ESB Superleague champions, Star of the Sea, have yet to secure a venue for their National Championship quarter-final with Neptune this week and have been issued a stark ultimatum by the IBA which could threaten their participation in the post-season tournament.
"I was told yesterday by the association that if we cannot find a venue in Belfast, that we will have to relinquish home advantage or forfeit the match," said Bill McCotter, Star club chairman, last night.
The IBA have given Star a deadline of noon today to sort out their difficulties even though it only became apparent yesterday evening that their opponents in the quarter-final would be Neptune.
The source of the problem is the unavailability of Star's usual home venue, the Maysfield Leisure Centre, on Friday night. The club had been looking to bring forward the game to Thursday evening but given the 520-mile round trip, Neptune can hardly be faulted for not wanting to agree to such a mid-week arrangement.
That leaves Star of the Sea with the option of travelling to Cork on Friday, thereby giving away home advantage. Taking into account that the semi-finals and finals are scheduled for the Neptune Stadium on Saturday and Sunday next, that appears to be a viable option but Kevin Craig, Gareth McGuire, Javan Dupree and Scotty Summersgill are all unavailable to travel early for a Friday journey to Cork.
That leaves Star with the prospect of a frantic search around Belfast this morning to secure a venue which will be approved by the IBA. "All we have come up with so far is St Malachy's College which has never staged even a national league game or anything like it let alone a championship quarter final," McCotter said last night.
Star's disappointment with the unavailability of their home venue is two-fold as they had been hoping to be presented with the league trophy in their home city during the quarter-final. Meanwhile, on the final weekend of the regular league campaign, Star put on a true champions show in easily defeating Dublin Bay Vikings 110-79 in Dublin on Saturday night.
As Star's closest pursuers during the season, Waterford also secured second place by a clearcut margin with a 93-82 win over Limerick. One-time league leaders Killester retrieved something tangible from their campaign by defeating Blue Demons 80-70 to clinch third position.
The reward for Killester is a home draw in the quarter-finals of the championship next Friday when they will play host to three-in-a row cup winners Notre Dame.
Killester held the lead for most of the first half and after leading 20-16 at the end of the first quarter, they went on to hold a 42-34 advantage at half-time.
Demons came back strongly after the resumption and went into a two-point lead entering the final quarter but Killester edged in front again and Mick McMahon sealed the Dubliner's success with three free-throws from four attempts in the final minute.
In the battle for the last remaining two places in the championship, the three teams in contention for seventh and eighth places in the table, Neptune, Limerick and Marian all lost.
