By Megan Bowes, Co-President, Josephine Butler College Media Society
Kicking off at 9am on Sunday 11 June and reaching its hotly-anticipated conclusion at the same time a day later, Butler’s annual 24-hour basketball was an immense success once again. Megan Bowes recounts her experiences of that very long day below.
The 12 players surviving to the very end.
Butler’s basketball squad rocked up to the Howlands for what promised to be an incredibly fun but very long 24 hours.
Group spirits were high for the 9am start, with the knowledge that the event would raise a significant amount of money for Durham Food Cycle, a very worthy local charity who come together to plan, create and serve food to guests from the local area, who would otherwise go hungry.
Competitive games were held against challengers from 10am on the Saturday until 2am the following day, with the remaining time being dedicated to a free play section of casual encounters on the court.
As well as teams paying to play, other money-making ventures included: a raffle, an impressive bake sale, and arcade games, with the latter providing the opportunity for one lucky player to win £30 Tango vouchers.
Thank you to everyone who added to the abundance of delicious treats which featured in the bake sale!
Top quality performances from both Butler and their challengers ensured that a high standard of play was maintained from the first minute to the last, creating an exciting atmosphere for both those playing and those watching the event.
Butler’s most comfortable win came from their match against ‘Butler Exec’, with a final score of 70-28 on the Sunday morning continuing as the most significant margin of victory over the 20 hours that followed. A fine 58-34 point triumph over Aidan’s Men’s Basketball team followed soon after.
Despite feeling like our muscles would not recover for days, being sleep deprived and full of cake, spirits were still high as the final buzzer sounded at 9am on Monday 12th of June, signalling the end of a rewarding and – for the most part – enjoyable day.
Thank you to all challengers and to everyone who donated so generously, all donations are very much appreciated. Due to your generosity, we were able to raise a fantastic £350, which will go a long way in helping our dedicated charity, Durham Food Cycle.
Overall, it was a great day, shared by great people, for a great cause.
A special mention must go to Holly Stevenson, Sophie Broddle, Junior Mbodi and Will Norris, without whom this event would not have been possible.
Durham Food Cycle meet every Wednesday evening to provide tasty and nutritious meals for guests of Durham City and the local area. To find out how you can help out this most worthy of local causes, or simply to find out more about the project, please see the link below:
http://www.foodcycle.org.uk/location/durham/
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