The closing date for applications to the Youth competitions was as recently as the beginning of the month, and the allocation of teams to the various divisions was announced on the EB website on Friday - a fortnight earlier than last year. Well done to the Competitions department for their speed and efficiency!

The website states that "Next season once again sees an increase in the number of teams entering national league competition", but this doesn't really hold good for the Under-18 League.

It's true that the 95 entries are seven more than the number who finished last season ... but it's actually three fewer than were on the original entry-list!

It's also disappointing to see that East London Royals have not reappeared in this competition (though they remain in the Under-16s). The most successful development programme in the history of English Basketball had problems last season with finding sufficient coaches for all of their teams, and it looks as though those problems have continued.

	North Premier
1	Derby Trailblazers	From Midlands
2	Doncaster Danum Eagles	From Midlands
3	Manchester Magic
4	Sefton Junior Stars
5	Sheffield Jr Sharks
6	Tameside	2nd N-W Conf
7	Trafford
8	York College

	Midlands Premier
1	Cambridge Cats	6th S1 Conf. (9th U-16 S1C)
2	City of Birmingham	From North
3	Coventry Crusaders
4	Leicester Beauchamp Cannons
5	Milton Keynes Lions	1st Mid. Conf.
6	Northants Moulton
7	Walsall Wizards	Ex-Black Country Wolves?
	Derbyshire Arrows

	South East Premier
1	Brentwood Fire	1st S1 Conf.
2	Brixton Topcats
3	Essex & Herts Leopards
4	Hackney White Heat
5	Kent Crusaders	5th U-16 S2
6	Richmond College London U.	1st S2 Conf.
7	Sevenoaks Suns
8	Westminster Warriors	Despite 5 defaults!
9	WFS Spartans
10	Worthing Thunder
	Ipswich Tomcats
	West London

	South West Premier
1	Bristol Academy Flyers	3rd S-W Conf.
2	Cardiff Celts
3	Guildford Heat	Formerly TASIS
4	Plymouth Marjon Cannons
5	Plymouth Raiders
6	Reading Rockets
7	Solent Kestrels
8	Southampton Trailblazers
9	Taunton Tigers

	North East Conference
1	Durham Wildcats
2	Gateshead Wolves
3	Newcastle Eagles	From U-18 Prem North
4	North Shields Rockets	From U-16 N-E Conf
5	Scarborough Seahawks
6	Team East Durham
7	Tees Valley Junior Mohawks
8	Wear Valley Shokk
9	York Vikings	York College seconds?

	North West I Conference
1	Barrow Thorns
2	Bury Blue Devils
3	BiG Storage Cheshire Jets	From U-18 N Prem.
4	Liverpool
5	NEWI Nets
6	Preston Pride
7	Stockport Falcons II
8	Westleigh Warriorz
9	Wirral Hornets

	North West II Conference
1	Bradford College Dragons	From N-E Conf.
2	Hallam Jr Sharks	From Mid Conf
3	Huddersfield Heat	From U-16 N-W Conf
4	Huddersfield New College	From N-E Conf.
5	Leeds Tigers	From U-16 N-E Conf
6	Preston Pride A
7	Reddish Rebels	From U-16 N-W Conf
8	Stockport Falcons	From North Prem.
9	TCV Arrows Tameside	From U-16 N-W Conf
	Runshaw College

	Midlands Conference
1	City of Birmingham II	From Mid. Prem.
2	City of Birmingham Mets
3	Ilkeston Outlaws
4	Leicester Beauchamp Cannons II
5	Lynx Cougars Lincoln
6	Northants Thunder	From North Prem
7	Notts Nova
8	Team Spirit Shropshire Warriors
9	WNC Mansfield Giants
10	Worcester Wolves

	South I Conference
1	Baddow Eagles	From U-18 S-E Prem.
2	Cambridge Cats II
3	Eastside Eagles
4	Haringey Warriors
5	Hertfordshire Warriors