The BBL TV cameras will be focused on a BBL Championship title battle in the North East this Friday, but on the same night another game with title implications takes place as One Health Sharks Sheffield play host to the London Lions.

Tomorrow night in Manchester as many people as possible who worked on the programme Open Air, will gather for a celebration to mark 25 years since the programme was on the air. I am truly looking forward to this event. Hopefully there will be a report and some photos. But for now, this is the story of Open Air and my part in it.

A significant amount of pride will be on the line when the bottom two clubs in the BBL Championship meet each other for the first time in their history this weekend.

Leeds Carnegie exited the National Trophy at the quarter-final stage on Saturday night. They came away from their game with Worthing Thunder on the wrong side of a 58-89 score line. Worthing will now face Manchester Magic on the 8th February in the semi-finals.

Week 18 saw some big results as Durham Wildcats destroyed the London Lions at the Copper Box to move into the Play-Off positions while the Cheshire Phoenix got a massive 'come from behind' win in the big North West derby, in front of a full house at the 'Rocking' NorthGate Arena.

After the excitement of the BBL Trophy last weekend, it's back to the cut and thrust of BBL Championship action.

Over the years I have been lucky enough to collect hundreds of basketball programmes from teams old and new. For some time I have been wondering how I could use those on mikeshaft.com. Well I have decided to publish team lists from some of those programmes. I hope you enjoy this.

Well the Beatles had a song called 'Eight days a week' and I have to say that the past eight days have been quite incredible for me.

The line-up for the 2014 BBL Trophy quarter-finals is complete as nine teams including current holders One Health Sharks Sheffield, bid to make it to the second BBL showpiece final of the season.

Leeds Carnegie Basketball made club history on Friday night as they made their British Basketball League (BBL) debut against Glasgow Rocks in the BBL Trophy.