The 2021 City of Champions Gala Dinner and Award Ceremony on Thursday, 23 September, at the Stock Exchange Hotel in Manchester was simply off the scale. The event was a huge success with 150 delegates attending. Speakers included Diane Modahl, Co-Founder and CEO of the Diane Modahl Sports Foundation (DMSF); Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham; and BBC presenter Mike Shaft.

Manchester Giants have completed one of the biggest transfer coups in British Basketball League (BBL) history with the acquisition of Dan Clark, the all-time leading points scorer for Great Britain, and national team captain with over 100 caps.

Tokyo, Japan. 23 Jul 2021 - Global artists Angélique Kidjo, Alejandro Sanz, John Legend, Keith Urban and the Suginami Children’s Choir brought all five continents together in today’s Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. Hundreds of millions of people watched an emotional performance of “Imagine”, written by John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

Well what an awful week it's been for the world of Basketball! And it should have been such a wonderful week for British Basketball, with the first pieces of Silverware (BBL & WBBL Cups) being fought for at Arena Birmingham.

After a stunning performance by Team GB in both the Olympics and Paralympics in Rio, Manchester was the host of a sensational Homecoming Parade. And although the weather was typically Mancunian I think it is safe to say that everyone has an awesome time.

For as long as I have been presenting Sunday Breakfast on BBC Radio Manchester, we have had a Thought for the Week, and for as long as I can remember I have been contemplating adding some of these to mikeshaft.com. Well on Sunday the 7th of August the Thought was presented by Methodist Minister & TV Producer David Waters. This seems as good a place as any to begin.

The Basketball All Party Parliament Group, under the chairmanship of Sharon Hodgson, MP, met at the House of Commons on Tuesday, 15th January, 2013, to discuss the crisis in basketball engendered by recent funding decisions by UK Sport and Sport England.

British Basketball today received the news from UK Sport that it would receive no funding as part of its Project Rio awards.

“Run the Race” is a 3 part ‘Praise and Worship Service’ making an in-depth examination of the parallels between “Running the Race” at the greatest sporting event on earth and “The Christian Race” outlined by Paul in Hebrews 12 v 1- 3.

Well it is almost impossible to guess when the summer of 2012 started for me but boy what a summer it has been. To be honest I don't think it could have been any better for me personally.