Four years on

It’s the fourth anniversary of Leopards’ announcer/assistant statman/player chauffer/etc, etc Keith leaving us. It seems a million years ago but also just like yesterday that he was on the mic announcing another “rebaaaand”. It was never quite the same after he left us, if there were any lingering doubts about the plans to become part of Oaklands (he knew, and approved) I think that sad Saturday when we lost so much more than a game against Reading disappeared when Keith died.

The opening sentence before you clicked to read this wasn’t a pointless jibe at BE. He’d be going crazy at the fact the league table doesn’t even show percentage wins correctly – W%=(100/P)*W can’t be that hard to code – or that teams who no longer exist are still showing on the fixtures or, well I could go on.

Having persuaded Tony to make a guest appearance as Statman for yesterday’s academy games, I thought of Keith as Alex again filled in as Tony’s assistant. Just like the old days. The sense of déjà vu didn’t end there. Back in mid-March 2020 after we’d completed a perfect weekend, Tony volunteered to take the kit home to wash. We needed it for the following week’s visit of (you’ve guessed it) Barking Abbey. 1,??? days later, he brought it back for yesterday’s visit of Barking Abbey. You couldn’t make it up.

Four years almost to the day ((and I struggled not to shed a tear thinking of him) after Keith left us, he’d have been proud to see Caitlin lead her team to a 64-60 victory against Abbey – an organisation who helped give us some great times – scoring the free-throw that wrapped up the win.

Cait, Alex, Hunter and (maybe) Gracie will be the last Leopards on the basketball court. I hope Keith’s looking down on them.