Happy bank holiday Monday people, and May the 4th be with you! Ok, Star Wars references are now done… 
Last weekend, a number of players from our GB Maxis 55+ male and female teams played in the 6th City of Prato Masters in Tuscany, region of Italy. The tournament was a first for our players and certainly provided some great games and tough challenges over the course of the weekend.
GB MAXIS MEN 55+
Having won their two first round qualification games on Friday, the ‘Magnificent Seven’ played Alassio Liquid Old Boys on the quarter final and came out winners 41-35. Their semi-final opponents, Maxibasket Livorno, proved to be another tough challenge and despite a great effort from our GB players, Livorno took that game 54-44.
However, GB 55s went on to claim a third place trophy in their last game of the tournament, comfortably defeating Torino 58-39.
GB 55+ centre, Noel Power, was also presented with the Fair Play Award from the president of Prato Basketball.
Congratulations to the team: Steve Milham, Nick Cooke, Michael Anderson, Nigel Fisher, Noel Power, Paul Chantler and Phil Pearce 
GB MAXIS WOMEN 55+
Ladies masters club ‘Team Pick & Mix’ also competed in the City of Prato Masters event. On this occasion, their team included one GB Maxis 50+ player and nine GB Maxis F55+ players. This tournament proved to be a very tough challenge for the team who, with an average age of 59, were competing against teams with an average age of between 45+ and 55+. However, not to be deterred, our players stepped up and competed hard in all four games despite being reduced to seven players for the last two games of the tournament due to injury.
Notwithstanding the 4th place finish, it was a privilege to play against three strong teams: Golden Players Italia 45+ (24pt loss), Swifts International 45+ (15pt loss) and Venezia Ladies 50+ (10pt loss) and it was certainly good preparation for Athens 2026. They particularly valued the challenge of playing the Golden Players Italia F45+ team (…well maybe not relishing the 26c heat!) but the standard of the Italian 45+ national team play was formidable at times.
With less than 8 weeks to go before all GB Maxis teams head to Greece for the championships, the preparation continues! 
