Cheshire Phoenix Statement

The Cheshire Phoenix are not in a position to pursue this matter any further within the rules and regulations of the British Basketball League (BBL) following the one-game suspension handed down to Michael Creppy just 28 hours before the second leg of the BBL Trophy semi-final at Glasgow Rocks.

However the club does hope to use its first-hand experience of the BBL’s disciplinary process to hopefully help create a clearer and more robust policy for the benefit of all clubs from next season.
Creppy was suspended for an incident which took place six weeks ago at Glasgow Rocks, in a BBL Championship game, between him and former Cheshire player Gareth Murray.

Two referees saw the incident during the game and undertook disciplinary action there and then during the game; however, Glasgow Rocks lodged a formal complaint, c/w video footage from Youtube to the BBL’s disciplinary committee. The committee promptly ruled there was no case to answer.

The Rocks then appealed this decision to the BBL appeal panel, the panel that sat consisted of the Head of Appeals, Mr Simon Vumbaca of ASV Law and two non-conflicted BBL Directors, Mr Paul Blake of Newcastle Eagles and Mr Vince Mccaulay of London Lions, who together ruled to overturn the disciplinary committee’s decision of no case to answer and last Thursday afternoon the BBL handed Creppy an immediate one match ban, to be served the following day, vs Glasgow Rocks in the 2nd leg of The Trophy Semi-Final.

Cheshire Phoenix subsequently lost the game and the tie on aggregate but Chairman Andrew Donaldson said that the club would immediately put the Creppy incident behind them.

“We will focus on the future and not dwell on the past. We have exceeded everyone’s expectations, including my own, in our first full season and we are delighted we have such a successful franchise with such passionate supporters.” he said. “We wish Glasgow Rocks and Worcester Wolves all the best for the BBL Trophy Final. Now we can focus solely on the BBL Championship and securing the best possible place we can for the forthcoming playoffs.”

“Our first-hand experience of the BBL Disciplinary process has highlighted a number of points of concerns and issues that could affect any team in the league.”

“From what I understand, closed season the league has open discussions with all franchises about rules and processes and the clubs are given the opportunity to suggest changes and improvements so that the league continually improves. We intend to evaluate our experience very carefully and enter a dialogue with the BBL to hopefully create a clearer and more robust disciplinary policy that is fair to all parties at all stages of the process and we believe that this will ultimately benefit every BBL club