So I must start off with congratulations to the Sheffield Sharks who last week defeated the Cheshire Jets to take their place in January’s BBL Cup Final. The Sharks will meet Mersey Tigers in the Final and it should be an absolute cracker.

The London 2012 Paralympic Games host broadcaster Channel 4 has further demonstrated its commitment to raising awareness of world-class elite disability sport by announcing that it will broadcast the BT Paralympic World Cup, taking place in Manchester from 23-28 May.

The BBL Championship Playoff picture is now complete after Sunday saw the final regular season games take place, with the only key movement seeing the Guildford Heat jump up to seventh place.

Mersey Tigers are the BBL Championship winners after beating arch-rivals Newcastle Eagles 75-80 in the north-east to clinch the title.

If you were to link to my 'tributes' page you would see the name Julian Allitt very close to the top, but that is only because it begins with the letter A. If it was not an alphabetical list, his name would still be very close to the top.

The BBL Championship is the flagship competition of the British Basketball League and features all member teams playing a 33-game regular season, from September to April. Matches are played according to FIBA rules and games consist of four-quarters of 10 minutes each. Two points are awarded for a win, with overtime used if the score is tied at the final buzzer – unlimited numbers of 5-minute overtime periods are played until one team is ahead when a period ends.