stunned, surprised and delighted all at the same time.
Although I had won my category, there was now a final part of the competition to choose the overall winner of Scotland’s No1 Sports Fan. This would involve appearing on the Five Thirty Show and in the Sun newspaper and there would then be a public vote to choose the overall winner. Gerry McCulloch and a camera man from the show came out to my house to interview and film me and my mum, and then I did a telephone interview with the Sun and they sent a photographer out. Throughout everything I told them, of course there were lots of references to how great the Rocks were, and the filming & pictures all include my Rocks memorabilia in the background, me holding a ball, foam finger etc.
The interview with the Five Thirty show will be aired between Monday 7th – Thursday 10th April, with a round up of all 4 category winners on Friday 11th April, and the Sun interview will appear the same week. At some point during this week the voting details for the public vote will also be announced.
The main prize for the competition is a trip to a sporting event anywhere in the world up to the value of £10,000, with the 3 runners up getting a trip to any UK sporting event up to the value of £1,000. I didn’t have much hesitation in deciding what I’d like to do with both prizes, go watch basketball – either the NBA in America (especially Detroit Pistons), or if I’m not successful enough for the first prize … a certain basketball weekend in Birmingham, made better if the Rocks make the Play-Offs.
VOTE NIKI … and make my dream of seeing Detroit Pistons play"
- Niki Borland, aged 15.
Posted on 07 April, 2008
